From Instapundit, who shut his own Twitter feed down yesterday.
TWITTER’S GONE CRAZY BANNING PEOPLE ON THE RIGHT, so I’ve deactivated my Twitter account.
Flashback: Despite Twitter’s Protests, The Stifling of Conservative Speech On The Platform Is Real.
UPDATE: People seem to want more, and although there’s nothing duller than posting a screed on why you’re quitting a platform, here’s the gist: I’ve never liked Twitter even though I’ve used it. I was a late adopter, and with good reason. It’s the crystal meth of social media — addictive and destructive, yet simultaneously unsatisfying. When I’m off it I’m happier than when I’m on it. That it’s also being run by crappy SJW types who break their promises, to users, shareholders, and the government, of free speech is just the final reason. Why should I provide free content to people I don’t like, who hate me? I’m currently working on a book on social media, and I keep coming back to the point that Twitter is far and away the most socially destructive of the various platforms. So I decided to suspend them, as they are suspending others. At least I’m giving my reasons, which is more than they’ve done usually.
He’s right, Twitter is a cesspool. And, the company that won’t give me the blue checkmark and appears to have shadowbanned my content? They’ve certainly been biased towards against WUWT. Is it worth keeping my Twitter account?
Given the attacks, character assassinations, childishness, and boorishness I endure there daily, I’ve thought more than a few times about why I bother to continue publishing on Twitter.
The inevitable answer I always come back to is: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”. Twitter can only work if people of principle stand up and use it as a tool to fight back.
As for my detractors; Best wishes, I forgive you, because I know you are unable to help yourselves.
I don’t use any of the social media stuff like twitter or facebook. I also don’t watch TV. Guess I am odd but my mind just doesn’t allow it and I don’t want to give my time to someone who wants to sell me an agenda/propaganda.
I spent last night digging on line for drawings on how the Otto engine worked, that lead to who Otto was and then it lead me to how the Diesel engine was developed by Rudolf Diesel and then Karl Benz. At the end of the night I was working through some on line drawings on how a steam crane worked.
jjs
There are few things more satisfying than using the library of the internet to learn from.
But then there are people who say “I’ll never use the internet, it’s full of Trotskyists and paedophiles.”
But it depends on how one looks at things. I prefer to think of the majority of people across the world brought together by FB and Twitter rather than the few who abuse it.
Just think, without the internet you and I would never have met. 🙂
Buggy Whips don’t warrant eternal vigilance – Twitter is a Propaganda outlet and nothing more.
Neuter them.
I am glad I saw this post and comments today, and realize that Twitter may be faltering. I have an account, but don’t really tweet much, but it has been handy for the 50 news organizations I follow to read headlines including WUWT. It is very handy for that, but from what I see of the tweets and trolling, it can be like digital hell. I don’t get any advertising ever, since run a good ad blocker on a Mac/iPad/iPhone with most cookies disabled so can’t complain about that, but wonder how they make much actual money with ads on a phone? Who is going to buy anything that they see an ad on their phone, presuming they even see the ad or want to look at it. If I land on a webpage with blinking and nauseous ads on other computers, I am gone instantly. The advertising model is broken as a revenue generator. I can’t fathom a company paying good money to advertise on Twitter or FB or anywhere on the internet, unless it is some form of website that makes advertising that makes it easy for what I am looking for. Amazon would be an example of a successful advertising and retail company wrapped up onto one. I want to be in charge of my advertising viewing, and whomever figures this out is going to be the next multibillionaire.
Which reminds me, I bought 1000 shares of Twitter a few years back when they hit rock bottom, and they actually tripled up to last spring/summer and really wished I would have sold then. I am still a bit better than a double so I think I should sell these and use the gain against the other losses that are now adding up since the markets are tanking now that a mild recession is being planned out. Thank goodness for the people who allow ads. I can just see them banning Trump some day, and then they do probably go to Zero. He has probably made them a lot of share value, but not sure they are that well run anymore. I could see some kid in a dorm room inventing a much better social media site that would put both FaceBook and Twitter out of business. After all, it is just another form of digital vaporware. Here today, gone tomorrow.
