The right wing has a disproportionate representation on our UK media channels, enabled by the inability of interviewers to question their lies or be impartial. It doesn’t all come from the Xesspit.
Also, if you continue to spend a little time here, you'll notice people who cross post reporting how little engagement they have over there now compared to here, despite having a far larger following over there.
Would be great if some of the journalists challenged that. They’re partly responsible for Trump & Musk having credibility. No one fact checks Trump. They just broadcast his message to a wider audience through trusted sources. It’s the money laundering of facts.
I cant understand why journalists didn't leave en masse months or years ago. M*sk has not hidden his bias. He isn't the impartial arbiter of a benevolent SM platform.
Please post more here. Better still delete your X account and ask all your Sky colleagues and fellow journalists to do the same.
Not just X. The whole media ecosystem is dominated by the Right. Every Paper Review on Sky and the BBC pushes their content out and then lets them set the agenda for the following day.
And then there's GB News, TalkTV and LBC...
X is just one more channel to inject poison into our politics.
If we don't engage, it dies.
It's forced to mutate, spread its tentacles, which is will do thru "lifestyle influencers" etc.
They will cross market platform in the end.
You'll be politically influenced by some person telling you about a product they bought.
That's likely why he bought Twitter to begin with.
He could never be president which is what someone with that amount of money and sized ego would ultimately want, so the next best thing to him is to buy the platform favored by DC insiders and the media and try to exert political influence that way.
Renewable Energy Magazine still has its X account open. I gently hinted to its owners - by emailing some news about Elon Musk to them, without directly mentioning X - that closing it would be a good idea, but I didn't get a response. Unfortunately, I still have to use that account, closed my own tho
For journalists, there’s hard costs as the OSINT world operates in Telegram and Discord (private groups and time consuming to monitor)…the surface chatter of that world where facts bubble is still exclusively on X.
It’s still time to leave
Excellent work. We need a tipping point of reasonable minded people to move from the far right conspiracy app and come here. That said we need to encourage a broad range of political views. I wouldn't want this place to become an echo chamber.
Of course, but let's encourage intelligent political debate - i.e. supported by explanation and evidence, otherwise we're just going to duplicate the anarchy of Twitter/X with troublemakers just spouting unsubstantiated BS.
Absolutely Robin - I'll drink to that. I think Twitter's problems were greatly exacerbated by the decision to monetise engagement by blue tick holders. This led to ever more extreme views as the blue ticks turned to engagement farming. I'm glad to be away from that.
The first step is definitely to have respected journalists migrate here. Hopefully then politicians from Lab, Con, Lib, Scottish & Welsh nats will follow. Then we can hear a broad range of views (while hopefully maintaining at least a degree of friendliness and manners).
Sure, that's great. Freedom of expression is crucial. Block is effective here. Likewise I'd expect you to promote the free speech of minorities to call out bigotry and fascism.
My point was more that we should welcome supporters of, for example, Lab, Con, Lib, Scottish & Welsh nats alike on here. I share your contempt for the extremists.
The thing that blows my mind about coffee is its many traditions, similar to tea in that respect. How the world functioned before the promulgation of both is a wonder
How do we know who you are "Alpine Migrant"? Not a real name is it? People are right to be a little suspicious of course. You can always block if it becomes so obvious to you
Bluesky's authentication approach - use your domain name - is both insanely powerful AND requires a tiny bit of tech legwork. People couldn't cope with choosing a server on Mastodon so I worry about that here. Perhaps @bsky.app could come up with a middle ground. I'm sure they're thinking about it.
You can identify using your domain. You can see we are the real walkhighlands from our handle, Sophy could similarly be identified as being the one from Sky TV if Sky IT people get round to seeing that up. It’s easy and works well.
I’ve had loads of follows which I doubt are real people ( and also lots of pretty girls in thrusting poses ) , and usually two or three dogs/cats/nice beach scene boost posts on their bio. That doesn’t get a follow back. Unless I see real conversation on a bio, I just leave it. If “crypto “, BLOCK.
I worry about the Gaza followers - asking for money .. it’s ripe for scumbags to use this crisis to masquerade, so I don’t engage with that I’m sorry to say.
Rene Descartes had a similar dilemma. He couldn’t decide if he was living a life or a dream. Eventually he solved it with his famous solution, “I think therefore I am”. Of course X doesn’t comply with historical philosophical thinking so where we go from here is anyone’s guess.
Bluesky doesn't have an authentication issue, just use your own website as your handle. It's a far better way to show you are who you say you are than anything Twitter did.
Sophy you are it, you sit there and talked about crap like Keir and Taylor Swift, you highlight extremists and allow them their say, you never challenged Farage properly, I believe you are good at heart but you saw what Beth said to Reeves, you know that was wrong ...
