Twitter's latest "feature" is basically confirmation of what I've been alleging: viral and high-engagement content is algorithmically forced into timelines at the expense of the content from actual accounts you follow, which is why you see better engagement on Mastodon with a fraction of the followers.
Go to an account you follow and check the view count for their latest tweet.
Notice how much smaller it is than their follower count.
We've all been shadowbanned by time-on-platform targets.
The most interesting thing about "view count" is that it's not a reflection of how much an audience likes a post - that would be likes. It's also not a measure of how well it's performing, that's RT count. Those metrics were already available.
The *only* thing Views tells you is how much algorithmic amplification Twitter itself is giving an account. How many timelines the company is pushing someone's Tweet into. It tells you nothing about the Tweet, but everything about Twitter.
He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software & Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit I've ever heard anyone say, so when people say he's a genius I figure I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.
This post is part of a series on Mastodon and the fediverse. We also have a post on privacy and security on Mastodon, why the fediverse will be great—if we don't screw it up, and how to make a Mastodon account. You can follow EFF on Mastodon here.A wave of people have announced that they're leaving...
I've gotten a lot of responses to that Substack piece about leaving Twitter. Many are positive but some are negative. A few are saying "oh so you think free speech is nasty?"
What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I do. The Nazis marching at Skokie were nasty. All sorts of speech is nasty. Supporting free speech doesn't mean reserving judgment about it, you imbecile. It means not using the state to suppress it.
Many of the journalists Elon suspended today on Twitter are here on #Mastodon. Please follow and boost:
Drew Harwell, Washington Post
@drewharwell
Donie O’Sullivan, CNN
@donieosullivan
Steve Herman, VOA
@w7voa
Micah Lee, Intercept
@micahflee
Tony Webster
@tony
Matt Binder, Mashable
@MattBinder
Rod Hilton
Electronic Frontier Foundation
laurendw
Ken White
Tiffany Li
Jack Sweeney
Jeff Jarvis