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Jack: Twitter had such potential for real people to connect, share, learn, and debate. But you’ve allowed reality to be skewed so much that genuine communication is nearly impossible. You’ve disincentivized honest intellectual inquiry and incentivized psychological manipulation.
You talk about elevating the discussion; but logic dictates that elevated discussion cannot happen when the majority of participants are fake: bots, cyborgs, and trolls whose sole intent is to manipulate through disinformation and extreme emotion.
Your Real Users
You have no idea how lucky you are, Jack.
Though a minority, you have some well-intended, intelligent, determined users on your platform—the kind who try to elevate the conversation even though your platform punishes them for their efforts by giving near carte blanche to fake accounts which proceed to attack, vilify, and threaten them.
Your real users are the kind who spend 40+ hours a week—free of charge—reporting child porn, harassment, violence, threats, and fake accounts that exist on your platform.
They are the kind of users who do good work and are just trying to reach new, interested audiences. They are moms and dads, the young and the elderly, introverts and extroverts. They are generations of humanity, from all walks of life, yearning to communicate.
You’ve duped all of them, Jack. You’ve left them exposed to the rampant psychological manipulation that you’ve let run roughshod on your platform.
What would happen if you came clean, Jack? What if you deleted dormant accounts that haven’t been accessed for over a year? What if you wiped out the leftist bot vein, the alt-right bot vein, and the main artery—Russian bots?
What would happen?
Yes, your numbers would take a massive blow. Shareholders wouldn’t be pleased, I’m sure. Your pocketbook would certainly take a hit. Does that suck? Of course it does. Personal accountability is rarely fun, but it is the cornerstone of integrity—and, thus, necessary for anyone with a moral compass.
Which brings me to the flip-side. What else would happen if you undertook the systemic cleaning this platform desperately needs? You would limit the abuse of your platform and innately create a safer platform for your real users. Nothing in the world would elevate the discussion as quickly or as thoroughly as this.
Own your sh*t, Jack. Find your integrity. Stop allowing your platform to be used as a weapon against innocent people.
“Mankind are not held together by lies. Trust is the foundation of society.” — Frederick Douglass
Written by Virginia Murr
Read More Commentary about Twitter:
The Mystery of Twitter’s Free Pass
From Russia with Love: 20 Million Russian Twitter Bots Exposed
From Russia with Love, Part II: Another 20 Million Russian Twitter Bots Exposed
Fake Social Media Accounts, Real World Impact
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