Ram Mandir, Ayodhya : Hindutva, Modi and Twitter(X🤭)
If your yardstick to understand & measure the current political scene in India is X. Please change that stick. Its a common knowledge among us regular Indians that opinions of paid trolls on X does not count for the dreary picture painted for us by the outside world. All political parties have invested in troll farms where people are paid to post online abuse and threats to anyone who isn't supporting the XYZ political party or individual (1)
Ram Mandir, Ayodhya : Hindutva, Modi and Twitter(X🤭)
I know because of my first hand experience of getting rape threats 24x7 on Twitter in 2016. With 20k+ followers, I was the so-called political influencer who wrote on political issues and the need for reform. In return, Twitter blocked my page due to pressure from political parties. Truly I was happy to leave after 2 years of fighting online bullying. I'm back on SM after a hiatus of 5 years. Things aren't what the mainstream media is selling.
Ram Mandir, Ayodhya : Hindutva, Modi and Twitter(X🤭)
@altlife I remember the heady days when it was still possible to pretend that social media could be a net force for good.
Maybe it can again, one day, but not as long as commercial platforms predominate.
@juergen_hubert It's not all bad either. I do see a lot of people specially the younger generation putting their tech knowledge and influence to good use, raising funds for causes they believe in or during natural calamities or in general the spirit of service to Humanity is still there. If directed rightly, the potential to do good things is also limitless. It's a pity X couldn't do that. You do need to believe in right principles to take principled stances. That's where Capitalism is lacking.
@altlife And the problem is that the commercial platform are rigging their algorithms in favor of both the owner's political pet causes and of "engangement" - which usually means keeping their users at each others' throats, and permanently upset.
I think the noncommercial approach of the #Fediverse could at least help a bit with that. However, it has frustrated me to see that it's still predominantly used in Europe, North America, and Japan, and little elsewhere.
I am curious - do you have any ideas on what might hold the Fediverse back in India, and what to do to make it more popular there?
@juergen_hubert but look deeper: why does that idea of engagement work? Because users respond to it and value it.
For better or worse.
All too often people forget to think about value to user around here, focusing on top down approaches.
Without value to users it doesn't matter much what "better" system we offer to them, as we focus on our own idea of what they should want instead of what they do.
