[Air-L] Will Academic Twitter Exist Under Elon Musk?

Mon Oct 24 10:21:00 PDT 2022

I’ve been thinking that AoIR should launch its own Mastodon instance, open to all members. Something like aoir[dot]social.

Glad to discuss in Dublin.

> On Oct 23, 2022, at 4:42 PM, Richard Forno via Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
> 
> External Email: Use caution with links and attachments.
> 
> Hi Stu -
> 
> Like many, I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst for Twitter.
> I find Twitter a fantastic tool for staying in-touch and updated on
> colleagues' research/ideas/musings, sharing ideas of my own and perhaps
> soliciting feedback/contributions, following conference hashtags (hello
> #AOIR2022!), some current events and socialization...and the odd dog or
> nature photo  I'd hate quit it, but I've not ruled it out ... but I
> could live w/o Twitter, even after 13 years.
> 
> Without getting too deeply into politics here (which can be hard given
> the broader issues raised) -- as to your last paragraph Stu, I'm with
> you.  Since 2001 I've been increasingly concerned about the future of
> America's lttle-d democracy, view 2016 as a populist
> accident/experiment, saw 2020--1/6 as a test run. feel 2022 will be a
> good indicator of where things are heading having learned from 2020, and
> firmly believe that 2024 likely will be *the* pivotal point for our
> country one way or the other.   (Though politically, I think this
> political decline started in the mid-90s when one party decided to treat
> the other as the 'enemy' and embraced a scorched-earth brand of politics
> that considered compromise akin to treason, which got cranked to 11
> thanks to silo'd cable news and SM platforms in ensuing years.)  And
> that's all I will prognosticate about here politically -- other than to
> conclude by saying I'm worried not just about now, but that we will not
> be able to fix things and get "back on track for the future" anytime
> soon.  :/.
> 
> I do admit that despite being an old-school geek/hacker, in recent years
> I've wrestled with the warm-and-fuzzy nostalgic notion from the '90s
> that "information wants to be free". In some ways, it's been great for
> individuals and society -- in other ways, as Borat might say, "not so
> much."  Of course, that change in thinking also could be a function of
> midlife as well as current events.   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> But one of the world's dominant modern comms mediums transitioning into
> an unaccountable private entity run by a person .... however you view
> Musk .... definitely is concerning on *many* levels.[1]. By contrast, at
> least FB is a regulated public company and has the appearance of some
> 'objective' review of controversial things via its Oversight Board.
> 
> As for aca-Twitter?  As I said, I'm still in wait-and-see, but it
> wouldn't surprise me to see many tweeps both from academia and elsewhere
> posting their final tweets either due to protest or for professional
> reasons / protection by year-end or early next year, depending on what
> 'innovations' are introduced to the platform post-acquisition.
> 
> Stay tuned, I guess...
> 
> -- rick
> 
> [1] WaPo reported Friday that DOD/DOJ 'might' be investigating the
> Twitter deal and SpaceX-DOD contracts due to national security concerns
> with Musk's public views and his foreign investors.  Could be something
> there, could be a flash of desperation to block the sale ... but again,
> the question of accountability comes up.
> 
> 
> On 21 Oct 2022, at 7:43, Shulman, Stu via Air-L wrote:
> 
>> Will academic Twitter exist under Elon Musk? Will there be more or
>> less
>> data? More or less urgent issues to study? Will the "Fail Whale" show
>> up
>> again after 75% of the staff is gone? Who will do content moderation?
>> Is
>> this a FastTrack to the next violent uprising in the US?
>> 
>> I am curious what people on this particular list think is about to
>> happen.
>> After 12 years featuring the formal study of Twitter data I am
>> completely
>> burned out. Not on the challenges, nor the art and science of the
>> tasks. I
>> still love talking to students and faculty who have chosen Twitter as
>> the
>> object of their research. The data has never been more widely
>> available and
>> the positive uses of it can be inspiring.
>> 
>> It's the voluminous amounts of hate I see in my own research. Also the
>> systemic weaponization of Twitter against democratic systems of
>> government
>> globally. As an original Board Member and the Treasurer of a 501
>> (c)(6)
>> called "The Big Boulder Initiative" I was working as a liaison to
>> academia
>> with a group of industry people on the "long term preservation of the
>> social data industry." The industry survived, but the ideals aspired
>> to
>> have not. We offered this 2-minute Lawrence Lessig-inspired vision of
>> the
>> challenges about 7 years ago:
>> 
>> "Why Texifter Joined the Big Boulder Initiative"
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://vimeo.com/129423037__;!!IaT_gp1N!0Ghlkf1rWCTGT5MfqPFpLm-cdX_SBpmFHVzAbi7e_nr3KCSBblNWocRhIbpOHQGFDd5ZOBbVTyp2WHk_ow$
>> 
>> Lessig was right. On the Internet, architecture is the most powerful
>> regulator. The architecture of Twitter, with corporate ads featured on
>> insurrectionist and other problematic timelines, is now a persistent
>> threat
>> to democratic systems of government without a single day of Musk
>> governance. The insurrection January 6, 2021 was planned in the open
>> on
>> Twitter. There were advertisements from familiar brands in every
>> seditious
>> timeline. Evolving tactics using Twitter trains (tagging 30
>> like-minded
>> users), notification-rich replies, the ReTweet functionality,
>> gamification,
>> domestic and foreign meme warfare, the idolatry of influence via
>> misinformation, bots and trolls, as well as paid amplifiers of all
>> manner
>> and variety. The "digital soldiers" we found in the Canadian election
>> of
>> 2019 (fake Americans who hated Trudeau but liked RT, Russia Today and
>> Southfront) were openly planning a QAnon-inspired "storm" which
>> ultimately
>> was the first coup attempt in two centuries of American democracy. I
>> briefed the US/UK Intelligence Community (staff from the Joint Chiefs,
>> JSOC, etc.) February 12, 2020 via the Strategic Multilayer Assessment
>> using
>> open source information from Twitter. Things have since gotten much
>> worse,
>> not better, since that briefing. These were the slides in early
>> February
>> 2020:
>> 
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tinyurl.com/huntingbotsandtrolls__;!!IaT_gp1N!0Ghlkf1rWCTGT5MfqPFpLm-cdX_SBpmFHVzAbi7e_nr3KCSBblNWocRhIbpOHQGFDd5ZOBbVTyq6oRe2Xw$
>> 
>> Looking at the current threat-relevant data, I have a
>> sick-to-my-stomach
>> feeling about the next 60 days in U.S. history. We may be late to
>> notice
>> the end of small "d" democracy is imminent or inevitable because of
>> the
>> Internet effects we cannot fully see, capture, measure, or control.
>> 
>> --
>> Dr. Stuart W. Shulman
>> Founder and CEO, Texifter
>> Editor Emeritus, *Journal of Information Technology & Politics*
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