Among many members
I love Twitter.
to celebrate…. bringing back a classic….been a while since one of these bad boys… pic.twitter.com/Zyn5y5lRhl
— your welcome (@dtoidsteven) February 8, 2016
Love it.
But the quasi-public nature of it means it’s kinda of like plopping down at a crowded beach. You don’t expect fellow beach goers to come up to you and interrupt conversations between you and your friends, or tell you that they’re going to kill you later tonight, but it happens. On Twitter, I mean. Beach people are usually pretty nice in San Francisco, except for the assholes from the golf club arcoss the street that ride their horses down at Fort Funston and leave pounds of shit everywhere and threaten the safety of all the cute pups.
This is exacerbated by online anonymity but not the lone reason, given how many people post extreme, offensive comments via their personal Facebook page, like “i’m going to kill your family while you’re at work” or “ciabatta is the best bread.” Truly disgusting.
So Twitter is at least paying lip service to the idea of online safety with the formation of the “Trust & Safety Council,” which includes games critique’s Feminist Frequency as one of its 50 council members from 13 different regions. While some digital-focused, newer organizations like FemFreq are represented, it includes groups with decades-long histories. The council, “provides input on our safety products, policies, and programs,” which Twitter supposedly has, even though it is currently not against Twitter rules to basically be as aggressive, rude, and offensive as possible to others.
Meanwhile, there was huge backlash during the weekend over the idea of Twitter fucking about with removing the chronological timeline view it is known for in favor of a Facebook-style wacky, wild algorithm shit — a decision that no one who uses Twitter wants. Twitter’s head has denied that this change was in place for next week, but the company also randomly turned “favorites” (stars) into “likes” (hearts) recently for no fucking reason.
Unfortunately, Twitter’s rate of new members is steeply declining, so the folks running things must be panicked as hell as other social media platforms like Instagram aren’t displaying that same kind of ceiling. Twitter stocks actually hit an all-time low yesterday. You screwed up not taxing the hell out of the company when you could, San Francisco.
