A farewell to Tweets ?

Over the last few months what is becoming grouped as Silicon Valley Big Tech has been spending a lot of political capital, whether they know it or not.

They have moved from being a platform for information, though being one that also policed for its legal obligations, though to one that picks sides.

And they all picked the same side in the recent US elections.

Before the elections we the suppression of news disadvantageous to the Biden campaign, including news that had been published by one of the oldest running news paper in the United States that was actively suppressed by various technical platforms.

The wider media saved the announcement of a successful vaccine until after polls closed.

And then, perhaps sensing the quarry was fatally injured, they put their hands on the scales more openly. Trump tweets had banners under them, and the rest of the media followed through. ( The 4th estate just refused to investigate the accusations, and various election officials moved quickly to destroy evidence ).

Recently with the Capitol trespass they have doubled down ( if you look at the video of the police just letting these guys through you have to question what really went on – but don’t do it on Facebook or Twitter ). Accounts ahve been suspended ( or close in the case of the US President ).

Of course many Trump supporters therefore left Twitter and went to Gab or Parler.

Now Gab, to give them credit, saw this coming and built their own infrastructure, but Parler relied on Amazon. Amazon have said they will switch Parler off at midnight tonight ( US time ). Apple ( and Google ? ) seem to be threatening to ban their app ( again Gab bypassed these guys with a web only system some time ago ).

So just at the time that a very sizeable number of people are switching ( remember Friends reunited, Blackberry messenger etc ? No – their users moved ) Twitter main competitor is taken out for weeks.

There will be consequences.

My guess:

1) The bifurcation of platforms. Twitter on the left/new world order. others like Parler & Gab on the right. The establishment will try to ignore all but its pet platforms.

2) Legislation, taxation, regulation. Silicon Valley has broken cover for the radical left. The right is going to stop the assumption of benevolence that normal goes to private sector organisations.

3) Political organisations will only trust platforms that support their objectives. Twitter, Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple belong to the left. There 50% of the world to play for now.

And finally do I need to cancel my twitter account ?

One of the things I do value about it is the people I’m in contact with who take different views. My guess is they won’t be coming across the Red Sea with me. I’ll miss them, but this is starting to look like war.