Austrian Airlines has announced its decision to leave Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter), citing issues with “the increasing spread of hate, agitation, and disinformation.” This content, according to the airline, clashes with its values and commitment to responsible communication.
Good. The other day there was a wildfire near me and I literally couldn’t read statements from the fire crew without making either a Twitter or Facebook account. Every news station, community org, and even the national park service uses one or the other. This is despite the fact they have websites, which apparently only host long term data. Fucking sucks.
I’m fucking pissed that the national broadcaster in Canada is still using Meta’s platforms even though Meta is blocking all Canadian news from the same platforms, boycott should go both ways.
Meta is blocking Canadian news because the law now requires them to pay the news outlets to display those news articles. It’s not a boycott so much as Meta being cheap. That’s one case where I think it would be easier for Meta if the news orgs left; them staying on the platforms keeps a little more pressure on saying Meta should pay because the demand is there.
Them staying on the platform brings ads revenue to Meta.
I raised concerns about this waaaaay back when companies and the government stopped using their own websites, and instead started posting everything to Twitter. Unfortunately for everyone, I don’t make decisions, I just see problems before they happen.
This is the inevitable result of all corporate executives understanding sweet FA about technology, being owned by monopolies, or being too cowed to make bold moves now that a viable, open source, platform exists.