This thread has gotten a lot of attention and reminds me of early attempts to warn against the tech bro optimism that social media would be an unfettered good that would lead to the inevitable democratization of the world.
https://twitter.com/navalny/status/1347969772177264644
In the wake of the Arab Spring, many people tried to temper the optimism by warning that authoritarian governments would absolutely figure out how to use social media to their advantage — enter troll farms, etc.
The conversation about the Twitter ban has devolved into "is it good" or "is it bad" when the right question is, was it done in ways that were clear and transparent that cannot be misused/manipulated by even more destructive governments down the line.
It's worth listening to the warnings of activists in other countries (rather than the bad faith people on here shouting about Orwell) — social media companies like to put out fires rather than develop consistent policies, but that absolutely needs to change.
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