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

Mon Oct 24 10:43:31 PDT 2022

Count me in on this, Aram. (no surprise there, I imagine!)

As far as I'm concerned, there is academic microblogging beyond the Musk 
site -- it's on the fediverse. I'll be talking about it a bit in my 
presentation at AOIR.

- Rob

On 10/24/22 13:21, Aram Sinnreich via Air-L wrote:
> 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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