Quote (thundercock @ 25 Mar 2021 07:36)
Give me a break. The man could hold a press conference and every news organization would trip over their dicks to cover it. He could literally call FoxNews ANY time he wants and they'd absolutely take the call.
Having said that, I wouldn't have banned Trump's account indefinitely. I just would have removed the offending tweets.
What made twitter such a powerful tool for Trump was not the sheer ability to disseminate his message - it was the instantaneous and unfiltered nature of the communication. He was only able to drive and control the news cycle to such a degree because he could publish a provocative message on short notice, without having to go through the several hours delay of announcing and conducting a press conference and then waiting on the media to write their reports. And his strong connection with his base relied in no small part on the fact that they could receive his message completely unfiltered, without any polish, spin or censorship by journalists.
When we look around the world, it has become a staple of authoritarian regimes to shut down social media as soon as demonstrations or unrest threaten to become a danger to their rule. It's a key lesson everyone learned from the Arab Spring: social media's instant and decentralized nature render traditional methods of propaganda, censorship and opinion control ineffective. Dissent cannot be quelled as long as the opposition has access to social media. Comparing press conferences to a twitter account with tens of millions of followers (like Trump's) is like comparing a butterknife to a broadsword.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Mar 25 2021 01:49am