Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Ironically posted on Buzzfeed, this article asserts that "for nearly its entire existence, Twitter has not just tolerated abuse and hate speech, it's virtually been optimized to accommodate it." Now, writes Charlie Warzel, "With public backlash at an all-time high and growth stagnating, what is the platform that declared itself 'the free speech wing of the free speech party' to do?" It's a good question. Though described as a social networking platform, Twitter is in reality a publishing platform (albeit of very short articles). Moreover, there's no real distinction between 'friend' and 'abusive stranger' on Twitter, which means your harassers can target both you and all your followers. "The original sin is a homogenous leadership," one former senior employee told BuzzFeed News. "This is part of what exacerbated the abuse problem for sure." Language warning, because Buzzfeed.

Today: 1054 Total: 1059 [Direct link] [Share]

Image from the website
View full size


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Mar 29, 2024 06:22 a.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes