Yes, you read that right.
I believe we just witnessed the peak in centralized social media. This is something that is hard for most to believe since it appears that these firms are so entrenched. However, history shows that it is a situation that keeps repeating itself.
Not too long ago, there was a video rental store on seemingly every corner. A short time before that, most shopping centers had a Fotomat where people had their film developed. Of course, this was replaced by the fact that everyone took pictures on digital cameras, a market dominated by Japanese companies. Today, the most commonly used cameras are on phones.
The point is that things can change very quickly. It is not uncommon for something to go from mass use to outcast in 5 years. We could be seeing the path being exhibited by centralized social media.
To start, we must admit that the task being laid upon these companies is impossible. While it is easy to point out their bias, which would be correct, they are also having to "police" all that is posted to meet the requirements of different countries and cultures around the world.
Thus they are present with three options:
- Censor everything
- Censor nothing
- Selectively censor
It is obvious that they chose the third option, which could be the worst of all of them.
Jack Dorsey and Twitter got blasted for censoring Trump and taking down some of his Tweets. In turn, Mark Zuckerberg left some of Trump's posts up on Facebook, a move which got him blasted.
Essentially, it is a no win situation for them.
Of course, we will refrain from crying a river for these companies. They were the entities that introduced us to surveillance capitalism. It was them who turned individuals into cattle, objects to be used for the platform's financial gain. The ability to track and monitor was taken to all time high, developed by these same companies. We still are unclear how much of this data is finding its way into the hands of governments (tyrannies) that seek to do harm.
The latest episode with Twitter getting hacked shows how vulnerable these entities truly are. Facebook was already facing a large backlash from its advertisers. Boycotts were taking place all over the place from companies upset with the policies of the Zuck led organization.
We see the policies of these platforms override most other laws and tenets held by society. As private entities, it is within their rights to establish their systems as they wish. However, many are questioning, with so much power, should they be allowed to.
Twitter is now coming under scrutiny and being called to the carpet for its lax security. Even if it is the best in the world, it still shows the flaws of centralized systems.
Last week, name people were hacked and fake messages about Bitcoin were sent out. While it is a crime, on the scale of things, this was pretty minor. Yes, there were people who lost Bitcoin yet, it must be remembered, they willingly gave it away. The victims were the Twitter accounts hacked, not the ones who were stupid and greedy enough to send Bitcoin based upon an idiotic Tweet.
What would have happened, for instance, if instead of a Bitcoin con, there were some harsher messages sent out? Imagine if the account of Trump or Biden was hacked and a Tweet was sent out that he was going to bomb Iran. What would happen if an account of a CEO was used to send out racial propaganda? Just consider the implications on that company and its stock when the market opened up.
Even after the hacks are acknowledged, the damage is done. Many believe that all future wars will start out as cyberwars. Propaganda and miscommunication was always used to validate warfare. In the digital age, it is no different. Centralized social media systems show how vulnerable accounts are. In the age of information, taking control of a powerful account, even for a few moments, can have dire implications.
As bad as all this is, it is not even the worst part about these organizations. Many call them evil since their basic essence is to divide everyone.
For whatever reason, humans thrive on drama. It is something that draws out attention. Negativity is what we often focus upon. The evening news is filled with stories that are negative because that is what gets viewers. A newscast that stated how wonderful everything is would get poor ratings. The news outlets are well aware of this.
Social media takes this to a new level. These entities intentionally foster division and conflict. Their goal is to keep people logged in and engaged. Drama is the tool that is used to do that.
Thus, it is easy to see how polarized society has become. They established what is "politically correct" and now pit those who are PC versus those who are not. When things get bad enough, they censor a few accounts. Naturally, they do not want to totally silence one side because opposition is required.
Unfortunately, this has implications far beyond people's online behavior. The power these companies wield is enormous. As we see, they are ill-equipped to handle it.
The Twitter hack is showing that these entities cannot even answer one simply question: can you guarantee my account is safe?
Every individual should be asking this question. It is easy to see that a major public personality would be hacked when tweeting a Bitcoin scam. However, what if hundreds of accounts of average citizens were hacked and suddenly misrepresented messages were posted. Would all their friends believe they were hacked? How about when they applied for a job and that information was still out there?
Centralized social media is becoming a very dangerous place. Many question the Chinese social credit system yet do not realize that online social activity is already being used against people.
For this reason, the trend is going to shift. All this publicity is going to keep growing and having an impact on these companies. We are very close to seeing the peak of centralized social media.
There is simply too much that can go wrong with them.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.
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I really hope to see people flock to Hive once they get past how to create a wallet and how to keep track of the keys! It's coming soon I think!
