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Pre-Elon Twitter was arguably the last major social media site that actually supported some subset of the "open web" people like to reminisce about here. Articl

by raydev 3y ago

Pre-Elon Twitter was arguably the last major social media site that actually supported some subset of the "open web" people like to reminisce about here. Articles had the possibility of going viral because the old Twitter didn't downrank external links so heavily, and even encouraged it with the ability to view all quote tweets (another feature X just disabled). And now it's gone. I think it's fine to mourn that.

okeuro49 3y ago
> Pre-Elon Twitter was arguably the last major social media site that actually supported some subset of the "open web" people like to reminisce about here. Unless you disagreed with its politics. In which case you were suspended, or shadowbanned. This has been well covered by Michael Shellenberger and others.
- slily 3y ago
  You'd think that piles of concrete evidence would end the denialism, but it seems that people aligned with those politics don't consider stories like the Twitter Files to be real oddly enough. I'm not sure if it's because mainstream media outlets didn't cover it, but there's a correlation.
- hn_acker 3y ago
  > Unless you disagreed with its politics. In which case you were suspended, or shadowbanned. I would appreciate an example about what kinds of political posts Twitter banned. Pre-Elon Twitter did suspend Republicans more than Democrats, but that was because Republicans tended to post more misinformation [1]. Tangentially speaking, Twitter also gave rule-breaking posts regarding the January 6th, 2021 insurrection a bit of leeway [2]. [1] https://www.techdirt.com/2022/04/18/fascinating-new-study-suggests-again-that-twitter-moderation-is-biased-against-misinformation-not-conservatives/ https://www.techdirt.com/2022/04/18/fascinating-new-study-su... [2] https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/29/internal-twitter-video-reveals-twitter-bent-over-backwards-to-protect-trump-and-pro-trump-insurrectionists/ https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/29/internal-twitter-video-r...
  - okeuro49 3y ago
    Somewhat ironically for a post talking about misinformation, the first link that you use to support your claim links to a study that says "this study has not yet been published in a peer reviewed journal".
adql 3y ago
I feel you're looking at twitter from 5-10 years ago and pretend it was exactly like that pre-Elon. Twitter months pre-Elon was pretty hard on steering the public discussion away from things Twitter didn't want
- raydev 3y ago
  Ignoring that the major media orgs were still able to post links without being completely blackholed, Substacks and other blogs were still prominent and viral at the time as well. "Steering public discussion" is only partly related, which is why I said "some subset". Now there is practically nothing on the algo feed that links out of X.

by raydev 3y ago

okeuro49 3y ago

> Pre-Elon Twitter was arguably the last major social media site that actually supported some subset of the "open web" people like to reminisce about here. Unless you disagreed with its politics. In which case you were suspended, or shadowbanned. This has been well covered by Michael Shellenberger and others.

slily 3y ago
You'd think that piles of concrete evidence would end the denialism, but it seems that people aligned with those politics don't consider stories like the Twitter Files to be real oddly enough. I'm not sure if it's because mainstream media outlets didn't cover it, but there's a correlation.
hn_acker 3y ago
> Unless you disagreed with its politics. In which case you were suspended, or shadowbanned. I would appreciate an example about what kinds of political posts Twitter banned. Pre-Elon Twitter did suspend Republicans more than Democrats, but that was because Republicans tended to post more misinformation [1]. Tangentially speaking, Twitter also gave rule-breaking posts regarding the January 6th, 2021 insurrection a bit of leeway [2]. [1] https://www.techdirt.com/2022/04/18/fascinating-new-study-suggests-again-that-twitter-moderation-is-biased-against-misinformation-not-conservatives/ https://www.techdirt.com/2022/04/18/fascinating-new-study-su... [2] https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/29/internal-twitter-video-reveals-twitter-bent-over-backwards-to-protect-trump-and-pro-trump-insurrectionists/ https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/29/internal-twitter-video-r...
- okeuro49 3y ago
  Somewhat ironically for a post talking about misinformation, the first link that you use to support your claim links to a study that says "this study has not yet been published in a peer reviewed journal".

adql 3y ago

I feel you're looking at twitter from 5-10 years ago and pretend it was exactly like that pre-Elon. Twitter months pre-Elon was pretty hard on steering the public discussion away from things Twitter didn't want

raydev 3y ago
Ignoring that the major media orgs were still able to post links without being completely blackholed, Substacks and other blogs were still prominent and viral at the time as well. "Steering public discussion" is only partly related, which is why I said "some subset". Now there is practically nothing on the algo feed that links out of X.