Thread by @patriciars

The time has come for me to leave #Twitter.
At first, for years, I didn't use it. Then, I found out it was a way to assess confronting information when I had the feeling something was off.
I met great people here (some nasty ones, too), and had intellectually stimulating moments.

@Twitter led to research, to digging, to questioning my own beliefs and points of view and to grow as a person.
Then, the #censorship began. The #shadowban. Account suspensions for unknown reasons. Tiring appeals... to the humiliating point of begging.

Even worse, the echo chambers began, and whist it was good to meet like-minded people, that was not why I was on @Twitter. Respectful debates needed - and need - to happen. It's not a lot to ask for.

Then, censorship intensified, somewhat veiled. "Show more replies" made it more difficult to access some relevant tweets. Some replies, now, are simply not shown. We see they're there, we see the number of replies, but... just can't find them.

They even added a misleading feature below the hidden "Show more replies", when they now show some tweets that are related to the topic but were posted somewhere else, usually to hide what's controversial and avoid conversation.

I don't need Twitter to shape and select information. For that, there is mainstream media. I don't need it for echo chambers. For that, there are competing platforms. I don't need @TwitterSupport to suspend me on a whim when I try to always be respectful and cheerful.

The internet has democratized information and given regular people a voice. I am sure @Jack agrees with me, even though he admitted he had to make difficult decisions to keep his business. The internet was good when it wasn't a business. But I guess that was an illusion, a lure.

Now, here we are, addicted to #socialmedia, isolated from real life, polarized because we found out there is a world outside our bubbles, and so many bubbles that it's difficult to keep track of them... so we just simplify, left x right, "believers" x "deniers".

It takes a tweet to be categorized, stigmatized, to be tucked into a bubble that will unfairly define us everywhere. The world is way more complex than that. Dealing with individual thinking is more complex than mob mentality...

We are all different, nuanced, imperfect. That's the beauty of it. We can discuss and evolve without having to circumvent algorithms that will determine whether we should be punished or rewarded. Life's NOT a game, and we shouldn't have to pander to algorithms to have a voice.

We shouldn't have to say what is expected in order to get exposure, to avoid going against the establishment not to be cancelled, to pretend to be politically correct to keep relationships or jobs (there's LinkedIn for that), to virtue signal to be seen as a "good citizen".

If corporations don't want to deal with the individual, we can perhaps see the world for what it really is: a battle between good and evil. And not respecting the singularities of a person, dehumanizing people so they can be labeled as products, as robots, is plain evil.

Kid you not: at this point, it's not conspiracist to say #AI is already ruling us. Who's making decisions for us, when we must avoid certain words to have a video monetized? If the advent of television was an opportunity for mass media propaganda, what or who's in charge now?

Are you sure you are in charge of your life? Give it a thought. You don't have to agree with me. You are, rightfully so, free to think by yourself. What you shouldn't do is stop paying attention when something triggers your belief system. Just think - and think outside the box.

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