#Twitter created a public utility (the blue checkmark) – it’s fascinating how much private companies can control if their product becomes a public utility. And after Musk’s takeover that public utility has been killed, people are whining like babies whose toy has been snatched.
One could say, there was a world without twitter, there was a world when twitter was alive, but the check mark wasn’t a thing then why do we fear that impersonation of accounts will be a problem.
But that’s not a problem on Mastodon or anywhere else – it’s a problem on Twitter, because somewhere down the line everyone accepted it as the official communication platform of #politicians, #governments, #organizations, #media, #celebrities etc.
The only solution that comes to my mind is that organizations will have to start owning their social identity by distancing themselves from Twitter and focusing on decentralized web. By controlling the communication channels slowly, notable accounts will be able to train their users to understand what and where to expect the official communication.
Here’s a rough plan to get rid of Twitter’s clutch
- Keep the Twitter account, announce/pin that you have moved to other verifiable service (mastodon offers verification for free). #Mastodon will be recommended as I write this, however, Jack Dorsey is producing AT protocol at his newly backed startup and Twitter alternative, #Bluesky
- Announce on websites, newsletters.
- Education will be the key
- Keep logging in to Twitter (so your account is not made dormant under Twitter’s new policies)
- Keep reminding people on Twitter to communicate through alternate channels and don’t reply to the actual point raised by them. Literally force them to communicate through other channels.
- Focus on building email subscriber base
Random food for your thought
At the time of writing there are about 630,000 paid twitter blue users ($8/month) – that’s $5M/month. At this pace, it’ll take seven hundred years for Elon musk to recover his money!