I'm really happy people are starting to expose the hypocrisy in how heavy handed people are with criticizing Cohost and Hive, but those same people ignore all of the following
- Twitter leaks data at least once a year
- Discord, Facebook, and Twitter have sold data to hackers willingly
- TikTok has breaches at least once a year
- Twitter and Facebook have been around for almost 20 years and still struggle to keep data secure
- Discord has been around for almost 10 and still struggles to keep data secure
It is almost as though data and security work is not a light or easy job!
Just seems weird to expect a group of 5 or less to have all of these things figured out while supporting multi-million dollar platforms who have had teams in the hundreds dedicated to this exact role have.....not seamlessly figured it out. This is also a reminder that data and security work is an always evolving field.
So to help quell the disingenuous concerns, I've made this blurb for Twitter users to copypaste whenever they feel a need to "weigh in":
"I have no interest in moving to any if these alternatives that I am hyper critical about. As long as the alternatives do not provide a way to monetize that I can leverage (even though I have no proof I make a viable return from it), I will not be changing."
And I want to make it clear that if you had the passing thought "huh, these people worried about data can't even provide data Twitter works for them" you are in good company and I have scones. I also make a mean sugar cookie, have over 40 teas in my pantry, and will find you a wine you love. If there is one thing Twitter got right: I can in fact be your internet auntie.
EDIT: oh, and someone alerted me in Discord that apparently even tax services sell their clients' personal information to FB, which then bundles that with the information that gets sold or leaked.
So, uh.......yea. Data and security, amirite
It's interesting to me how this always seems to play out in other things too. Like how people will "complain" about big box stores the way they complain about social megamedia platforms, but then turn around and criticize actual small businesses for not doing the same thing but 1) better, 2) faster, 3) perfect out of the box and 4) with a tiny fraction of the staff, funding, or support, meanwhile still using the big box in question. Doing things "better"—whether that means function, construction, or ethics—will inherently cost more on at LEAST one axis (price, time, convenience, initial build quality, etc). It's one thing to be honest about how that extra cost is a limit for you personally, or to know that sometimes you have to make compromises that aren't great, it's quite another to go on the attack when you can target a small team but have none of that heat for megacorps.
Like, I don't like apps so I'll wait until desktop rolls out before I get on Hive, but I know they're doing the best they can and I understand if desktop takes years to roll out, it's fine—it looks like their team is doing their best to make it a good experience and I'm very okay with them letting their team take time to do things right. It's very strange to me this mentality people have where it's like, "I expect THEM to suck, and that's okay with me! But YOU'RE not allowed to be anything less than perfect ):<"
I really think some people—and it's not exclusive to ⬜ people, but it certainly is part of a ⬜centric mindset—think phrases like "when you know better, you do better" are referring to products instead of behavior. And while these products generally ARE better in different ways—better quality, more ethically-produced, fewer Nazis and other racists, etc—it's clear that for some people, "better" just means more convenient for them, even if "convenience" is harmful to others, and their behavior makes it equally clear they have no desire to confront that.