Want to quit X? Here's your guide to the alternatives

[Cattledog]

In the wake of the 2024 presidential election, many people are reconsidering how they follow the news. A lot of this has to do with X, which was once a lively platform to follow and comment on current events. Elon Musk bought the site formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and has transformed the site into a megaphone for right-wing misinformation. With Musk formally joining the Trump administration, the site will become little more than a vehicle for government propaganda.

The number of people who use X has dropped precipitously since Musk took over, losing one-fifth of its daily active users over the last year.

The users "that have stayed on X now largely see posts that skew toward the political bent of Musk himself," the Washington Post reported last month. X also "has secretly throttled traffic to the New York Times and other sites Musk has vilified," including sites hosted by Substack like Popular Information. Meanwhile, Musk directed engineers to increase the distribution of his own tweets. The resulting change in the algorithm "artificially boosted Musk’s tweets by a factor of 1,000." A recent experiment by Fortune found that all X users are bombarded with Musk's political musings, whether or not they follow any other accounts related to politics.

It is becoming increasingly clear that X is no longer an effective place to distribute or discover reliable news and information. Here is your guide to the alternatives.

https://popular.info/p/want-to-quit-x-heres-your-guide-to

[Moostache]

1. "It is becoming increasingly clear that X is no longer an effective place..." WTF?!?!?

"Becoming increasingly clear"????

WHEN THE FUCK WAS IT EVER an effective place? Honestly?

Twitter was a disaster of nonsense since its inception. It was ALWAYS a sewer.

[usonian]

2. skuM's Section 230 "protection" is a hoax.

It was found that TikTok's algorithm, and we are talking algorithms here, expressed an editorial opinion, which violates the "pass through" stipulation of Section 230 of the CDA.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/08/court-section-230-doesnt-shield-tiktok-from-blackout-challenge-death-suit/

The judge cited a recent Supreme Court ruling that "held that a platform’s algorithm that reflects 'editorial judgments' about compiling the third-party speech it wants in the way it wants' is the platform’s own 'expressive product' and is therefore protected by the First Amendment," Shwartz wrote.

Because TikTok's For You Page (FYP) algorithm decides which third-party speech to include or exclude and organizes content, TikTok's algorithm counts as TikTok's own "expressive activity." That "expressive activity" is not protected by Section 230, which only shields platforms from liability for third-party speech, not platforms' own speech, Shwartz wrote.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Thank you for posting this

[gab13by13]

4. If I was on Twitter (X)

I would switch to Bluesky. I heard a lot of good things about it.

[Linda ladeewolf]

5. Not on twitter

But opened a Bluesky account this morning.