Amidst the chaos of Twitter, many users struggle to find a platform that can replace the Blue Bird. Meanwhile, the release of the so-called Twitter killer, Threads by Meta, has captured the world’s eye. However, it is unlikely that Threads will ever be able to replace Twitter.
While Twitter serves as a platform for breaking news and world events, Threads seems not to be so interested in making its platform available for this purpose. When The Verge’s Alex Health popped a question to Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri, he replied that Meta’s goal is not to replace Twitter but rather create “a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter.”
Mosseri further explained that politics and hard news are important, and the platform does not want to imply otherwise. He added, “But my take is, from a platform’s perspective, any incremental engagement or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them. There are more than enough amazing communities—sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment, etc—to make a vibrant platform without needing to get into politics or hard news.”
According to a report by Tech Crunch, Mosseri’s perspective on this is odd and somewhat concerning. For starters, it is reminiscent of some of the bland ways that Facebook has marketed itself over the years: basically a big, welcoming, neutral place where people might “connect” — Mark Zuckerberg’s go-to pitch. His company ritualistically encouraged certain types of information and behaviour, going against its declared impartiality, which drove Facebook users further into ideological echo chambers and stoked the extremism and polarisation that currently afflicts world politics.
Instagram, and now Threads, are purposefully made to mix regular users with companies, promoting business activity everywhere they go. As expressed by Tech Crunch, public squares are not merely for business and trade, despite the lofty idea of a virtual public square or town hall being frequently invoked by social media executives to further the agenda of the day. They have historically served as the centre of culture and a forum for political debate, which is an inevitable byproduct of living in a society.
Also Read: Meta Threads sign-up comes with big catch; deleting account will terminate your Instagram
Twitter, historically, has been the centre of many cultural phenomena. From Me Too to the Arab Spring, the platform has not only been a platform to post random things but has actually impacted and changed the discourse of many cultural and world events. It has been the hub for breaking news and a platform that gave rise to a different vertical of journalism. At the moment, we have a lot of Twitters, but none of them can be the “Twitter.”
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