Bots, Television, Hoaxes

Recovering From Wide Abuse

As Elon Musk has taken over Twitter and turned it into X, the social media platform has become exemplary of what a social media outlet should be. Community Notes are quick to correct errors and provide additional information.

Yet, many, particularly leftists, are leaving X to Bluesky, claiming X has become a "cesspool". The problem on Twitter was the bots which inflated public reaction to user postings. In addition, people, especially on the political left, blocked nearly everything they did not want to see. The result was a narrow progressive viewpoint of the world prevailed over different viewpoints. The dominance of the progressive viewpoint pleased progressives. In addition to this was persistent content moderation, and influences from federal government agencies (https://www.stevemurch.com/twitterfiles-the-complete-list/2023/01). Now X provides a wider world and they cannot handle it.

Furthermore, all these problems on Twitter were aided by the distortions common in national television network news such as CNN, MSNBC and ABC. Deceptive video clips were widely shared on social media without any rebuttal. Now, a new site AmericanDebunk.com peels back the vast amount of deception used by television by focusing on the hoaxes about Trump.

The presentationn on hoaxology is full of information everyone should learn about hoax-making (https://americandebunk.com/hoaxology/), from editing, to lack of context, to anonymous resources. National television news still has lots of propaganda to debunk but now people can arm themselves about the deceptive tactics.

But now the bots are gone and the Federal government agencies have been put in check. Many users saw a decline in followers simply because the bots were removed when Twitter became X. This has led to the sense X is no longer fair or is dysfunctional when the opposite is the case. There are withdrawal symptoms from such changes. The amount of emotional damage done by Twitter cannot even be estimated. Many people need treatment to come to terms with how they were exploited by bots, moderation, the Federal government, and false television narratives. Unfortunately, no such relief is forthcoming.