30 Comments
Aug 31·edited Aug 31Liked by Taylor Lorenz

Loved it but caveat emptor: it wasn't banned; it was suspended. It's yet to be seen if people won't scratch that old itch and flock back to X once Musk finds another legal representative.

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Yes good distinction!! I’ll make that more clear

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Aug 31Liked by Taylor Lorenz

Still many people will realize how unreliable Twitter is with Musk running it. I think people will continue to build their platforms on other sites and use Twitter less even they are now.

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That's the problem: people have been aware of that for a long time but Twitter culture in Brazil is not identical to Twitter culture in the US –– this article shows it really well. It blends Tumblr, TikTok vibes and most people are there for that, even if they are aware of bots, right-wing accounts etc.. People have migrated before: koo, Mastodon, BlueSky... only to fall back into X because of habit, numbers, or cattle behavior. Can it happen again? Possibly. Don't get me wrong: this is a big blow to Musk but I wouldn't discount X yet.

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But every time a wave hits Mastodon, some of them stick to it. And every time it happens, more people sticks to it.

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I doubt Mastodon could handle that influx and it’s not as well suited for them, but lord, a federated, people are the algorithm platform is the sure fire way to escape oligarchic enclosure. It is necessary for free exchange in that unbotshitted human messy way. Artists, professionals, creatives, labels etc have to ensure their own future this way. Otherwise all the time invested in an audience can disappear in a blink of any eye, thru bans, shadow bans or shutdown

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Mastodon can handle it if every group creates a new instance. It's not necessary to be all in only one instance.

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Sure, but a monolith server isn’t quite what I was thinking of. Especially with a federated model, a monolith is at cross purposes. I had been thinking a massive influx of people and the bumping around as a new crowd joins the party.

Still we get an intake of people from Brazil, which is excellent

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Aug 31·edited Sep 1Liked by Taylor Lorenz

I keep reminding everybody that not only are Barack and Beyonce' on Twitter, but so is the LADWP and the Cedar Rapids Road Paving dept. So, call your Alderman first about getting every city, state, and federal announcement off Twitter.

My point: have the various Brazilian government service departments begun setting up alternate accounts on Mastodon or whatever, or are they hunkering down, doing without Twitter (never a necessity) and waiting for the big boys to quit chest-butting and turn it back on?

My guess is the latter. If you see many Brazilian government departments setting up new accounts on other platforms, Brazil is not kidding. But they're almost certainly just kidding.

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The president and Supreme Court are already installed on BlueSky! Which has been 100% our collective choice for a substitute, given that Threads sucks and we don’t want our bosses and colleagues having access to what we post.

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And when BlueSky becomes the next X? I think it's better that governments use ActivityPub instances so they aren't at the mercy of someone outside the government.

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Brazilian Authorities are already moving their accounts to BlueSky. Journalist are doing the same.

I’m still missing some major business account (like Netflix), but Lollapalooza festival posted it’s lineup on Bluesky,

On the first 2 days, the only topic people were discussing around there was “Twitter”, but things are changing fast, and we are already feel like we are posting on Twitter

The fact we are in the middle of the municipalities elections and Rock in Rio Festival (next 2 weeks), might help the engagement on the platform

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As a Mastodon partisan, I sorrow over this “Bluesky” choice, but it’s hugely significant to me if an entire national government leaves Twitter. It’s the very first. Given that no other national government could defend staying on Twitter, except by saying “it’s the only thing that works” will no longer be able to defend.

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Hello. Most of us had already left Twitter a few months ago. X was censoring accounts that criticize Bolsonaro and extremists. And it released accounts with violent content. We are in BLUE SKY! And Elon can go cry in his bed, which is a warmer place.

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Great to hear! Call your city council, your state rep. Tell them you want all government departments to leave Twitter as fast as they can.

That's when the journalists will move. They track those accounts, of course, as they follow policies and new projects.

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I'm not going back to Twitter anymore. We abandoned it

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Aug 31Liked by Taylor Lorenz

Doesn’t Glen Greenwald live in Brazil?

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Yes lol

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He doesn't live here anymore! And that no He should never come back. Brazil does not deserve it.

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Maybe we as a country took a blow for the entire world huh. Keeping him from tweeting must be a big step towards world peace

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Aug 31Liked by Taylor Lorenz

Brilliant work. Brilliant.

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Aug 31Liked by Taylor Lorenz

Just found your newsletter. Love it!

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author

Thank you!!

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Hello! I'm Brazilian and I read your text about our departure from X. I would like you to know that we had already abandoned X because we were suffering censors hip on accounts that criticize and they denounced Bolsonaro e seus extremistas. Musk has released accounts with content exposing children, harassment,...We are at BLUE SKY. We are waiting for you. Thank you.

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This sounds like maybe a good thing, since Stan culture is a weird maladaptive way to introduce meaning into an ennui-laden, meaningless life without actually doing anything to improve yourself or your community...

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The way that this reminded me that the National Museum of Brazil burned down only just 6 years ago and now a modern form of Brazilian history faces the same erasure

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Now I see why I hate Xitter so much. It’s too musty and musky

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damn, man, that article of your put me through a fuckin' media-social-political shit u know? basicly the soft power of brazil it is to be chronicly online. this is crazy.

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Brasileiros foram para o Bluesky. 😉😍👊🏽

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This can only be a positive

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