You know they don't literally mean that right? This joke is seriously getting tired imo. Twitter actually has an established space in discourse and it shapes conversations or used to shape conversations. It has literally helped people get resources during times of crisis, most recent event where twitter helped people real time was during Covid in 2021, here in India. People were exchanging info real time for oxygen cylinders and during this crisis they made a special section for it as well which updated very frequently so people could get help or give help. When our govt didn't do shit, Twitter helped.
There are many such examples, Twitter is(was) always at the fore front whenever there was some war/event happening and reporters preferred to post updates on twitter real time instead of their news boards.
You might not see value in it, but if it goes away, I doubt that space will be filled easily. Threads is for entertainment. I don't see any of the "threads" on that platform making to mainstream discourse.
Let's please stop making this tired argument.
Twitter is really important for humanity whether you believe it or not.
The utility Twitter provided isn't written-off, but it really shouldn't have happened on a for-profit advertising platform. What people are unwilling to accept is that Twitter was lightning in a bottle - it won't come back because everyone learned the lesson that it doesn't make money. You can either move onto a radical platform that tries to fix the original sin (eg. Mastodon/BlueSky/Nostr) or you can stick with the huddled masses that rely on a censored and monetized platform to speak freely online.
I believe his version of twitter was the closest thing we could get to an "uncensored" twitter. Everything is relative. How do you run and sustain a platform where people who call for genocide are getting their voice amplified? And is that even legal? Like, the platform has to take responsibility if it isn't going to "censor" speech.
Freedom of speech shouldn't mean freedom of reach. Yeah, if you want to make some ill-taste racist jokes, you must be shadow banned so that unless people specifically search for your name, the platform shouldn't amplify their voice.
> it won't come back because everyone learned the lesson that it doesn't make money
How can anyone dismiss Twitter earning >$5B in revenue as something not viable? Dorsey's twitter had too many employees. IIRC, their personnel costs alone was something like a $1B. Why do you need such a big team? Why are you hiring so many people and running mini experiments in the company hoping that you can become facebook level money making machine?
Dorsey should have realized that they are never going to become facebook level rich and just stay content with what they have and grow modestly and layoff people. Keep working on your core features. You don't need to be the next facebook, you are already twitter, heck, you have your company's name as a noun in a dictionary. Reduce your costs and coast. Nothing wrong with that.
But you need to be content with yourself first to think about company's decisions like that.
What has happened with twitter is truly shameful and Dorsey got with the wrong people (that's what i believe happened since he rolled his old twitter equity into x(itter) equity).
I've gotten enormous value from it from following accounts that post content I deem relevant to my interests.
Don't you view your timeline?
> Twitter is really important for humanity whether you believe it or not.
This may be true. But whatever it speaks about humanity, it is not very flattering.
That's not twitter helping, that's people helping. If there were no social networks, this would still happen. Having a billionare controlling global speech isn't worth it in any way even if it brings punctual benefits like the ones you cited
Twitter is the ONLY social network that is actually social, and attempts to connect strangers. Contrary to Facebook, etc where you need to be ‘friends’ first.
Even Facebook has features for connecting strangers e.g. Groups.
Mastodon ? No one knows you unless you have other socials
Instagram ? it blocks pc traffic , no retweet
Threads ? maybe the only one viable but it's meta
Facebook ? Um good luck
Tiktok ? It's just videos , it's far from soical media .
