Hacker News Reader

Comment by grosswait | Hacker News Reader

Adapting my reply to a comment:

By leaving X, EFF has made a “politically correct” statement outside their core mission, which alienates potential allies.

View on HN

Standing up to market manipulation and regulatory capture by platform owners and government coerced speech[1] is excellently aligned with EFF's core mission.[2]

I enthusiastically support their activities and will continue to donate.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/ad-firms-settle-... https://www.eff.org/about

The simple act of leaving a private social media website is enough to “alienate” people who would otherwise be supportive? Making membership in a private social media website contribute so heavily to your personal identity seems like more of a reflection on that person than anything else.

(FWIW, I have never had a Twitter or X account)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/eff-leaving-x

They say the typical post on X receives 3M impressions vs. 100M impressions in years past. They're a national organization, those 3M impressions might only be 100k actual people in a country of 400M. They do say that ideology was part of the motivation but it makes sense that they aren't going to invest the time in a platform that reaches a negligible number of people.

It makes sense that they use FOSS decentralized stuff like Mastodon despite the low reach; using Mastodon is an end unto itself. Twitter was just an advertising tool that wasn't working for them.

Thanks for one of the few rationale responses. However, maybe I’m naive, but how much more work is it to manage one more social media account?

It's more a matter that managing an X account reads as an endorsement of the platform, and endorsing X is a major brand risk for the EFF. Those 100k people aren't worth it.

If your support was contingent on them being on a specific social media network, a low quality one at that, then your support was more posturing than actual support. Better to know who your real allies are and not rely on all the “I’d help but I forgot my wallet in my other social network” posers.

Nah, they just finally decided to stop hanging out at the fascist playground. Seems like you like it there though

You’re making a whole lot of assumptions about what I wrote, and what it means. And sensing a lot of hostility. If you’re an activist organization with priorities, such as those stated by the EFF, only speaking to the people in your own political echo chamber hurts your cause.

Imagine being so chronically online that the choice of social media outlet an organization makes is enough to make them 'the other' in your mind. Its the weakest kind of brain rot.

It goes in both directions. Just have a look at blue sky. There’s no monopoly on reason by any political faction despite their own thoughts to the contrary.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com