23 May 2023 8:48 pm
sucks don't it! hahahahahaPunch » 23 May 2023, 6:49 pm » wrote: ↑
Fascism, dog whistling, conspiracy theory peddling, and trolling are the disgusting norm in the new American social mediaverse.
Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network (msn.com)
Twitter has long been described, even by its most ardent users, as a Hellsite. But under Elon Musk, Twitter has evolved into a platform that is indistinguishable from the wastelands of alternative social-media sites such as Truth Social and Parler. It is now a right-wing social network. It is fair to call him a far-right activist. As a public figure, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the right’s culture war against progressivism—which he refers to as “the woke mind virus”—and his $44 billion Twitter purchase can easily be seen as an explicitly political act to advance this specific ideology. Now the site itself has unquestionably transformed under his leadership into an alternative social-media platform—one that offers a haven to far-right influencers and advances the interests, prejudices, and conspiracy theories of the right wing of American politics.
Twitter is essentially following the playbook of platforms like Rumble, as to go-tos for canceled and de-platformed right-wingers seeking a soft landing and the promise of revenue. A stroll through Musk’s tweets on the site reveal the extent to which one of the richest men in the world spends his time replying to far-right influencers and nodding in approval to their racist memes. A social-media platform will always reflect the values of its owners, and Twitter’s credo is nearly identical to that of the lesser-known alt-tech sites. Musk has attempted to position himself as a free-speech absolutist, similar to his right-wing-activist peers.
Twitter has so fully assumed the role of a far-right platform that it might be killing its competitors. When Parler shut down in April, its parent company noted that “no reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more.” Left unspoken is the reason: Twitter has become a right-wing echo chamber.
If Musk weren’t too preoccupied lapping up approval from trolls, reactionaries, and Dogecoin enthusiasts—a few of the constituencies left on his site that still seem to adore him—the Parler statement should worry him. Social-media platforms that cater to the right’s ideology eventually become tired and predictable—the result of the same loud people shaking their fist at digital clouds. History has shown us that there are plenty of ways a social network can die, but the quickest way is boredom.
