Bonum Certa Men Certa

Going Write-Only in Twitter (One Step Away From Deleting Twitter)

I'm done.

Goodbye, Twitter



Summary: Goodbye, Twitter (sort of); you've wasted weeks of my life, but not anymore... I'm moving on, leaving just a shadow of myself in that increasingly hostile site which rewards liars, uncloseted fascists, lynch mobs and privileged trolls

TWITTER is generally very bad (getting worse over time) and exceptionally toxic. There are two recent incidents/examples that prove this and that we've covered here [1, 2] (there are several more today and it's not worth getting down to the finer details). Cults, corporate cults, or cults leveraged by corporations are the 'new Internet trolls'. They're a total waste of time to deal with... they're less likely to do their trolling in blog comments because they lack the presence of their fellow 'social network' trolls (what makes up so-called 'lynch mobs'). Together with their "friends" and "followers" they 'gang up' on people to dominate with some narrative, oftentimes a false one (albeit amplified by groupthink). In the Digg.com days (around 2006) we used to speak of "bury brigades"; now there's stuff like 'cancel culture' (not my words; not even a term I want to associate with) and people out there sometimes liaise to mass-report (abuse reports) people for what they deem 'wrongthink' (also not a term that I fancy because of unwanted connotations).



"In the Digg.com days (around 2006) we used to speak of "bury brigades"; now there's stuff like 'cancel culture'..."Linus Torvalds was right about social control media. All of it. There's no "good" social control media as the underlying concept is flawed (there's also no censorship-resistant option). Stallman said something to that effect for years and Torvalds later agreed. Not too long afterwards (after his widely-covered remarks) Google+ shut down (it's all to do with money, not security), so he lost his presence everywhere but the kernel mailing lists. Many Google+ refugees came to Diaspora (Pluspora).

We've often talked about the "Stallman was right" meme; I actually find myself, increasingly as I research some old stuff (for Techrights articles), thinking quite often that "Torvalds was right" too (on many subjects, including the GPL, Stallman and Torvalds do agree; the media contributes to their superficial rift/friction).

"Linus Torvalds was right about social control media."Short of just deleting my Twitter account I've decided that, for the time being, I'll make the account merely a shadow of Pleroma/Diaspora. I won't respond to anything there (not just rude things; nothing at all). The account thus becomes merely a carbon copy -- something that should be treated as such. I'll continue to reply on networks that are Free/libre and mostly decentralised. But not in Twitter. It's over. I'm done. I've wasted far too much time helping these charlatans sell ads in their toxic, divisive, Trump-boosting (megaphone) environment. All I receive is threats there; death threats, threats of termination of my account, lawsuit threats and so on.

Some people may misunderstand; they might mistake lack of reply for being rude. So I will update the profile there accordingly. They can speak and I'd speak back if they did so over a freedom-respecting platform such as Pleroma.site or JoinDiaspora. I'm active in both and I check those regularly.

"I've long told people that if they're not on social control media, then it's wise to not even start."What about Techrights? Well, Techrights as a site was never on social control media and in hindsight/retrospect it was a fantastic decision. Lots of nuisance/time-wasting spared.

I've long told people that if they're not on social control media, then it's wise to not even start. Some of those networks are designed not just for censorship and spying; they're designed to be addictive. That in its own right should be a warning label; like that which we find on cigarettes/cigarette packs.

So, in short, my Twitter account is now write-only (WO, not RO). It'll have copies of what I post in Pleroma.site and JoinDiaspora. But that's all. Nothing more. No replies, no "retweets"...

The only regret I am going to have is that I didn't do this years ago...

"I am not doing this for attention but for purely practical reasons; I've long attempted to come up with a solution to the above problems."I welcome others who have an active Twitter account to 'join me' in this kind of 'protest'; no need to delete any accounts, at least not yet... so, in effect, nothing gets 'lost' (I posted nearly 800,000 tweets over the years).

