The content moderation aspect just doesn't exist. It'll soon become yet another 4chan.
What I'm really surprised about is how X is still operating in the US or here in Europe.
Me too, which is crazy. I remember when news outlets in Europe were complaining about how Russia forbids websites where people could talk freely, complained about arrests over social media posts. That was maybe a decade ago. Hearing "bad fake news hate speech bad" over and over again somehow does something, I guess. You start to seriously question why something that allows people to share text and pictures is not banned.
The path to dystopia is really easy to envision and must be resisted imo. I don't want to see a day where you can be arrested, or worse, for saying you don't like the President when someone else can hear or report you, or because the govt are spying on your phone.
Yes, this does mean protecting speech that I don't like as well. Twitter has a "following" tab, as well as the ability to block individuals you don't like. Between the two, you have all the control you need to avoid content you don't like. I don't need some large, opaque company, government or cabal to decide on my behalf what I'm allowed to, or not to see.
I just don't believe you.
How about you "click around X for a few minutes" and show us all the bad stuff you found.
I also feel there are a lot of chaos operatives on the platform that are spewing garbage and these are likely foreign state actors as much as trolls. Which comes back to who you follow. I am perfectly fine as long as I can block individuals I don't like... I don't necessarily want the platform to do it for me.
The internet has something for everybody, just pick the social media you are happy with.
If you have a platform you like, use it. As long as I have a block button that I can choose to use, I'm okay. If you think Twitter/X is bad, you should splunk around Telegram sometime.
In any case, I can choose who to associate with. I don't want the government to tell me I can't, it isn't right. I don't like flag burning either, but would rather not have that outlawed either. Repressive regimes can come from many directions... best to resist them all.
My timeline notably isn't full of right-wing propaganda, whereas I know plenty of others who complain that this is the case, and who have even left because of it.
I don't understand what is causing people to have these really different experiences with the product, especially given the relatively minimal controls over timeline content that are available (basically follow/unfollow/block).
It's odd.
I offer that the purpose of exTwitter's algorithms is to choose different content for different people - and insufficient controls keep user consent from interfering with that.
As to why exTw algos choose what is chosen: The purpose of black boxes seems to be making sure users never, ever learn why.
The rest is filled out with people dunking on Elon. My guess is that if I didn't have him blocked, his stuff would show up there too.
Imagine you're in a right wing bubble. You follow right wing people. Some of them start complaining about what some fringe left wing people post on X and link to those tweets. You follow those links. Now you just interacted with fringe left wing people. Little by little the mighty algorithm will start giving you what you seem to like: fringe left wing content. Now you're complaining about how X is full of those tweets.
Reverse left and right and you got the OP.
I often wonder and worry about how they and their social media teams must perceive the world and especially the electorate if they still hang out in this environment.
edit: and as a consequence, most journalists also still have at least an account there. same for them: how do they perceive the world? especially given the propensity for the right wing/fascists for commenting directly on the local news' websites...
In the end, there are things that suck about a general freedom of speech and expression. With Twitter, you have the ability to block those that offend you, as does everyone else. I appreciate and use this function. What I don't want is for some huge opaque organization to decide on my behalf.