Originally published at: Trump tells his followers to leave Facebook and Twitter. Will they obey? | Boing Boing
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It would class up the places, for sure. But they’re still cesspools even without the MAGAts.
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If he manages to convince even half his base, it would be the greatest thing he’s ever done.
Not because it will improve the platforms in their absence (although, arguably…), but because these platforms are a very real part of “the problem”.
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I wonder if someone is ever going to tell these idiots that a social media platform is not a public park, where you can start yelling whatever nonsense comes to your mind. When you sign up for an account on any platform, you first have to agree to their ToS; if their terms state that you cannot do something, and you do, well guess what? They have the right to terminate your account… period.
Don’t get me wrong, I know these platforms enable a lot of shit to be said, but saying they are a threat to democracy because you got banned for violating their terms, is like saying the power company is a threat to humanity when it cuts your power for not paying.
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Based on what I’ve seen, Nextdoor’s the place for public & unsolicited jeremiads, anyway.
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If they migrate to an even more closed loop of communications their ideas could go even further off the rails- being able to see what those ideas are and where they are being propagated from is useful.
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There are quite a few progressives, researchers and (I’m sure) anti-terrorism experts who have undercover accounts on platforms favoured by the sado-populists specifically to keep an eye on what they’re up to. In some ways the closed loop makes tracking their ideas easier. The fewer fascists who are spreading their poison to a mainstream audience on FB and Twitter, the better.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant, but certain types of garbage take a long time to wither away uncollected and reeking on the street and can attract years worth of pests that might not have otherwise shown up.
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Pretty sure that
- it’s already happened with those even further to the right, and
- they’re not as hidden as they think
For example:
ETA: and/or what @gracchus wrote
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He would’ve tweeted this message, if he were allowed.
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I’ve got news for them, the whole internet is filled with liberals! The only safe place is their basement. Any media is dangerous! Turn off the TV, cancel their cell phones.
That’s right, down the steps.
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Except that utilities like electricity shouldn’t be able to just shut people off, they are deemed necessary and actually are regulated a lot more than a communications platform like Twitter. Some have made pretty popular arguments that they should be treated like utilities (internet access certainly should be). A more apt analogy might be if you shut off people’s electricity because they were back-feeding the grid with toxic electricity…which now that I think about it, is probably an Q-nut argument we will start to see against allowing people to sell renewable energy to the grid…
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Or maybe like, access to electricity is a utility, as is access to the internet. But just because you have electricity doesn’t mean you get a large production studio to broadcast your opinions, or even a ham radio set.
I think the platforms also need to be regulated, but that’s a separate issue from access to internet in general.
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If Facebook and Twitter became places where you could just see some cute pet photos, especially cats, and not a bunch of political bullshit/insane conspiracy theories that would be great!
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Do you also have a choice cask of Amontillado in that basement?
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I think, and I believe there was an article here or somewhere I read recently about it, that the reason the far right social media sites have been unable to take off is because without liberals from them to own they get bored quickly.
In other words, while a big circle jerk is fun, it’s not as fun for them as believing they are owning the liberals on Facebook. They also can’t play the victim on their own platform.
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A huge part of the harm caused by Twitter and Facebook is that they provide an easy inroad to extremism; average people are constantly being bombarded with far-right ideologies and conspiracy theories whether they seek those things out or not, and those who lean right to begin with are fed ever-more-extreme content to maximize “engagement.”
Fascists have been around on the Internet for a long time but before social media platforms came on the scene they were largely confined to fringe sites and chat rooms that only a relatively small number of tech-saavy extremists frequented. Now they have platforms that can reach everyone from insecure middle-school kids to your crazy aunt who can’t figure out how to stop all the electronics in her house from flashing “12:00.”
Getting the fascists off mainstream social media would be a huge win for society.
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