Social media thread (aka Twitter's meltdown + other stuff)

[Haighus]

Lots of virtual porn networks.

[pacific]

It's very easy to be cynical about the whole TikTok thing, especially considering everything else going on in US politics. And there is definitely something satirically hilarious in trying to curb the power over social media from one foreign adversary, while the other adversary has got one half of your political spectrum following the beat of your drum. It feels a bit like the whole paper straws replacing plastic thing, while all of the wealthy jet about in private aircraft.

The fall of Twitter is quite remarkable, just in terms of how almost completely unusable it now becoming for anything other than shit-posting and memes. You'll still get attempts at intelligent discourse which get swarmed by blue-tick users, who will nearly *always* fall on the shitty side of opinion, and then half a dozen posts of P*U*S*S*Y*I*N*B*I*O

[easye]

Some would say that due to enforcement of Copyright laws by BMG(?) music that TikTok is dying all ready. This is just dogpiling on an all ready battered company.

I wonder if the return to Forums is imminent as other Social Media platforms keep getting worse?

[pacific]

Is it a battered company? Doesn't it have over a billion users? Pretty sure it dwarves Twitter in user numbers.

I can't imagine social media numbers dropping to the level where forums become the most prevalent form of social media - perhaps some sort of international sanction that makes their access illegal or their usage severely curtailed by a large volume of the world's population.
And you have to think the vast majority of users are just mindlessly scrolling - 'online crack' as a friend of mine described TikTok (I don't use it so have no idea) - as the algorithm feeds you one thing after another that it thinks you want to see. I am not sure how many of those users would have the time or inclination to make contributions on an online forum. And how the business model for those would work (beyond something like Reddit).

[easye]

I honestly have no idea why Truth Social going public is worth so much money?

Can someone explain it to me in a way that makes any sense?

[bobtheinquisitor]

Money laundering?

[skyth]

So anyone under 16 will not be able to use social media in Florida. So much for Parental rights...

www.yahoo.com/news/floridas-desantis-signs-law-restricting-170705892.html

[Disciple of Fate]

Mar 25, 2024 14:34:27 GMT -5 easye said:

I honestly have no idea why Truth Social going public is worth so much money?

Can someone explain it to me in a way that makes any sense?

From what I have seen reported, it is mostly Trump's faithful pushing up the price and less about profitability.

Edit: English source

Many of Digital World’s investors are small-time investors who are either fans of Trump or trying to cash in on the mania, instead of big institutional and professional investors. Those shareholders helped the stock more than double this year in anticipation of the merger going through. But on Friday, the shares lost almost 14%.

apnews.com/article/trump-media-truth-social-spac-vote-841820869418c37ad7eed04f2af42854

[Haighus]

Mar 25, 2024 15:10:53 GMT -5 skyth said:

So anyone under 16 will not be able to use social media in Florida. So much for Parental rights...

www.yahoo.com/news/floridas-desantis-signs-law-restricting-170705892.html

I actually support the principle, but appreciate the irony.

[Peregrine]

Mar 25, 2024 14:34:27 GMT -5 easye said:

I honestly have no idea why Truth Social going public is worth so much money?

Can someone explain it to me in a way that makes any sense?

Truth Social has Trump. Trump's followers have demonstrated their willingness to spend obscene amounts of money on anything associated with Trump. Not only can Truth Social directly extract money from its users it generates marketing data on a highly valuable demographic that can be sold for even more shareholder value.

And, as Disciple of Fate said, that willingness to buy any garbage as long as it is associated with Trump includes Truth Social shares. It's kind of like how bitcoin continues to have value despite having zero practical use, delusional fanboys and cynical grifters keep pouring money into it for reasons entirely independent of any inherent worth.

[herzlos]

Bingo. Truth Social has a more or less self selected audience of gullible buyers and scam victims. I'll have a dig but I'm sure I'd seen a report saying that a Truth user is worth about $400/year to the company whilst something like Facebook is about $40.

[A Town Called Malus]

Yeah, truth social is probably in third place behind memestock apes and crypto bros as a community of self identifying scam targets.

[Peregrine]

Another, more speculative, source of value is the potential that Twitter (and its idiot clown owner) buys Truth Social to consolidate the right-wing fringe market. The platform itself would be worthless, of course, but migrating all of its users along with Trump himself over to Twitter (or some other service that buys it instead) would have value. And in that case Truth Social shareholders could be paid well for their investment.

[Haighus]

Well, all Trump needs to do is make a bet with Musk or something...

Then we can look forward to X-Trxth SoXial X.

[easye]

The idea that you get access to a pool of self-selecting marks makes a lot of sense to me.

However, I had heard that the number of users was relatively small and their daily interactions were limited because, there was no one to fight with on Truth Social. Perhaps such talk was overblown?


Speaking of Elon: 

Judge dismisses Elon Musk's suit against hate speech researchers

www.npr.org/2024/03/25/1239549276/elon-musk-lawsuit-hate-speech-researchers

A federal judge has dismissed X owner Elon Musk's lawsuit against a research group that documented an uptick in hate speech on the social media site, saying the organization's reports on the platform formerly known as Twitter were protected by the First Amendment.



Musk's suit, "is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose," wrote U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in his Monday ruling, "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech."

I have a feeling this is not the last we will hear about this case.