Why does anyone use X formerly twitter? It is a poisonous cesspool of unregulated misinformation. This is amply demonstrated by the ludicrous and inflammatory tweet by the owner of X saying Keir Starmer was considering sending far-right rioters to “emergency detainment camps” in the Falklands. It received nearly 2 million views before being told by the Daily Telegraph it was fake news. The day before he claimed in response to the anti-immigration protests in England and Northern Ireland that “civil war is inevitable”. This man may be an interesting businessman but he knows nothing about British politics. And guess who has the most followers on X – the owner! Surely something wrong here…

But what staggers me is why our trusted commentators, the government and the BBC for example, continue to use and hence promote this broken platform. This is a classic addiction scenario – I know it does harm but I can’t help using. I suggest a detox and course of rehab. So get a grip and follow your own recommendations.

X is now trying to suing advertisers who have withdrawn from the platform. I was not aware that advertising is mandatory. X is no longer the nice global town square, but currently global riot central. Back in 2020 it was estimated that approximately 48 million accounts (15% of all accounts) were not genuine people, says Wikipedia. It seems ridiculous to me that anyone would sponsor this unregulated farrago. In fact I would regard any advertiser on X as suspect, so boycott now, please!

To put this in perspective I was amazed when twitter became so popular with our members of parliament. They had no control over this foreign medium, were surrendering copyright and participating in a shouting match. Of course it was fast, easy and universal, but numbers do not excuse their behaviour. MP’s may comment about the riots on X, but they do not seem to care or even realise they have been fomented by posts on X itself. When you use the platform, you are promoting the platform. Finally an NHS Trust has seen the light stating the platform is “no longer consistent with our Trust values”. Our government should do the same.

You only need to look at any blog to see how random the replies are. Maybe 5-10% are of any interest, at least 50% are exercising their copy and paste hobby horse, while probably 25% have not even read the article! Here I am referring here to the Guardian Comments which are highly moderated, others are even worse. Most YouTube comments are just bigging up and content free, while we all know how Amazon reviews can be bought. Comments are a world of fluff.

In 2006 my website, z360.com, was cool site of the day on Fark and received over 4 million hits. They ran a comments column which was either very nice or moronic, mostly concerning a single dog occurring in my panorama. At that moment I realised internet numbers and followers are entirely worthless and meaningless. Yes cat videos are still No.1 on YouTube, but so what and who cares?

You do not need an online safety act, just stop participating in harmful forums, you hypocrites. Stop giving them legitimacy. Despise the meaningless numbers. Just leave.

X

Update 12/08/24
MPs beginning to see the light:
Josh Simons, the Labour MP for Makerfield, said “What matters about Musk is not only what he said, but how he changed X’s algorithms. He’s turned X into a megaphone for foreign adversaries and far-right fringe groups seeking to corrupt our public sphere. Nobody should have that power.”

Update 13/11/24
Media organisations finally beginning to see the light:
The Guardian newspaper will no longer post on Elon Musk’s X from its official accounts.