Is Birdwatch with More Censorship Needed for Twitter?
When I read about Birdwatch coming to Twitter I did a double-take. Really, more censorship? Is that what users really want on Twitter?
Recently on the Twitter blog, Twitter introduced its new Birdwatch. It allows “allows people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading and write notes that provide informative context.”
As if there is not enough controversy and fighting over on Twitter and Facebook these days.
If someone has a different opinion about something whether it be politics, religion, sports, business, or science we should be able to discuss it without being censored on every tweet!
After all, social media was intended to be engaging and a place where people could discuss things. If we all agreed on every topic, the world would be boring and no need for social media.
Now, if you are censored by these bird watchers will you be thrown in a Twitter jail?
A great question with no answer, yet.
The Fact-Checkers
Many people have left Twitter and Facebook due to the fact-checkers.
Who are the fact-checkers?
According to the Epoch Times, “Facebook fact-checkers need to be certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). Facebook describes the organization as nonpartisan, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
The IFCN was set up by Poynter, a journalism nonprofit, and in 2019, was almost entirely funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar — a major Democrat donor — as well as Google and progressive billionaire George Soros. Facebook is also listed as one of the previous donors.
Furthermore, earlier this year, several former Facebook content moderators alleged that the company does have a left-leaning bias in its content policing.
In addition, some contracted moderators were caught on hidden camera saying they were removing or not removing posts based on their own political preferences, regardless of what Facebook policies prescribed.
Twitter officials say they identify tweets using “internal systems” that aim to ensure the platform is not amplifying the tweets with these labels and detecting highly visible content quickly.
Twitter has roped in “trusted partners to identify content that is likely to result in offline harm”. Twitter has not disclosed who these partners are or who is fact-checking tweets.
Alternative Social Networks
It’s no wonder so many people are leaving these 2 big giant social media networks for alternative social networks.
Yes, there are many more now that Parler was shut down by Amazon. Parler was hosted on Amazon servers and Amazon decided to take the site down. Parler CEO posted that he hoped to have it back up in late January but that has yet to happen.
What are some of the other alternative social networks?
MeWe
CloutHub
Gab
Nebu2.com
Revival Social
Rumble
Minds
Club House
Brighteon
Ello
Diaspora
Vero
Bitchute
Steemit
Telegram
Signal
Right now my favorite is MeWe. It is very similar to Facebook with group and chat features and no ads. (So far!) There are many different types of groups for all kinds of things like pets, gardening, sports, business and blogging and of course some political groups too.
MeWe has been a breath of fresh air after being on Facebook for the past decade. I was glad I joined in 2019 when I was recently part of a 2 million person Facebook ban a few weeks ago.
It made it easy for me to log back into MeWe. Around that same time, 2.5 million people joined MeWe according to USA Today.
That brings MeWe’s total to 16 million users getting closer to Parler’s old 20 million users.
What is the Future of Social Media?
I believe it will become more diversified like TV. When I was a kid growing up, we had 4 channels. 3 local channels and 1 not so local channel that I could watch the Boston Bruins on with an antenna. Remember the old rabbit ears?
Those were the days. When you went to school everyone talked about their favorite TV show and we all watched it. Today it is so fragmented with cable TV and 1000’s of channels to watch. Sometimes it is too much and I don’t watch anything. If given more than several choices many people will not choose something.
I learned that in sales years ago too. Give them 2 or 3 choices only. Any more than that overloads a mind and no choice is chosen.
What do you think of all the fact-checking going on today? Will you become a birdwatcher or like many others not post on Twitter going forward? I’d love to know your thoughts!