Hit Elon where it hurts! In real user base. The users who produced quality content, not fallacies, not shit posting.
It need a collective effort, I agree.
But come on... Elon will lose $44 billions! We have to do something for that huge achievement!
Focus on target! Imagine Twitter sold for 10 mil.
Speak to your management. Open official accounts here.
Spread your voice without being afraid of being demoted by Elon's algorithms.
We will follow you! Me and every one who looks for quality content.
Collective effort!
Next time when a mogul will plan to buy a social network he will think twice.
Twitter always has from near enough the start. That's over 15 years. Journalists have some unlearning to do if they are to do better.
Twitter is where power is: politicians, govt, institutions. And it's where we all were.
Even if it worked for a while, it's broken now.
Glad you're here! Followed. 😊
100% agreed. Whats really jarring is when an official statement from a notable person is shown on screen and it was "posted on X/Twitter", as if the statement only existed there. It would be great to see that change: by quoting these statements but attributing them to BlueSky and/or Threads. 👍
I sure agree with that! I spent ten years over there and am now part of the great 2024 Xodus. Couldn’t be happier. But then I was trained in critical thinking. Apparently a great many Americans never have been. Must be time to dismantle the Department of Education. Wait, what?
It does which is why I've uninstalled the app but kept my account active to keep my domain. Sky and other media outlets are very guilty of getting their stories from Twitter (I refuse to call it X).
In the UK specifically I would argue the Daily Mail has a disproportionate influence over the stories the media covers and our political debate. And the daily mail has a clear agenda that does not represent all of the UK. Just some loud often wealthy voices.
That’s so true .. it’s not easy tho to leave Twitter, especially if you have a large and regular audience interacting with you - for professional users , businesses, it’s tougher. But to be honest , it’s broken now - you may have 10,000 followers but unless you fit their algorithm, there’s no reach.
And isn’t that part of the problem Sophy? The more you amplify those extremes the worse our media becomes. You all just need to make that leap. The longer journo’s remain the more you are validating what’s happening there.
So ask yourself why that might be and are you prepared to do anything about it? BBC News has clearly decided to let Twitter drive it’s agenda reinforcing that through Newspaper review where that is also simply sourcing content for Twitter or following it.
I wrongly thought that the Murdoch empire was still owned by Sky.🙄 However, news organisations can be as guilty as any for selective agenda setting and one sided reporting which was kind of my point.
X is no longer safe for people and should be branded as such. The sex pests was ok because U could block them. Now I've got private, 24 hrs later and very 50 sex bots requesting to follow. Women have a tough enough time without this. Elon is a deviant
Part of that is, imo, due to awful standards by some journalists when deciding which stories to cover/not cover. Small example: Telegraph AND Times both headlined Musk 'opinion' on Labour's IHT changes. Source? EM's reposting [& comment] of a far right Dutch conspiracy theorist's tweet about it 1/2
2/2 ... as an example of "global elite's control" & part of the Great Replacement Theory! Where's "rigorous examination of facts & evidence" in that? Farage & Tice use press to spread misinformation e.g. farmer's suicide "over IHT changes": occured before Budget; msinformation spread by RW press.
It’s like early Twitter here. We just need to reach that tipping point of usage for it to become the norm instead of Twitter. (I refuse to use its other name as I’m not a 13-year-old boy trying to impress the bullies.)
This argument is nonsense. X only has this meaning because the journalists don't dare to go. And that has to do with engaging in the kind of journalism that X needs. Sorry not sorry.
I completely agree. In my opinion it also has a disproportionate influence over people’s mental health. Twitter pile-ons have become normalised, the ‘debate’ over there is toxic. Whilst I do share concerns about echo chambers, it genuinely feels like an unhealthy place now.
Plus, the new business model actively encourages people to post outrageous things simply to gain clicks and cash. It’s built to spread false information as fast as possible. No good will ever come of that (see November 5th for reference).
The idea that people let social media affect their mental health that way is crazy to me. That in itself is a symptom of poor mental health and self-esteem.
So really it’s exacerbating problems for already-vulnerable, lonely people.
Someone (I don’t remember who) once said that Twitter became the de facto assignment editor for a lot of journalists. It was a sad state of affairs before Musk, and a dangerous one now.
Then the mainstream media needs to have the courage to change that. Ditto public bodies, organisations, companies. It's far beyond time for those with influence and power to make a stand.
Also, after all the stuff about dodgy goings with Zuckerberg over the years, Musk and X have allowed Facebook to go completely under the radar. Not heard it mentioned once this election cycle
It may be higher volume, or more intense, but the principle is the same as the way the print media still manages to shape broadcast agendas - front pages and paper reviews have a disproportionate influence.
Any election related search/hashtag showed 90 percent posts about like button changes or crypto giveaways, nearly identical text, loosely framed around the election. All had a payload of 4 pro trump images. No news site or respected commentators posts shown. Nothing. X now done as a news site.
