The biggest news item of the past week has been Elon buying Twitter.
Prominent conservative accounts had followers go up by ~1%
Prominent liberal accounts had followers go down by ~1%
People who don't like the idea of Musk owning Twitter left (though probably temporarily) and people who previously left due to Twitter's policies returned because they read the news and like the idea of Musk owning it.
really? thousands of people just left twitter at the idea of Musk owning it, and thousands joined out of love for Musk? within a week?
Maybe rhetoric like this is why it's a mystery.
If you are on twitter, and follow people on the left, a big topic right now is whether people should leave as a direct result of the Elon purchase.
Its incredibly obviously clear, given the thing you say has happened, hasnt happened. [0]
https://twitter.com/jameelajamil/status/1518641966661177344
If someone makes a twitter post, saying that they "will FINALLY leave", I think it is fair to describe that person as being in the process of "leaving".
Thus, that is fair evidence that yes, at least people are talking about leaving twitter over the elon purchase, and that this might effect user stats.
I have presented conclusive and definative proof that they have not left twitter at hte time of this posting. Do you have proof that they are "in the process of leaving twitter"?
We have established the account is still there - we agree on that. They tweeted "they were leaving" - we agree on that.
However, they have not deleted their account and have not unfollowed everyone they previously followed [0]. So if this is the example of "what is happening" how does that action (saying you are leaving, not deleting your account and not unfollowing anyone) lead to accounts have lost thousands followers
I am asking you to take the step from "Many people are saying they will quit twitter and have stopped posting" -> "It is reasonable to assume that there are some amount of people who have quit twitter and deleted their account". If you are unwilling to make that conclusion, they by all means go ahead; but I think you are being unreasonable to not make that relatively safe assumption
The point being here, that you are being pedantic, and borderline bad faith.
It is perfectly reasonable for someone to say "Hey, there is this person who is leaving twitter", in reference to a post of them saying that they are doing that.
And you are coming in, saying "Well, actually! Technically speaking, I don't see a deleted twitter account yet, therefore by the laws of debate land, you are wrong!" just comes off as you being a pedantic idiot.
The original interpretation, is a reasonable one, for regular human beings to reasonable agree is mostly true. And pedantic "well actually" people, like yourself, are contributing nothing to the conversation, and just trying to get a 1 off, bad faith gotcha on a technicality.
Stop. Nobody likes you when you do that, and nobody is fooled by your behavior.
Please feel free to take your leave twitter, move to canada or whatever else you snowflakes like to do.
I'm using her declaration as a high-profile example of someone deciding to leave twitter simply due to Elon's purchase.
She hasn't deleted her account, most likely because she doesn't want to let someone else get her account name and impersonate her or something similar, but for non-celebrities it's really safe to assume that many people have deleted their accounts as a result of elon; and that many have created accounts as a result of elon; and their choices on who to follow will closely correlate with their politics.
Can you provide any evidence that it's a grander conspiracy like you alleged?
I alleged absolutely nothing of the kind. I simply pointed out that X person leaving twitter had not actually occured.
I could, use your cited example to point out that, while many people say they would leave twitter, like those that say they will leave the country if the other guy becomes president, they havent. As proven, obviously, by whoever this jameelajamil person is.
> I'm still waiting for an explanation on why liberal accounts have lost thousands followers but conservative accounts have gained thousands.
> I'm fairly liberal myself, but seeing what is clear shadow banning/suppression especially of politicians is borderline voting interference and should be punished heavily at both the corporate and personnel level.
I know a fair few people said they would, for a few different reasons. Particularly as, given the size of the user-base to start with, “thousands” is a pretty small number.
> and thousands joined out of love for Musk?
More likely because of the “freedom of speech” promises that were being made. I'd wager that many right leaning people who had previously left (or not joined in the first place) over certain other people being kicked, off are quite enamoured by the idea that their brand of rhetoric might be less unwelcome there in future. The converse (wanting that sort of talk to continue to be frowned upon) is one of the reasons some others talked about leaving. Certain messaging is key, not Musk specifically (although it was him giving off those messages).
https://www.cnet.com/tech/how-to-delete-your-twitter-account...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/26/twitter...
https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/how-to-delete-twitter
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/how-to-delete-twitter-acc...
https://www.newsweek.com/how-delete-your-twitter-account-170...
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/1601...
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/delete-twitter-and-your-terribl...
https://9to5google.com/2022/04/27/how-to-delete-twitter-andr...
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-delete-your-twitter...
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/delete-twitter-account-15483...
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/how-to-delete-t...
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/how-to-delete-twitter
https://www.pcworld.com/article/695148/how-to-delete-your-tw...
Generally, churn would not have much of an ideological bias. On average people would leave for personal reasons and so you get an even-ish spread. However, if the major events of the day do have an ideological character - you would expect those events to have an outsized impact in one direction or another on people along those ideological lines.
So on a normal week you'd see both liberal and conservative accounts get +500 and -500 followers, but on this week the liberal gets -1000 and the conservative gets +1000. Same churn, but driven by what is on peoples' minds.
[1] https://www.vox.com/2017/10/26/16552368/twitter-new-user-gro...
[EDIT] Meanwhile, I've also seen people on the left (though not any I personally know—not many people I know, tweet) announcing that they'll be reducing their Twitter use, in anticipation of what they think Musk will do to it.
I'm not sure what the alternative hypothesis is. That angry twitter employees are implementing changes in advance of the Musk purchase?
I don't know, I don't work at twitter.
The parent comment had "seeing what is clear shadow banning/suppression especially of politicians ..."
The response, I think, is trying to group the other people who remain belligerently insistent that this must be some shadowy conspiracy, not just random shifts in usage, or a reaction to news, or something else we don't know.
But you're saying that the same amount of liberal users didn't just delete the app, like you expect every normal non-techie user to do. They actively went through the trouble of deleting the account hidden behind dark pattern?
Not buying that, sorry.