🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Transparency Theater of the Twitter Files | WIRED'

- kudos:

I have deliberately not been following the Twitter Files stuff, but I did read this and found it helpful. link to ‘The Transparency Theater of the Twitter Files | WIRED’

unexpected research ethics implications of Twitter's 'general amnesty' for suspended accounts

- kudos:

For over three years now, I’ve been getting increasingly involved with research projects that involve the online far right in one way or another. One of the most interesting ways that I’ve developed as a researcher during this time is having to think through in greater detail my commitments to research ethics. Because my research typically focuses on public social media data, I am rarely required to obtain informed consent from those whom I study.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'They Wanted a Baby, Then Twitter Fired Them | WIRED'

- kudos:

Infertility sucks, and stories like this make me even more upset about Musk’s callous and chaotic Twitter takeover. link to ‘They Wanted a Baby, Then Twitter Fired Them | WIRED’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk proposes letting nearly everyone Twitter banned back on the site - The Verge'

- kudos:

Is he serious? Does he really think this is a good idea? Also, I love the increasing sass that The Verge and other outlets are putting into their comments about Twitter no longer having a communications team to respond to requests for comment. link to ‘Elon Musk proposes letting nearly everyone Twitter banned back on the site - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk tries to blame ‘activists’ for his Twitter moderation council lie - The Verge'

- kudos:

This seems petty, immature, and misguided. link to ‘Elon Musk tries to blame ‘activists’ for his Twitter moderation council lie - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave - The New York Times'

- kudos:

I didn’t expect 1,200 resignations! link to ‘Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk begins reinstating banned Twitter accounts, starting with Jordan Peterson and the Babylon Bee - The Verge'

- kudos:

Oh good, so on top of the unexpected chaos, the expected chaos is also still happening. link to ‘Elon Musk begins reinstating banned Twitter accounts, starting with Jordan Peterson and the Babylon Bee - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk ignored Twitter’s internal warnings about paid verification - The Verge'

- kudos:

This doesn’t surprise me at all. So much of the current Twitter chaos is predictable. link to ‘Elon Musk ignored Twitter’s internal warnings about paid verification - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter reactivated the new ‘Official’ gray checkmark for accounts that are actually verified - The Verge'

- kudos:

What an absolute mess this whole thing has been. link to ‘Twitter reactivated the new ‘Official’ gray checkmark for accounts that are actually verified - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Musk-led Twitter rolls out new “Official” tags, removes them hours later | Ars Technica'

- kudos:

Move fast and break things, indeed. Checks as verification and checks as business model are inherently at odds with each other, and I get the vibe that Musk (team business model) is unhappy with internal pushback from team verification. link to ‘Musk-led Twitter rolls out new “Official” tags, removes them hours later | Ars Technica’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s first Twitter moderation change calls for permanent bans on impersonators - The Verge'

- kudos:

They’re so obvious as to almost not be worth pointing out, but two points: First, this is why making verification a paid feature is dumb; and second, penalizing parody because your business model is dumb is not what free speech absolutism looks like. link to ‘Elon Musk’s first Twitter moderation change calls for permanent bans on impersonators - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk tries to distract from Twitter layoffs by claiming advertisers are fleeing the platform - The Verge'

- kudos:

Choosing not to do business with someone isn’t an assault on free speech—it’s the very definition of the marketplace of ideas. link to ‘Elon Musk tries to distract from Twitter layoffs by claiming advertisers are fleeing the platform - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Antisemitic campaign tries to capitalize on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. - The New York Times'

- kudos:

Content moderation is a good thing, and not all viewpoints deserve a seat at a table. link to ‘Antisemitic campaign tries to capitalize on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance | Techdirt'

- kudos:

Interesting read here from Masnick. I’m not familiar with everything he writes about here, but I always appreciate his perspective. link to ‘Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites Won’t Fix Iran Internet Censorship'

- kudos:

Good read on the emptiness of recent Musk bluster. link to ‘Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites Won’t Fix Iran Internet Censorship’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Not All Bots Are Bad, and Twitter Knows It | WIRED'

- kudos:

This is a good response to Musk’s complaining about bots. link to ‘Not All Bots Are Bad, and Twitter Knows It | WIRED’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk challenges Twitter CEO to a ‘public debate’ about bots - The Verge'

- kudos:

Musk continues his trolling. This is a dumb proposal, and Twitter shouldn’t accept it. link to ‘Elon Musk challenges Twitter CEO to a ‘public debate’ about bots - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Musk’s Attempt To Get Out Of The Twitter Deal Proceeding Exactly As Predicted; What Happens Next? | Techdirt'

- kudos:

