New from me, a plea: focusing so much on @elonmusk shouldn't lead us to defend advertiser-financing of platforms, which is neither free nor healthy.
Can we remember what ad-financing helped fuel on
the (pre-Musk) Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok or Youtube?https://t.co/PJsC5Xc0Vn pic.twitter.com/R4QgeHUH8k— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) November 4, 2022
Exactly. People pay attention to Musk because he acts like a clown, but I suspect that it is (mostly) an act, designed to distract from what the rest of the billionaire class is doing. Whether or not it’s an act it does nevertheless achieve those goals de facto.
Zeynep — as usual — knows where we should be looking and why. God I love her brain so much.