I would choose to share on such platforms as HIVE than centralized social medias.
Certainly agree with that @videoaddiction.
The masses still assemble around Facebook and Twitter. It is going to take massive security breaches to wake people up.
A few malicious tweets from celebrity accounts that get hacked will likely focus a lot of attention on the safety of these accounts.
How long until that happens? We shall see.
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Could this be one more weird symptom of Covid-19 confinement and quarantine? Would they be wearing a surgical mask? Or is this just a congenital tare of ________________ <-put you the name.
Yes, I notice people I have known for several years behaving differently now because of the quarantines.
By chance... Do you know their names and email addresses?
I've been perfecting all the verbiage of a good bunch of Nigerian Scam correspondence through the years. I've succeed making that these emails appears supremely convincing now. And I'm willing to test these as soon as possible to verify its effectivity to make me filthy rich in no time. };)
Yes, I know their names and email addresses. However, I am a strong proponent of privacy, and I am very unwilling to share them to anyone without the informed and voluntary consent of everyone involved.
Don't worry! We can simply split the booty fifty fifty. };)
It is not about the money. I treat other people the way (at the very least) I want them to treat me.
That's cute. Then, ask them first if they are willing to split the booty fifty fifty instead of you. :)
This shift is inevitable, just like in the age of internet. Get on or get left behind
Your current Rank (40) in the battle Arena of Holybread has granted you an Upvote of 18%
The alternative media needed to put down this giants. What we have now? HIVE? It's not ready do do such a feat.
Agreed. Hive has nothing to compare to Twitter. In fact, Hive doesnt want a twitter like application where people are posting every few seconds.
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There is already a Twitter-like application on Hive named D.Buzz. It is still in its early stages, but it is already very usable.
I am not sure what you mean about "Hive doesn't want a Twitter-like application".
I think if people post every second that would be considered as a spam. I am going to be pessimistic by saying that there's potential abuse if people can post each second. But anyway, that surely can be tackled with downvotes.
In case you are not aware, #HIVE has a 5 minute delay built into the blockchain that stops users from posting anymore than once every 5 minutes.
On https://d.buzz, as with any HIVE front-end, people are free to comment much faster than that, and should be able to.
After all, it's engagement that we want, and people usually don't wait 5 minutes between responses when having natural conversations.
P.S. D.Buzz was moving up in rank on @therealwolf's HiveDapps site, and even hit the TOP 10 a few times recently. Sometime in the last few days though, it stopped logging our users and transactions.. not sure if it is related to what @taskmaster4450le is saying or not.
Which of the following do you mean with your phrase?
If you are referring to the first one, then I would say that nobody in Twitter posts every second.
If you are referring to the second one, then I would say that people have the right to use their Resource Credits whenever they wish for as long as they don't harm or annoy people (though I acknowledge that people could use their downvote power as they wish too).
Your balance is below 0.3 HIVE. Your account is running low and should be replenished. Check out the Dustsweeper FAQ here: https://hive.blog/dustsweeper/@dustsweeper/dustsweeper-s-faq
We hit the Top 10 on @therealwolf's https://HiveDapps.com website, before it stopped logging our daily active users and transactions for some reason, so there are HIVE users who DO want a Micro-blogging DAPP.
Keep in mind,our site isn't done yet and we are currently working on a major upgrade that will vastly improve it.
In addition to serving the HIVE community, we also have a marketing budget that we will use toward onboarding users OUTSIDE of the Hive community, so there will be new users that also want a Micro-blogging DAPP like ours.
Not sure why you are saying what Hive wants and what it doesn't when the blockchain is neutral and the consensus is dynamic so what HIVE "wanted" yesterday, it might not want today, etc. And so on.
I guess the question is, is HIVE just a blockchain for blogging websites like WordPress and Blogger, or is it a much broader blockchain for social Dapps of all kinds, ranging from @threespeak's version of YouTube, to Reddit, Quota, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and even e-commerce sites with social functions built in such as Amazon and Travola.
What do you think @theycallmedan?
I would like a Twitter-style dapp on Hive. If you have the RCs than it isn’t spamming, that is just how the chain works.
If someone wants to make a short-form content dapp on Hive and has the resources to do so it’s a moot point because no one could stop them. I actually bought into the Zappl ICO waaay back in 2017, never got my tokens ended up being scammed. But I saw the potential way back when.
Hive is a great place for storing text, that what it does. I think people think of rewards first and not scalability. If someone wanted a censorship-resistant version of Twitter, regardless of a PoB reward pool when existing, Hive would be by far the best blockchain to build such a dapp due to its scalability.
Glad to see a big stakeholder like you see the value of a Twitter competitor 😃