Just leave. Cold turkey. Whatever it takes. It's Heroin. Delete it. There are other, better homes. Here, Threads, or just let's not be permanently switched on.
But *only* because we continue to let it. This must stop. If everyone came here now, the problem would be solved. Plus there is a very real chance X will become unusable anyway.
Yes. Well. Journalists play a rather important rôle in that and COULD play an important and powerful rôle in building those debates and storylines in better, more decent places.
Well said @fascinatorfun.bsky.social. Journalists have a lot to answer for and are surprisingly influential. It takes time to decide who we should listen to
For many journalists here in Ireland, twttr forms much of their entire view of the world and of this society. It's disturbing, and is tangibly affecting public perceptions of reality.
If you recognise this and don't necessarily think it's healthy, what would you like to see media organisations do about it? Not a personal criticism, but as someone who's not a journalist it seems to me X provides easy, ready made controversy and stories for journalists, and that's not good?
It's funny, because that's what the X owner accuses "legacy" media of, yet his platform is the worst for it. We get his editorials in the For You feed with every refresh of the timeline.
Too few people have left and many people I want to read still primarily remain there. So at the moment I'm unwilling to go. Making my account private, so I can vet followers, has largely got rid of homophobia, harassment etc, but it also means I can't circulate my own work as widely as I once.did
And as more migrate over to BlueSky, the less objective those stories will potentially become. I think there's enough critical mass of Interesting People for BlueSky to be viable (at least for more measured reactions). But in times of crisis, X still wins. And it's just *so tiring* being there.
Journalists should advocate that X doesn't count as a "source" and is not news. It should be general practice among any that intend even the slightest integrity. It's full-fledged disinformation.
I would say X is worse now for crisis moments. There is so little control over the feed. The following tab is algorithmic, showing tweets completely out of chronological order. The For You tab is just far right junk and attention farming.
I used to rely on it for breaking news. I can’t anymore.
Unfortunately, many who do use it for just that, aren't discerning enough to sort out junk & dross from facts/reality. Musk, Trump, Farage use that to their advantage.
Comments
These sorts of things need time.
and sneezy
Did it have black mold attached to it by chance?
🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🫨
Please post more here. Better still delete your X account and ask all your Sky colleagues and fellow journalists to do the same.
And then there's GB News, TalkTV and LBC...
X is just one more channel to inject poison into our politics.
It's forced to mutate, spread its tentacles, which is will do thru "lifestyle influencers" etc.
They will cross market platform in the end.
You'll be politically influenced by some person telling you about a product they bought.
He could never be president which is what someone with that amount of money and sized ego would ultimately want, so the next best thing to him is to buy the platform favored by DC insiders and the media and try to exert political influence that way.
It’s still time to leave
BlueSky has an authentication issue - it's not at the scale of Twitter' self-inflicted Blue Tick absurdity but you can see the seeds of it.
It's not hard, but it does work a lot better if you put the correct code in, speaking from experience.
This is way beyond the verification / authentication offered on other platforms.
It's easy to set up too for anyone with access to DNS settings.
https://bsky.social/about/blog/press-faq
It need a collective effort, I agree.
But come on... Elon will lose $44 billions! We have to do something for that huge achievement!
Focus on target! Imagine Twitter sold for 10 mil.
Spread your voice without being afraid of being demoted by Elon's algorithms.
We will follow you! Me and every one who looks for quality content.
Collective effort!
Next time when a mogul will plan to buy a social network he will think twice.
Twitter is where power is: politicians, govt, institutions. And it's where we all were.
Even if it worked for a while, it's broken now.
Glad you're here! Followed. 😊
People and (mostly) bots on xtwitter calling the shots, on issues that really should be non-issues?
First ask who structured Xitter to amplify them !
The bots were there long before he was, but he definitely amplified them.
Apols if seemed to be sharp - it's not personal!
"Let's all aim for more thoughtful, decent tomorrow "- message to self!
And that’s a really good message to the entire world, I think 🥰
Will only be the media left talking to bots on twitter.
So really it’s exacerbating problems for already-vulnerable, lonely people.
every evening on SkyNews: SkyNews Press Preview
"A preview of the stories appearing in tomorrow's national newspapers"
where is the equivalent programme covering social media/independent media outlets??
the media covers what the medias owners tell it to cover.
X is not a monopoly.
https://www.status.news/p/news-media-tech-donald-trump-guardrails
A huge number of private individuals have already voted with their feet.
Quit the platform and refuse to use it
It's sort of a similar thing, but in reverse.
I got two of these in two months.
Choices, choices.
“Choose what you water with care, as that which you water will flourish. That which you starve will die”.
That's why I've deactivated my account there and never going back!
I used to rely on it for breaking news. I can’t anymore.