look, i used Twitter as a news platform way before most people even imagined it could be used as such.

i was reporting on-the-ground, posting pics & videos with my Blackberry by 2008. i created a lot of what's now considered conventional reporting.

that’s why thousands of reporters and news orgs followed me. i was the journalists’ journalist.

and it’s why i later found out, thanks to Edward Snowden, i had been targeted by techbros. because am a nobody (to them) that people trust.

🧵…

there’s a lot of bullshit with the “but where are the Black people”.
https://social.coop/@scottjenson/116352800579635299

if the #fediverse isn’t like corporate “social media” built for surveillance; then stop trying to use Mastodon to stalk people.

BIPOC come to the fediverse to not be the target of the WHITE GAZE. they come to the fediverse to be whatever the fuck they want to be.

BIPOC are here, using their personas of choice, cuz they’re NOT here for you to stalk them.

🧵…

this post though… OMG… don't even know how to begin with this:
https://social.coop/@scottjenson/116358195717244835

the tell is in his use of “AI JOURNALISM”. that’s just the cherry on top of the shit sundae Jenson is tryna sell as “the echo chamber”.

in Scott Jenson’s world, people who reject #AIslop are also racists who won’t boost his one Black, “AIfluencer” friend Dare.

nobody is buying Dare’s efforts to sell #AIslop as inevitable because there is nothing to buy.

IT’S ALL HYPE & PROPAGANDA

🧵…

LET SET ASIDE THAT:

1. Dare uses images of headlines and refuses to add #AltTxt to them, antagonizing one of the biggest trends native to the #fediverse

2. Dare also refuses to link to the articles from whence he snatches said headlines, breaking one of the most basic of web usability conventions.

Obasanjo spends an inordinate amount of time selling the inevitability of #AIslop. he even boasted about firing half his staff and forcing the survivors to slop themselves into relevancy

🧵…

i don’t know about y’all but who takes seriously a Naijaman selling the inevitability of #tech #fascism and #colonialism?

and now i have to wonder: is Dare’s account meant to be an engagement bot onhere?

because it doesn't make any sense at all to say there are no Black people on the #fediverse because it is averse to “engagement bots”. it does make sense though if you are using digital #Blackface like that “soul” singer on Youtube.

which brings me to the phenomenon of #BlackTwitter

🧵…

THERE ARE TWO BLACKTWITTERS

1. the organic growth, virality and stickiness that grew from the handful of Black folks who joined the platform on 2007 during SXSW. it literally happened after a panel on BIPOC people on the web that @anildash and I were part of

2. the “engagement network” of bots that Jack Dorsey called #BlackTwitter, so he could sell premium access to the API to spammers and purveyors of corporate stalkerware.

in other words 🧵…