Wild to read this so soon after finishing Character Limit, because I’m getting very similar vibes.

Like Zoë Schiffer’s Extremely Hardcore, I think this book will be even more valuable in the future than it is right now. I also wish I’d waited to read it for a bit instead of so soon after Schiffer’s book! What a wild, depressing story the Musk acquisition has been. I appreciate this book for giving more insight into the pre-Musk troubles of the company, but it still doesn’t shy away from how disastrous one billionaire’s ego has been.

I don’t understand why anyone would stay on Twitter at this point, unless they’re staying for the nonsense. gift link

A good, informing read.

Masnick is excellent at balancing “Musk has a right to do this” with “the hypocrisy is shameful.”

What a wild story.

24 hours on Elon’s Twitter feed is a great idea for a story, and I’m glad someone did it!

Who benefits from AI? Who doesn’t?

I dedicated most of my early career to Twitter and probably owe my tenure to the ease of collecting Twitter data once upon a time. Were it not for some timely decisions to diversify what platforms I was looking at, the API cutoff documented in this book would have really messed me up. Because of how important Twitter was to me professionally, I followed a lot of this news as it was happening.

I’m currently reading Extremely Hardcore and can’t wait to read Character Limit. The Twitter purchase alone ought to dismiss any serious ideas that Musk could do this kind of work.

Can something be shocking but not surprising? I’ve been thinking about this all day and still can’t believe it’s real.

introduction and history I’ve experimented for a while with consuming a range of media through an RSS reader. I don’t remember how long I subscribed to Feedbin, but being able to follow both Twitter accounts and email newsletters in the same app as my RSS subscriptions was a real game-changer. Eventually, I jumped ship for NetNewsWire—I don’t remember all the reasons behind the switch, but knowing that I could keep subscribing to Twitter and start following some subreddits was definitely a major factor.

What a disaster.

This is one of these stories where I’ve been waiting to get Masnick’s take on it, and he does not disappoint.

Finally read up on this, and it’s worrying.

A few months ago, some colleagues reached out to ask if I would be willing to record a guest lecture for our library science program’s LIS 600: Information in Society. In particular, they were interested in having me record something for a week on the digital divide. I am conversant on that topic, but it’s not an area of specialty for me, so I was unsure about it until I realized that some of the readings for that week touch on topics like platform design that I am really interested in through my work on social media communities.

This is just a few words to say that this post that I wrote back in December 2022 has suddenly become relevant. In short, some of my recent work has been on an online Mormon community that has some overlaps with the far-right. In between my collection of the data and eventual publication of our various articles, my co-author and I have noted some prominent accounts’ being suspended from Twitter. Because we work hard to not use identifiable quotes in our writing, and because of Elon Musk’s decision to unsuspend nearly all suspended accounts after taking the platform over, I’ve been checking accounts I knew to previously be suspended as we work on a new manuscript.

“Mentioning names both is and isn’t allowed. It’s a quantum superposition of content moderation that only collapses when observed by Musk himself.” 😂😂😂

Free speech absolutism wins again.

Musk’s pettiness knows no bounds.

Hate to see Swift taking a page out of Musk’s book here.

I was already fed up with Twitter before election season started. C’mon, Musk. Gift link.

Musk ne s’intéresse à la liberté d’expression que quand il peut en profiter.

Is this the same feature Elon says will be sufficient for keeping Alex Jones in check?

This… this is even worse than just giving him an account back. Ugh.

Musk keeps digging his hole deeper and deeper.

What a joke.

Masnick’s frustration here is fun to read.

I’ve been waiting for Masnick’s response to this, and it’s good.

What the hell, Musk.

What a mess Musk has made Twitter into.

The headline obscures something important—that this is about research, access to data, and Terms of Service. Worrying stuff.

Looks like Masnick’s (and others’) predictions about Musk’s changes to Twitter are coming true. This isn’t what verification is for.

Free speech absolutism at its finest.

How a platform is managed has real consequences.

Roth’s perspective is valuable here. Scary stuff.