Tech

Elon Musk takes over Twitter: Here’s what a world without a so-called bird app might look like


After another tumultuous week with mass employee departures and policy reversals, Twitter’s future seems highly uncertain, with users – and everyone else – increasingly raising a question. : What would a world without so-called bird apps be like?

With about 237 million daily visitors at the end of June, TwitterIts user base is still smaller Facebooknearly two billion TikTok‘s a billion plus and even Snapchat363 million.

But in Twitter’s 15 years of existence, the platform has become the primary communication channel for political and government leaders, businesses, famous brands, and the media.

Some, like New York businessman Steve Cohn, believe that the Twitterverse is just an artificial microcosm of the real world, with limited practical importance.

Twitter is “not ‘essential’ in any way,” Cohn claims – from his own Twitter account. “The world would still work fine without Twitter.”

Very few people actually tweet, he continued. “Almost all tweets come from (the) 1 percent. Most average people never log into Twitter.”

But for others, including Karen North, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Media and Journalism, the site is indispensable for bringing light to lesser-known conversations.

“Most of the time, people who don’t stand out aren’t heard,” she says. But on Twitter, “there’s an opportunity to announce everything.”

In situations of conflict, social movement, or repression, “I think Twitter has become a central platform for disseminating truth and fundamental reality,” said Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Center for Science and Technology. East in Washington, told AFP.

Like most social networks, Twitter is also used to spread propaganda and misinformation, and the company has developed moderation tools to try to limit the worst.

But their ability to meet the requirements of such a mission has been called into question after more than two-thirds of those teams have left since Elon Musk’s controversial takeover.

A 2018 study found that misinformation spreads faster than posts that have been fact-checked.

“It is an unrealistic expectation to imagine a platform where misinformation and misinformation are impossible,” Lister warned.

But “to see information, good and bad, disappear,” given Twitter’s ability to disappear, “is by definition a bad thing,” Lister said.

“Autocrats, and anyone who doesn’t want information to be shared widely, could benefit from Twitter’s disappearance,” said Mark Hass, a professor at Arizona State University (ASU).

Public Square

Experts say a Twitter failure could have a devastating impact on journalism.

“Twitter… isn’t really a social network,” explained North. “It’s a news and information network.”

“It’s the place, the core hub that journalists go to for information, story ideas or headlines or sources or quotes,” she said.

With workforce and budget cuts in newsrooms, resources aren’t there, even in the best-funded news operations, “to find the world’s sources,” North lamented.

She says Twitter is where much of that work can be done.

According to North, another knock-on effect of the platform’s potential demise is that without Twitter, the world’s rich and powerful stars and politicians could still attract media attention. information, while those with less attention will struggle to be noticed. .

“With Twitter, anyone can publish a story,” she said.

The website acts as a way to share information in real time.

“Twitter is an important source of information, networking, guidance, real-time updates, community mutual support, etc during hurricanes, wildfires, wars, outbreaks, terrorist attacks, etc. fathers, mass shootings… etc,” University of Maryland researcher Caroline Orr wrote on Twitter.

“It’s not something that can be replaced by any existing platform.”

For now, the potential Twitter alternative remains unclear.

“Facebook is valuable, but I think it’s a bit outdated,” Lister said.

Twitter’s smaller rivals capable of attracting users, including Mastodon, have grown in popularity since Musk bought Twitter.

“But these will likely remain niches, none of which will become the overt advertising that Twitter is trying to create,” said ASU’s Hass.

He and North both list Reddit as a possible alternative, although North said the forum-based network is limited by its disjointed and cluttered design, which cannot replicate Twitter’s ease of use.

Could an alternative emerge? “Of course,” added Lister, but he notes that such ingenuity takes considerable resources and time.

“You can’t do it overnight.”


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