Quote (Black XistenZ @ Nov 30 2021 11:51am)
I mean... even today, Twitter is already a left-wing echo chamber in large parts. And a cesspool in general.
If they become more or less openly partisan, that might have a positive impact in the long run by facilitating a split of social media along partisan lines. Alternatives to Twitter/Facebook cannot succeed as long as a big chunk of the people on the right-of-center spectrum still stick with the originals. Twitter becoming unbearably partial and partisan might push out the remaining conservatives and normies.
Twitter is ground zero for the leftwing echo chamber sure, but they aren't at the point of purging everyone who isn't a true believer, unlike say Reddit. They're bad enough to ban Trump and manipulate algorithms and censor trending stories, but they still let people like Andy Ngo exist despite whole campaigns to get him banned. You can still read twitter threads that mock the authoritarian left, you can still see people post about Ilhan Omar's brother-husband or Hunter Biden's crackpipe. I think that this rule change probably heralds the end of all that, the first real signal of a crackdown that's going to come soon. I imagine its aimed squarely at Andy Ngo himself, the whole "we changed the rules so we can ban you" thing. They won't settle for adjusting algorithms and allowing the coexistence of rival political groups while skewing in favor of one. The only reason to make a rule change like this is if you intend to start a real purge.
I think it can be described as saying that Twitter is already at a level of censorship we'd laugh as unrealistic dystopian tripe just a couple decades ago, but now plan to charge ahead and go even harder and shake off the pretense
This post was edited by Goomshill on Nov 30 2021 01:03pm