Comment by helaoban
9 hours ago
>Our presence on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok is not an endorsement [...] We stay because the people on those platforms deserve access to information, too. We stay because some of our most-read posts are the ones criticizing the very platform we're posting on. We stay because the fewer steps between you and the resources you need to protect yourself, the better.
Does this not apply to X users?
The story behind the numbers they present clearly demonstrates that X is censoring/shadowbanning them. Going from 600MM to 13MM impressions/yr -- losing 98% of their impressions! -- is no accident but clearly Musk's thumb on the scale.
Imagine what this means if you are trying to gauge impact of a post. Remember, X is giving them zero information about who they're preventing from seeing it. Impressions is the main datapoint so if you can't figure out why you've lost 98% of your impact, how on earth are you going to evaluate it vs other platforms?
And yes, each platform has a cost. There's a LOT more to social strategy than just "copy and paste this announce to every platform".
> clearly demonstrates that X
No it doesn’t.
> X is giving them zero information about
So it can’t be clearly demonstrated.
Leaving out key parts of a quote is a disingenuous way to attempt to make a counter-argument, especially when the full quote clearly contradicts your second sentence.
It's not necessarily shadowbanning (although it could well be), given that it's been turned into a cesspit where huge numbers of users left and the ones still there are probably not the demographic that would engage with the EFF, it could just be a natural consequence of Musk's wrecking it.
Same result, either way.
I mean if you look at their Twitter feed, it is just “copy and paste this announce to every platform".
Having run a big account, I can see they’re making a lot of mistakes.
TBH their Twitter is really, really bad. I don’t think Elon Musk personally has to put his finger on any scale. I thought EFF would be his thing too, no?
They still get more engagement on X than on Bluesky.
Also, cross positing the same content on multiple platforms isn’t time consuming.
This is clearly EFF violating their stated commitment to political neutrality, and providing only a superficial and easily discredited rationale for cover.
Do we have to be politically neutral to the abhorrent?
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Just above that they explain the tradeoffs leading them to leave twitter.
Basically, they can't reach X users on X.
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Well, I'm not discouraged at least. The entire article probably shouldn't even be on HN so whatever
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It's funny that the (seemingly) right leaning people in this thread are criticizing the EFF for leaving Twitter while also simultaneously saying they will leave HN for the exact same reason, just "on the opposite side of the political spectrum".
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> This seems like a valid critique of the content of the article
No it was not.
The EFF clearly stated the main reason the left X/Twitter is that it no longer works for them as a way to reach out. To anybody.
Nothing to do with the politics of those they were reaching.
You clearly didn't read the article closely enough. The first header is "The Numbers Aren’t Working Out." If it was about the audience, they would have switched stopped earlier.
Those numbers are the real news here - that's a brutal drop in traffic. Are other organisations seeing the same?
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The problem they're not talking about is that for all the X users they could potentially help, their messages will be actively suppressed by the platform owner.
Nate Silver, famously popular (...lol) with the online left, made a post about this recently: https://www.natesilver.net/p/social-media-has-become-a-freak...
EFF is, politically, left wing.
EFF used to stand for a cause that was neither left nor right.
Perhaps they still do, particularly because that’s exactly what they stand for. The overall shift in perspective and narrative to the right makes them appear left.
If the narrative of a platform is intentionally divisive and making them appear left, leaving is the only way to both be center and present as center.
A warped perspective is hard to spot if you’ve been staring at it too long.
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EFF still does.
MAGA is the one who decided ideas like freedom of expression, an expectation of privacy, and holding governments accountable were woke liberal concepts.
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> EFF is, politically, left wing.
EFF is more like classical liberal. They generally oppose regulation of speech/tech and oppressive laws like DMCA 1201 (anti-circumvention) but promote things in the nature of antitrust like right-to-repair. Everything is required to be crammed into a box now so that often gets called "left" because the tech companies (also called "left") have found it more effective to pay off the incumbents in GOP-controlled states when they don't like right-to-repair laws, although Hollywood ("left" again) are traditionally the ones pressuring Democrats to sustain the horrible anti-circumvention rule when they're in power.
It turns out trying to fit everything into one of two boxes is pretty unscientific.
> Nate Silver, [...] made a post about this recently
Yeah and he put together an insane chart + data that's not tethered to reality.
What makes it not tethered to reality? Do you have a different chart?
It's quite tethered to reality.
No it doesn't. Anyone sticking with X at this point is ideologically compromised. There's no reason even trying to reach them. They are hopeless.