Or the simpler answer that doesn't fit your narrative is that lots of folks don't like Musk and his actions and his approach to running businesses. Lots of people find Musk repulsive. It shouldn't be a surprise that those people want to leave.
[0]: https://www.mattmaldre.com/2017/08/02/people-leave-reddit/
[1]: https://nypost.com/2021/01/09/trump-fans-leave-twitter-after...
[2]: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/facebook-ou...
Anecdotal, but I personally know a handful of people who deleted their Facebook account and use other platforms instead. So it does happen. The question is whether or not it affects their advertising revenue in the long run. Zucks's solution so far seems to have been buying up the competition.
It's not out of the question that one of these massively popular social networks will collapse in the next decade.
Case in point: I still see the “coexist” and lefty bumper stickers in the cars ahead of me at chick-fil-a drive through line pretty regularly. Everybody wants to protest and boycott products until you have that itch that only a spicy chicken biscuit can scratch.
Tech neofeudalism manifests itself as walled gardens where the cost of leaving is very high for the serfs.
It's not interoperable. It's controlled by one person. Like Facebook. When that changes we can discuss it. But until then, it's just an empty promise.
But companies do not. Buy a company and start making big mistakes and there will be consequences. The competition for users is fierce. If you want 100 days, get elected instead of being forced into buying a company you didn't really want in the first place.
Not everyone in America, much less outside it, wants to pretend that they share the values of Californian Democrats from the progressive tribe, which according to this study [0] makes up whopping 8 per cent of the American population.
You can make all the promises and guesses about the future that you want, but until those guesses materialize, they are vaporware. People can rightly continue to leave a platform they have no interest or faith in.
If any of your guesses do materialize people can presumably change their mind and come back to Twitter.
> Not everyone in America, much less outside it, wants to pretend that they share the values of Californian Democrats from the progressive tribe
That's not very relevant to an advertising platform. TV and radio stations rarely appeal to more than one or two tribes and both platforms are highly moderated to the point where the public has almost zero voice. Musk's dream of forcing people to tolerate free speech is rather idealistic. According to your source, if Musk wants to attract the biggest audience, he should ban politics from the platform.
By default I can't take any promise from Elon seriously, nor do I understand how anyone believes anything he says. He underestimates every problem and never has any plans until after he makes announcements. I can't believe how many "eventually" promises people will still believe from one guy who obviously makes them off the cuff with no thought whatsoever for what is involved. Half of HN seems to give way too much credit to hot air from this guy, he's announced (and taken money for!) many many things coming imminently years ago.
https://electrek.co/2022/09/15/tesla-facing-class-action-law...