Bonum Certa Men Certa

Why Techrights Doesn't Do Social Control Media

More about Social Control than about Media. Standing on one's own means more freedom of speech and no self-censorship.

One-tree hill

Summary: Being managed and censored by platform owners (sometimes their shareholders) isn't an alluring proposition when a site challenges conformist norms and the status quo; Techrights belongs in a platform of its own

AFTER posting more than 670,000 tweets and having coined the term "Social Control Media" (which even Julian Assange and Wikileaks adopted) I decided to no longer use Twitter except to check replies once a day. It had become a massive productivity drain and usually an utter waste of time. I still have stuff posted there, albeit only as copies exported from decentralised and Free software platforms such as Diaspora and Pleroma (Mastodon-compatible).



"It seems pretty clear where Twitter is going with this; it wants to eventually become another Facebook."A decade ago Techrights, Boycott Novell and TechBytes had active accounts in Identi.ca (and two of these in Twitter as well). At some stage it seemed clear that this kind of activity was detrimental to -- not contributory towards -- actual journalism. Techrights never had a Twitter account and character length is still a major limitation. Over the years surveillance and bloat got a lot worse; almost exactly a year ago Twitter also killed third-party tools by deprecating key APIs. It seems pretty clear where Twitter is going with this; it wants to eventually become another Facebook. We probably don't have to explain why Facebook is so bad (many aspects to that).

There's nothing to regret here overall; we didn't participate in these sites and we probably lost nothing by staying out of these. I have personal accounts there, but these express my personal views (on politics) rather than the site's.

"There's nothing to regret here overall; we didn't participate in these sites and we probably lost nothing by staying out of these."Social Control Media (so-called 'social' 'media') is neither social nor media; when people socialise they don't get managed by the billions by one single company/shareholders and media has generally (historically) checked claims/facts. Twitter lacks that.

Social Control Media has sadly 'replaced' the "long form" writings in a lot of blogs. That's a shame really. Quality is being compromised for the sake of speed and concision. When we're trying to actually find/syndicate reliable blogs we nowadays come to realise that many are inactive/dormant. Instead of sites they become "accounts" (on someone else's platform, complete with throttling, censorship and ads); what used to be a site/blog is just some Twitter account that posts and reposts unverified nonsense. Techrights doesn't wish to ever become something so shallow.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Once Again Linux Foundation Makes It Clear It's Being 'Absorbed' by Bill Gates
Linux Foundation devotes about 2% of its budget to Linux
Links 08/10/2024: Australian Fines for Twitter (X), Fake Patent Courts Still Not Scuttled
Links for the day
World Wide Slop
If it quacks like a duck...
[Meme] Driver Issues
Where do you want to drive today?
Another Dose of Fake 'Articles' About Linux
Don't give visibility to the nonsense of Microsoft
 
[Meme] Bill Gates With a Side of "Linux"
Linux Foundation is trolling us with Bill Gates
IBM is a Boys' Club
If IBM collapsed, the Red Hat engineers who work on GNU and Linux would simply work elsewhere (on the same projects)
The Miserable State of GAFAM
Looking for government handouts
Microsoft is Acting Like a Company That's Running Out of Money (But Still Pretends to be Wealthy in Order to Attract or Retain Shareholders)
Azure has had mass layoffs every year since 2020, yet Microsoft keeps telling shareholders that "clown computing" is growing
Dr. Andy Farnell's Article on Societal Disorganised Attachment and the Role of Social Control Media
The article is quite long and typos were still being fixed as recently as last night
Smear Alert: Linus Torvalds Asking for Better Commit Messages Makes Linus a (Grammar) Nazi
Maybe the "mainstream media" is looking for clickbait or maybe it's actively looking to make a scandal - a phony controversy with which to make the job of coordinating Linux unpleasant
Gemini Links 09/10/2024: Climate Doom and Clagrange
Links for the day
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IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 08, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 08, 2024
Dr. Andy Farnell's Article on Why Passwords Still Rock
"Seven for a secret never to be told"
The Problem Isn't That New Cars Use Electricity But That They Use Too Many Bits of Electronics
"...and proprietary software wrapped in proprietary APIs and protocols all without a modicum of compartmentalisation," an associate adds
We're Turning 18 in 30 Days
30 days from now the site turns 18
GNOME Foundation Says It's Nearly Broke (Again), It's Getting Rid of More People (Only Women Get the Boot), and It Will Improve Communications and Transparency Even Though It Secretly Ousts People From the GNOME Foundation Board (for Secret Reasons)
It only talks about this months later (under strict gag orders, only public shaming of a person)
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Guilt by Association, Workers vs Owners
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2024: War Updates, Samsung's Layoffs, and Gemini
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2024: Microsoft Deleting Office Documents Instead of Saving Them, "Threads Still Sucks"
Links for the day
gemini.techrights.org and techrights.org (Same Server, Not the Same Protocol)
We're reminding readers that everything in this site is fully accessible via gemini.techrights.org in Gemini Protocol
X Has Axed Itself. This is Great News and Further Affirmation of Everything We've Said About Social Control Media.
Don't waste any more time on social control media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 07, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, October 07, 2024
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Contingency Begets Complexity, Playing With Bezier Curves
Links for the day
Almost Half the Web Users Connecting to Your Site Are Using Linux
almost 1 in 2 Web-connected devices runs Android and about 2% run "proper" GNU/Linux
The Web Has Severe Amnesia Problems, But We Still Remember How Gilberto Gil Promoted Free Software in Brazil
The Digital Tipping Point (DTP) is years behind us now
Synthesised Voices Aren't a New Technology (the Hype Might Be, They Call It "Hey Hi" Now)
I still consider this an extension of the "hey hi" (AI) hype
LLM Hype is Already Descending, Apple Stopped Investing in the Money Furnace
Wall Street is a perverse force in the technology market, incentivising the most harmful (and mostly useless) things
Change Control and What Will Come After Git (If That's Still Possible at All)
It would be wrong to believe (at least misguided) Git can be a "standard" skill 30 or 50 years from now.
On the Web, HTTPS Has Actually Become a Privacy Problem (Broadcasting Usage/Access to the All-Seeing CA Eye). Geminispace Doesn't Have This Problem.
Down to 23 capsules: the rapid demise of Certificate Authority (CA) Let's Encrypt in Geminispace
Links 07/10/2024: Politics, Education, Wars, Financial Crunch
Links for the day
Munich Was Having Real Difficulties Moving From GNU/Linux to Windows
How many are still using GNU/Linux?
Links 07/10/2024:China’s 'Deflation' (Price Decreases), Brazil Still Bars Twitter ("X")
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2024: "Creative Computing" Turns 50, Long War in Middle East Turns 1
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/10/2024: Luck and Dishonesty, Gaming Getting Worse
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 06, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, October 06, 2024