I always appreciate Masnick’s going into the legal details that are above my head. Techdirt has proven to be one of the most helpful sources for understanding this fiasco. link to ‘Musk’s Attempt To Get Out Of The Twitter Deal Proceeding Exactly As Predicted; What Happens Next? | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk officially tries to bail on buying Twitter - The Verge'

- kudos:

Best line: “Musk seemed to relish the ability to make wishful product plans about free speech and corporate independence more than he wanted to develop a coherent business plan for Twitter.” link to ‘Elon Musk officially tries to bail on buying Twitter - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Is Ready for a Potential Legal Battle With Elon Musk - The New York Times'

- kudos:

What an enormous mess this is turning into. link to ‘Twitter Is Ready for a Potential Legal Battle With Elon Musk - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Threatens to End Twitter Deal Without Information on Spam Accounts - The New York Times'

- kudos:

What a mess. Glad to be pivoting toward my blog and Mastodon. link to ‘Elon Musk Threatens to End Twitter Deal Without Information on Spam Accounts - The New York Times’

interview with WEKU on Buffalo shooting and social media content moderation

- kudos:

Last week, I was interviewed by a reporter at WEKU about social media and content moderation in the context of the horrific recent shooting in Buffalo, and I was pleased to see the interview appear on the WEKU website this morning. I wish that the headline didn’t frame this as a question of “free speech”—and that I’d perhaps been more forceful in emphasizing that these really aren’t questions of free speech so much as content moderation.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal ‘Cannot Move Forward’ in Current State - The New York Times'

- kudos:

What a troll. Even if the deal falls through, the way in which a sole rich dude can mess around with Twitter is souring me on the platform. link to ‘Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal ‘Cannot Move Forward’ in Current State - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'QAnon Thinks Elon Musk Is Going to Let Them Back On Twitter'

- kudos:

If QAnon is excited, the rest of us should be worried—though I think there is a possibility that Musk realizes just how bad his ideas re: limiting moderation are and fails to deliver. link to ‘QAnon Thinks Elon Musk Is Going to Let Them Back On Twitter’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '30,000 New Users Signed Up for Mastodon After Elon Musk Bought Twitter'

- kudos:

Is this just mastodon.social? Seems like it, but that’s not the only instance getting a bump, and sloppy reporting to ignore how federated instances work—that’s one of the reasons we’re all moving there. link to ‘30,000 New Users Signed Up for Mastodon After Elon Musk Bought Twitter’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'En rachetant Twitter, 'Elon Musk a un projet politique derrière la tête', estime un journaliste qui a enquêté sur l'homme le plus riche du monde'

- kudos:

Et bien oui, ça me paraît très évident. link to ‘En rachetant Twitter, “Elon Musk a un projet politique derrière la tête”, estime un journaliste qui a enquêté sur l’homme le plus riche du monde’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Conservatives celebrate Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. - The New York Times'

- kudos:

Say it together now: Content moderation and free speech are different things. link to ‘Conservatives celebrate Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump says he won’t leave Truth Social, despite Musk’s Twitter takeover - The Verge'

- kudos:

The quotes in here underline how often ‘free speech’ is used to mean ‘problematic right-wing talking points.’ link to ‘Trump says he won’t leave Truth Social, despite Musk’s Twitter takeover - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Has a New Owner. Here’s What He Should Do. | Electronic Frontier Foundation'

- kudos:

EFF cares about and actually understands free speech and content moderation, so their voice is especially important today. link to ‘Twitter Has a New Owner. Here’s What He Should Do. | Electronic Frontier Foundation’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter accepts buyout, giving Elon Musk total control of the company - The Verge'

- kudos:

Not excited about this, but the good news is that I’ve already been thinking about revamping my web presence, and this is a push to do something about it. link to ‘Twitter accepts buyout, giving Elon Musk total control of the company - The Verge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter in talks with Musk over bid to buy platform, according to reports : NPR'

- kudos:

Yet another reason to revisit my social media presence. link to ‘Twitter in talks with Musk over bid to buy platform, according to reports : NPR’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Demonstrates How Little He Understands About Content Moderation | Techdirt'

- kudos:

I have only been reading Techdirt for a short amount of time, but I increasingly appreciate Masnick’s perspectives on issues like this. link to ‘Elon Musk Demonstrates How Little He Understands About Content Moderation | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk, After Toying With Twitter, Now Wants It All - The New York Times'

- kudos:

Content moderation is a necessity, and Musk’s take here is wildly irresponsible. link to ‘Elon Musk, After Toying With Twitter, Now Wants It All - The New York Times’

- kudos:

À propos of nothing in particular, I’m looking into how to set up a Mastodon instance, and it’s not as hard or expensive as I thought.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter and Elon Musk Are Now at War'

- kudos:

This story just keeps getting worse. link to ‘Twitter and Elon Musk Are Now at War’

- kudos:

Please be skeptical of anyone who describes platform content moderation as censorship.