P.S. Even though I don’t get any ads on WUWT, I would be prepared to pay for a subscription service here if it had some neat additional features and perhaps only the paid members could comment. Or some type of filter that could be turned on to hide the boring trolls that sneak in every once in a while and mess it up. As a Generalist in learning, I am indebted to a lot of smart people here that have enriched my life with a lot of knowledge, the type you couldn’t really get just going to school. Actually, I think you can glean a lot of wisdom here, which is a different beast than just knowledge. This site would be worth paying for.
https://assets.amuniversal.com/35c9e250510101363b24005056a9545d
Some have mentioned Gab, which is alternative to Twitter. Gab recently was deplatformed by their ISP, their domain registrar and all of their payment providers. Some claim this was done because under pressure from Twitter, but no one can confirm that.
The official reason given was that Gab was banned the ban had to do to the Pittsburgh shooter who killed multiple people at a synagogue and had an active account on Gab. This a curious assertion considering that known antisemite Louis Farrakhan has an “official” Twitter account.
To put things in prospective. In 2017 four black teenagers kidnapped and tortured a mentally disabled white kid. They were charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
They streamed the incident on Facebook Live. Of course, Facebook didn’t suffer any repercussions at all.
As a fiction writer, I got a Twitter account because many internet sites on marketing fiction said it was essential. I never posted a Tweet, but I looked at the Tweets of many literary agents (90% live in New York City) and found most to be hysterically anti-Trump, concerned only with cheap trendy fiction devoid of literary value, biased towards gender and ethnic minorities, and uninterested in anything new and different. The literary world is also, even more so, susceptible to Group-Think and political correctness than science and politics, and this is a red flag for this civilization, as fiction has always been the vanguard of new ideas. As in many industries, publishing is dominated by a handful of companies, and if you can’t sell to them, you can’t sell, period. A few writers have been able to break out of this stranglehold by self-publishing, but only a few. So we beat on, boats against the current…
After 2 full years, I have now been banned from commenting at the Guardian
Yesterday, one of my comments was designated a featured comment.
Today, I linked to this
and was banned from all future participation
How about suing them for fraud, breach of contract, violation of the common carrier obligations (Title II of the 1934/96 Communications Act), and use of forced labor by threat of abuse of law (18 U.S. Code §1589 & §1593)? The latter refers to Twitter’s “terms of conduct” and other legally fictional documents on which it relies to force users to create content content for it for free?
Also, I don’t think they are protected under Section 230, because their censorship not voluntary, but fulfilling their obligations under various deals with foreign governments and the US left.
I laugh a those who swear f u overbook is the only way to stay in touch and up to date
if I want to contact friends I Email them direct ditto sharing pics etc
if I want news I go to MY choice of uncensored newspages usually alt, but some msm for laugh
I dont use any msoft engines or browsers, I adblock,
apart from here and a few other blogs I spend a fair bit of time hunting up info I sure cant get any other way, for a myriad of curiousities and interests I have.
people I know using antisocial media dont even know whats happening on the state or locally let alone much world news I find
its a very closed clique in most instances
oz— looks like me & you got the same mindset. That’s almost a carbon copy of how I use it.
I might add that I threw out my TV back in ’96’ & have ‘missed’ it so much I have never thought I
wanted to get another one. Haven’t watched a movie in about that same time either. If I want to be
entertained I go to the mall & watch the myriad number of strange & interesting people for a couple hours,(especially around holidays) or maybe to the local Walmart. But that’s my choice which in my opinion is much better than having it shoved down my throat by some talking head that looks good but is dumber than a door nail & is reading something that someone else wrote, or worse yet,suffering some blowhard thespian or musician that thinks their soapbox status gives them the right to lecture me what to do or think,vote, etc.
I’ve been on Twitter for years. By “on” I mean that I subscribe to a few individuals and news/weather/sports sites to create a basic news-ticker for myself when I’m in front of the computer. It’s been years since I tweeted anything, so I provide no content to the beast and I don’t engage in any twitter conversations.
That’s probably not what they had in mind when they created twitter. 😉