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EFF is leaving X

eff.org

241–250 of 1001 posts

Re: EFF is leaving X

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Of course they're ideological. That's the whole point of their existence. Anyway, > Twitter was never a utopia. We've criticized the platform for about as long as it’s been around. Still, Twitter did deserve recognition from time to time for vociferously fighting for its users’ rights. That changed. Musk fired the entire human rights team and laid off staffers in countries…

[flagged]

They … did, though?

You're presumably referencing Missouri v. Biden, to which the EFF did file an amicus[1]. In it, they note,

> Many platforms have potentially problematic “trusted flagger” programs in which certain groups and individuals enjoy “some degree of priority in the processing of notices

> Of course, governmental participation in content moderation processes raises First Amendment issues not present with non-governmental inputs

With their overall opinion being something like "content moderation is normal, the government flagging content is also normal, and there are instances where the government's flagging of content moderation can be fine & not run afoul of 1A, but there are instances where it can, and we urge the court to think"

Note in this case, the platform was removing the content. The government was, in one respect, merely asking. (There were assertions that in other instances, such as public statements, the case was less so.) The court eventually ruled, and the ruling I saw from the 5th circuit seemed reasonable. (I think that was a preliminary injunction. AIUI, the case as a whole was never ruled on, because the Trump administration took over.)

[1]: https://www.eff.org/document/missouri-v-biden-amicus-brief

Re: EFF is leaving X

#243

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The EFF has always been against a large political segment, namely the status quo of "long-term intellectual property good, DRM good, businesses have the right to do whatever they want with data they collect, businesses have the right to arbitrarily use de-facto monopolies on computing platforms" which make no mistake were never neutral positions about rights.

Re: EFF is leaving X

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of good discussion there still if you follow the right people and block certain categories of discussion. If you use lists then you'll see no suggested content beyond who you follow. I'm more astounded that people think every single part of it is a cesspool when in reality there are gems to be found that aren't in any other X alternative like Bluesky or Mastodon or (lol) Threads.

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The problem is that there isn't really an alternative. The discussion is still happening there and nowhere else. (Trust me, I've looked.)

Re: EFF is leaving X

#245
post #27

If they justify it in terms of reach and impressions then say they will still be on BlueSky and Mastodon then you know it's purely ideological. Which is fine but just be honest about it.

The reach and impressions on Twitter are fake though, and posts containing links are suppressed. (Of course the EFF are ideological, that's their entire purpose!)

Sometimes it's not just about quantity. Not all impressions are equal.

And like it or not - Twitter is still the preferred communication platform of quite a few influential people.

Re: EFF is leaving X

#246

Astounds me that anyone is still using that platform after seeing how Musk treated the engineers when he took over.

I was recently at a brown bag at work - regarding enablement of AI in the workplace (it was awesome - all over the roadmap) - and one of the audience asked the speakers (a very diverse group of people) how on earth they keep up with all the developments in AI? All six of the speakers immediately said Twitter was realistically the only place you can keep up with the conversation. Having an extensively curated list mea…

Well, Twitter has a lot of separate spheres. It's pretty easy to curate just tpot (the part that concerns itself with the Bay area, venture capital, and so forth) by following the right people and then engaging with posts that are on-topic.

Re: EFF is leaving X

#247
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brand reputation. Every brand that chooses to use X implicitly supports X, even if they're not verified & paying X money.

Does anyone seriously think EFF posting to X yesterday tarnished their brand? Be real.

Yes.

I applaud the move and only wish they would have done it sooner.

Re: EFF is leaving X

#248

If they justify it in terms of reach and impressions then say they will still be on BlueSky and Mastodon then you know it's purely ideological. Which is fine but just be honest about it.

Just looking over recent posts, the EFF gets more interaction on BlueSky than it does on X despite 1/3 the followers and being on a much smaller site.

I think that says it all.

Re: EFF is leaving X

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

freedom is intersectional. it's hard to fight for freedom while supporting those that actively limit the freedom of others, especially when the amount of impressions are no longer worth doing it for

That's explicitly not the logic EFF is using; they come close to outright rejecting it.

> ... when the amount of impressions are no longer worth doing it for

> The Numbers Aren't Working Out

I don't know. That's front and center. Can to share how that's an "outright rejection"?

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