I am not doing this for attention but for purely practical reasons; I've long attempted to come up with a solution to the above problems. I think this approach is the least harmful, at least from curators' perspective. I don't want everything I wrote to be purged and I don't want the account terminated (obviously). Pragmatically speaking, I'd rather do more exercise and spend time with family than waste time on "Twitter fights" (no better than the Facebook nonsense).

Techrights will publish a lot more in the coming weeks/months. Getting rid of Twitter (except as a shadow) would help/contribute towards that.

Don't forget to tell the kids, "if they're not on social control media, then it's wise to not even start!" Your online "friends" aren't real friends or surrogates thereof. Just like "esports" aren't actually sports.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Why We're Reporting Brett Wilson LLP for Apparently Misusing Their Licence to Protect American Microsofters Who Attack Women
For those who have not been keeping abreast
Stefano Maffulli and His Microsoft-Funded OSI Staff Are Killing the OSI and Killing "Open Source" (All for Money!)
This is far from over
Techrights Headlines as Semaphore
"If you are hearing this, thank you"
 
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: Games and More
Links for the day
Links 01/04/2025: Apple Fined $162M for Privacy Abuses, Disinformation Online a Growing Concern
Links for the day
Newer Press Reports Confirm That Microsoft Shuts Down 'Hey Hi' (AI) Labs Despite All the Hype
The "hey hi" (AI) bubble is not sustainable
Links 01/04/2025: Mass Layoffs at Eidos and "Microsoft Pulls Back on Data Centers" (Demand Lacking); "Racist and Sexist" Slop From Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: XKCDpunk and worldclock.py
Links for the day
50 Years of Sabotage and a Gut Punch to Computer Science (and Science in General)
Will we get back to science-based computing rather than cult-like following?
3 Months in 2025, 4 Waves of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Now Offices Shut Down Permanently
"A recent visit by the South China Morning Post confirmed that the office was dark, unoccupied, and had its logo removed."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 31, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 31, 2025
Links 31/03/2025: China Tensions, Bombs Falling in Myanmar After Earthquake
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: Falling Out of Love With Tech, Sunsetting openSNP
Links for the day
R.T.O. at IBM in Texas and Atlanta (State of Georgia) Expected as "Soft Layoffs" Catalyst This Coming Year
It also sounds like more IBM layoffs are in the making
Law Firms Can Also Lose Their Licence for Clearly Misusing It
The bottom line is, never made the false assumption that because you can pile up SLAPPs in a docket you will not suffer from bad reputation or even get disbarred
Link between institutional abuse, Swiss jurists, Debianism and FSFE
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
LLM Slop Piggybacking News About GNU/Linux and Distorting It
new examples
Links 31/03/2025: Press and Democracy Under Further Attacks in the US, Attitudes Towards Slop Sour
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: The OSI Does Not Respect Anybody's Privacy
The surveillance mafia that bans dissent or key people (even co-founders) with dissenting views
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: More X-Filesposting and Dreaming in Emacs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 30, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 30, 2025
Links 30/03/2025: Security Breaches, Crackdowns on Dissent/Rival Politicians
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: London Soundtrack Festival, Superbloom, gmiCAPTCHA
Links for the day
Phasing Out Vista 10 in Nations Where ~90% of Windows Users Still Rely on It
Recipe for another Microsoft disaster
The Cost of Pursuing the Much-Needed Reform/Shield Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
The LLM Bubble is About to Implode, Gimmicks and Financial Shell Games Cannot Prevent That, Only Delay It
To inflate the bubble MElon is now doing the classic trick of buying from oneself for a fictional value
Links 30/03/2025: Contagious Ideas, Signal Leak, and Squashing Lousy Patents
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: "Quantum Randomness" and "F-1 Visa Revoked" in US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: US as a Threat, Returning to the WWW
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: Judge Blocks Dismantling Of VOA, Turkey Arrested Many Journalists
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 29, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 29, 2025