This is the News!

[Jim_Campbell]

Lucky you.

I should probably have mentioned in the original post, for those that don't want/can't be bothered to click through to the link, that NBC isn't using "neo-Nazi" in the colloquial sense of "a bit more right wing than I am personally comfortable with" — they mean actual, proper, "Hitler was right" neo-Nazis. They're talking about accounts that specifically promote actual Nazi ideology.

They didn't include accounts that shared this sort of material but didn't explicitly endorse it (the "Hey, I'm just asking questions" type), nor general-purpose antisemitism/racism. This is 150 blue-ticked accounts with followers often in the hundreds of thousands literally praising and advocating Third-Reich-style Nazism.

[The Legendary Shark]

Darn it - now I have to do it again   

Basically, I see what Jim sees. But why are we seeing this? Is it just mismanagement of the platform? Do Nazis have some form of generic anti-censorship software? Is TwiXter a Nazi entity? Just what is going on here?

You wanna know what I think? [YES - GO TO 01] [NO - EXIT]

01: TwiXter is currently allowing a lot of questionable content, from the Nazi content Jim mentions to truly disgusting comments from government sanctioned Israeli TweeXters glorifying, inviting, justifying, mocking and even denying the Gaza genocide. 

What is more interesting is the content being suppressed or outright banned. No matter what one thinks, where is the logic in allowing fascism while simultaneously shadow-banning anti-zionist content? Why allow Eylon Levy to TweeX zionist propaganda and not allow Ryan Christian to TweeX links to factual official sources? Why are all the bad things that are properly bad promoted and the bad things that are narratively bad suppressed?

It's almost as if TwiXter was a mechanism for herding public opinion. But why herd the public mind towards inherently repulsive ideologies? Here's a thought - regulation. Where there's regulation, there's money (taxes, licenses, permits, fines, etc.), and where there's regulation, there's perceived legitimacy, cementation into the state (which provides legal and physical protection as well as tax deals and subsidies). A regulated industry is the Gold Standard of business (petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, banking, etc.).

So TwiXter allows all this vile content for ordinary people to get upset about whilst simultaneously shadow-banning content it doesn't want people to get upset about. Next come the regulators with all their restrictions for us and rewards for TwiXter to defeat this evil menace and make the web safe for us all - but will purposely throw out the baby with the bathwater. Censorship in the name of freedom of speech.

That's what I think TwiXter either is or is becoming.

To bastardise Martin Niemöller;

First they came for the Search Engines, and I did not speak out because I wasn't an academic.
Then they came for the videos, and I did not speak out because I didn't have a Youtube channel.
Then they came for the tweets, and I did not speak out because I wasn't on Twitter.
Then they came for the podcasts, and I did not speak out because I don't have a podcast.
Then they came for my emails, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

EXIT

[Lorenzo]

I find Xitter still useful, but then I don't use it like most seem to. I almost never look at what's trending and I don't use the "For you" 'cos it's full of crap.
I follow a few dozen journalists, politicians and "experts" just for regional/military news - and that's it. If I want to know what is happening in Azerbaijan - Sudan - Myanmar - Eastern Europe or wherever, then I have a few locals just for that. Seems to work quite well as long as you avoid the replies. 

[pauljholden]

'little men running along shelves' \

Not far off the term "Platformers"

[The Legendary Shark]

Yes, TwiXter is still useful. I didn't mean to condemn the whole thing because of one part of it. Sorry if I gave that impression.

[Fortnight]

I use it for the same reason as Lorenzo, except that for me it's musicians and record labels who I follow. I resent having to use it just to keep up with their releases, I wish they'd find something else to use, and I'm very happy to condemn it. Facebook too.

[The Legendary Shark]

I'm not on TwiXter myself but sometimes my lines of inquiry run through it, or into it.

[Funt Solo]

Easy for me - I never used Twatter anyway. Elon Musk is a right specimen. My only solace: he too will die one day.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I signed up years ago but I think I've only twat* 4 or 5 times.  No intention of ever doing so again.

*Past participle of tweet, according to both Viz and Stewart Lee.

[Hawkmumbler]

Been pretty much completely socials free for about 3 years now, save for keeping FB on life support because the messenger app on desktop is damn useful.

Not saying everyone needs to do so but I saw a marked improvement in my mental health and temperament after a while of doing so.

[sheridan]

less room to defy the mainstream or suffer ostracisation

I think that's a really interesting observation, because I'd make the same argument in reverse. Like, people who live on a farm in the countryside have literally said to me "we don't really have transgenderism here - it's a country farming community".

It feels like it's way more dangerous to pop your head above the parapet and say "I'm different" in a rural community. There's nowhere to hide, and people are set in their ways.

All of which is a reason that Smalltown Boy was written.

[The Legendary Shark]

+++BREAKING+++

Despite not being posted in since May '23, the Thought Police: Are we allowed to query 'woke'? thread has just been locked.

[Jim_Campbell]

Despite not being posted in since May '23, the Thought Police: Are we allowed to query 'woke'? thread has just been locked.

There may have been a change in the back-end code somewhere — it's not at all uncommon for forums of all kinds to lock inactive threads after a certain period of time. If more old/defunct threads start getting locked, we can probably infer that that's what this is, rather than some sinister thought-policing.

[The Legendary Shark]

Well, maybe, but if it's just a routine locking of inactive threads how are we to explain this?

Has the site been hacked by liberal extremists? Is Rebellion trying to distance itself from dissenting voices? Did Burt spill oil into Tharg's website-o-tron? Thrill-suckers? Gremlins? A random glitch? 

I'm not saying there's any underhandedness going on here, because I don't know what's going on, but I am intrigued as to why this suddenly happened for no apparent reason.

[Funt Solo]

Maybe Glinner and Growling are lawyering up, buoyed by their recent culture war victories and looking to sue Rebellion?