Seems aligned with the core values of this community that we should join the currently discussed movement to ban links to Twitter/X, including screenshots, on c/Antiwork
That platform’s owner (through purchase) essentially started the more recent wave of unprecedented layoffs in tech giving cover to others that quickly followed along blaming interest rates, but likely just seeing that investors were excited about it and using the cover. He failed to pay promised severance packages to former employees, publicly attacked them, provides notoriously poor and measurably dangerous work environments and is just generally hostile to labor. More than most communities, feels we have a strong mandate to have some clarity in our rejection of these actions, and this small movement has built around sending this message.
While there has been much discussion in recent days about the platform and actions of the person that bought and is in the process of fundamentally changing it (not to say it was perfect prior, but objectively declining since purchase), the platform has been a general point of contention online for a long time and for many reasons. Misinformation and hate speech are more prevalent than ever on that platform.
If no objections to discuss, we would establish the policy with a new community rule in the sidebar and of course, we can always evaluate positions like this in the future, should any meaningful change(s) occur.
Some are also banning the use of links/screens of Meta owned properties as well, something we can consider and discuss here. I’ll leave this thread pinned for about a week. Please share your thoughts if you have them and then a decision, and potential changes, will be made.
I’ve been boycotting X.com since musk purchased it. When he did, it stopped being Twitter anyway, even before the official name change. Infact it was good he changed the name, as now there is a clear marker that it’s not the same thing it was. The way he treated his employees at Tesla was enough to tell me that musk does not care about workers, or contracts, or even morality in general. So when he showed his true colors by buying the US presidency and performing a Nazi salute I was not surprised.
I also boycott all meta products, truth social and all things related to trump and various news outlets, resellers, manufactures, food producers, countries, and non open source projects.
That being said, I think the idea of forcing a ban on links to a domain at the community or instance level is wrong. I don’t want to give any of these companies web traffic but the user should have the final say in what they boycott and what they view is a reputable source. At the most, the community or instance should tag links from domains with some sort of flair to indicate caution of some kind. And implement bots to help provide alternative sources.
Users should be able to block domains, users are free to down vote things that disagree with them, and bots could be used to provide alternative links to archived postings just as they can do to YouTube videos.
The biggest issue is that now X.com and truth social will be the only or at least the breaking source for some more important world news. And if trump declares martial law, declares himself emperor, decides to send all the “woke” people to concentration camps, or any other crazy thing that might make me decide to finally pack up and flee the country, I need to see that at the source, even if it’s just a screenshot with an archived link before I uproot my family to avoid being stuck in a 1930s Germany situation.
For the community itself, we need to view things at the source too if a decision that one of these companies make is announced on a boycotted domain or product so that the workers of those companies can understand the harm that is happening to them. Again this could reduce web traffic with screenshots and archive links.
Tldr: Users should boycott what they feel they should when they are able to. However information should not be boycotted, especially not arbitrary. Users need to know when something important effects them, or will harm them directly and might need to verify the source themselves. Blocks should not happen at the instance or community level, but at the user level. Links to questionable sources should be down voted, flaired, and replied to with screenshots and archival links. However the user should have the final say in what they click.