Yet another spike in Mastodon registrations happened today!

Usually when this happens, it's due to Elon Musk doing something foolish on Twitter.

So what was it this time?

I suspect it's related to holocaust denial... 🧵

Twitter has been sued in Germany for holocaust denial.

This is not a small thing.

In Germany, holocaust denial is a crime!

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/25/elon-musk-twitter-antisemitic-hate-speech-lawsuit-germany/

TechCrunch is part of the Yahoo family of brands

When many people read stuff like this in the BBC, they don't tend to feel warm and fuzzy about Twitter.

This is one reason people may be migrating to Mastodon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64404590

Twitter sued over antisemitic posts left online - BBC News

Two groups in Germany claim the social network has betrayed users' trust.

BBC News

It doesn't help that the FTC is investigating Twitter for security lapses, and that these lapses have continued even as Elon Musk runs the company.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-25/new-twitter-whistleblower-says-privacy-lapses-ran-into-musk-era

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Foolishness keeps happening on Twitter!

A hacker took over Robinhood's Twitter account to push a crypto scam.

1.1 million Robinhood followers on Twitter received a message asking them to pay $0.0005 for a token called ‘RBH’ on the Binance Smart Chain.

Even Finance bros are getting pissed off with Twitter!

https://cointelegraph.com/news/hackers-take-over-robinhood-s-twitter-account-to-promote-scam-token

Hackers take over Robinhood’s Twitter account to promote scam token

The message sent out to Robinhood's Twitter followers requested crypto users purchase a token called ‘RBH’ on the BNB Chain.

Cointelegraph

And remember how Nick Fuentes was re-instated yesterday on Twitter after being banned in July 2021?

He was banned again within 24 hours.

So what was the point of this foolish exercise -- other than to piss off everyone?

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3830106-nick-fuentes-twitter-account-suspended-less-than-24-hours-after-reinstatement/

Nick Fuentes Twitter account suspended less than 24 hours after reinstatement

Twitter has suspended the account of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes less than 24 hours after his reinstatement on the platform. Fuentes posted a picture of his suspended account on Telegram on Wednesday morning, with the caption “Well it was fun while it lasted.” The 24-year-old leader of the “America First” movement had…

The Hill

Who else is Elon Musk pissing off?

Indians.

Specifically for caving in to Narendra Modi's censorship demands.

It's clear that Twitter is no beacon for free speech.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/25/23571103/elon-musk-twitter-india-social-media-bbc-documentary-modi-censorship

Elon Musk’s Twitter is caving to government censorship, just like he promised

YouTube and Elon Musk’s Twitter blocked links to BBC documentary The Modi Question, which the Indian government has labeled “anti-India” and demanded to be suppressed.

The Verge

What's been Elon Musk's response to all the foolishness happening on Twitter?

"It is not possible for me to fix every aspect of Twitter worldwide overnight, while still running Tesla and SpaceX, among other things."

Well, maybe you shouldn't have bought Twitter if you can't handle the responsibility!

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1618319479662055426

Mr. Tweet on Twitter

“@thevivafrei First I’ve heard. It is not possible for me to fix every aspect of Twitter worldwide overnight, while still running Tesla and SpaceX, among other things.”

Twitter

Some people are saying, "Everyone who wants to migrate from Twitter has already done so."

Not the case.

There's such a thing known as "death by 1,000 cuts".

Which is what's happening on Twitter right now.

Sure, not everyone is persuaded to leave Twitter because of racism or outages or security lapses.

But each time foolishness happens, someone logs out of Twitter -- never to log in ever again.

And some of them -- albeit a minority -- find their way to the Fediverse.

@atomicpoet network effects also work on the way down: every person that leaves makes the platform less valuable, increasing the likelihood of the next person leaving, etc
@fabienmarry Not to mention, every node on a network has different weighted value. Nobody cares if Mike, from Canmore, has a fax machine, but if the CRA accepts faxes, that adds a lot more value to the network. High-value nodes leaving the network disrupt connectivity in the social graph to a disproportionate degree - and we don't always KNOW which nodes are high value!

@atomicpoet The people of the free world should ask their governments, who are supposed to represent them why they are still stuck with the birdsite held by a billionaire apologist of racists, white supremacists, religious fanatics & extremists of every conceivable color of insurrectionary subversiveness, bound to destabilize, attack & destroy the foundations of the Rule of thePeople, aka their democracy, the value of their voice.

#Democracy #GoGovernments #LeaveTwitter #Extremism #Terrorism

@atomicpoet arent we still consistently at ~ +400 accounts an hour?
@NLAWScametovisit Over the past two days, there have been spikes. See first post in this thread.
@atomicpoet people are afraid to lose their followers. Journos are afraid to lose clicks. They have to build here on solid ground while landslides keep happening on twitter.
@atomicpoet a lot people built a large audience / community there that they are not going to give up easily. Starting from scratch here doesn't seem appealing.

@robUx4 @atomicpoet
I have seen several pieces on misleading numbers. Not limited to Birdplace. It may be the membership claims of a cult religion or the support claimed by a politician. Birdplace now tells you the number of views and it is far lower than the Followers an account has. Which number are advertisers paying for?

Even a wrong number can be useful. TV viewer counts were good enough. But nobody tried to sell 34710352 as the right number. 35 million worked.

@robUx4 @atomicpoet
There are things made with high precision but it is difficult. This was something American companies led the world in. Packard built better Merlin engines than Rolls-Royce because of that. But you can never predict to the last penny, you can only count them afterwards
@atomicpoet If things don’t work out for you in the fediverse, you clearly have a fallback career as an executive life coach. 👍
@atomicpoet maybe shouldn’t have fired all the staff then Elon…
@atomicpoet @NeilEvansRocks … or wrecked functionality less than two months after buying the keys.
@atomicpoet Typo alert: The username should be Mr Twit
@atomicpoet as if #PonyBoy’s actually doing anything positive for companies he’s screwing over. #PhonyStark is apt. 1/4 million to fail getting a hand job best describes the loser.
@atomicpoet P3d0 guy thought he was Iron Man, he noticed he's a second banana Lex Luthor
@atomicpoet
Who is he kidding? The fixing for him is encouraging this BS. And he's killing Tesla and at SpaceX he isn't the one who makes things run.

@atomicpoet

I can say with over 9000% certainty that @mmasnick predicted this like a meteorologist predicts the weather: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/02/hey-elon-let-me-help-you-speed-run-the-content-moderation-learning-curve/

Hey Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run The Content Moderation Learning Curve

It’s kind of a rite of passage for any new social media network. They show up, insist that they’re the “platform for free speech” without quite understanding what that actua…

Techdirt
@atomicpoet well actually, it’s your job, and you chose it !
Meta reinstates Trump on Instagram and Facebook ahead of 2024 election

Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg wrote in a blog post that the former president will face “heightened penalties” if he breaks the social media giant’s content rules.

The Washington Post
@atomicpoet and also that he is a total wanker