Uhh, I think it was less about culture wars and more about the Saudis getting info on Arab Spring activists considering they bankrolled it.
Comment on Elon Musk on X antisemitism controversy: “Don’t advertise. Go f*** yourself”
twisted28@lemmy.world 10 months agoIMHO Musk and the 1% saw the collective power Twitter gave to the working class. It was able to usher in the #Metoo movement and finally bring justice to powerful people. The rich aren’t gonna leave a tool like that intact
fossilesque@mander.xyz 10 months ago
sturmblast@lemmy.world 10 months ago
That’s a losing game for them. Whackamole at best. For every social media platform that dies, several more seek to replace it.
twisted28@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yes, but now the audience is divided. Twitter had 368 million users globally. That takes years to accumulate.
Auli@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Sure and each less relevant then the one before.
guitarsarereal@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
You do realize that’s a marketing line about Twitter, right? It’s a private, for-profit corporation whose entire purpose is to inspire users to give away data about themselves for free. They don’t care what you think, they care how to manipulate you into buying things from them. Go ahead, buy your justice deodorant to wear to the protest. They’re very scared.
Trump was one of Twitter’s biggest users and they didn’t boot him until he tried to start a fascist insurrection and, again, made it impossible not to boot him. They’re an advertising platform first and foremost, they pandered to the far right as much as to anyone else, and the right got plenty of use out of that platform even before Musk took it over.
The only way you could think otherwise was not actually having used Twitter since like, 2011.
twisted28@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Oh yes I completely understand how they work and harvesting data etc, but that does not discount the fact #Metoo brought down powerful people,
guitarsarereal@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Yeah, but the fact it brought down some powerful people doesn’t mean it threatened the system as a whole. Things like Me Too become threatening to the system when they become widespread and ubiquitous and there’s a perception the ruling class isn’t interested in fixing it up. Also, many upper class people, particularly of course women, are survivors and likely are not interested in being endangered by rape culture, so there was support from within the upper echelons about Me Too.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I’m saying that’s a little perpendicular to the whole question of whether or not Twitter was some kind of revolutionary working-class institution before Musk bought it. It was an influence marketplace. Everybody used it to buy and sell influence. Including progressive movements, and fascists. This had good, and bad, effects, and we shouldn’t put it on a pedestal.
twisted28@lemmy.world 10 months ago
It brought down some powerful people. This was my point. I never used the service. With proper moderation, it could have turned into a valuable asset for the working class in which to hold powerful people accountable when the government is unable or unwilling.