No, BlueSKy users are not deserters. On the contrary!

Since my decision to stop posting on X – because I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I continued to post on this cesspit of hate, propaganda and disinformation, since  the last 6 years of my life have been devoted to raising awareness of mass manipulation, misinformation and propaganda – I see posts from some sanctimonious people posing  as paragons of virtue whose intellect is, in the final analysis, superior to ours, the ‘deserters of X’, because they continue to fight and, for some, think that their words can stop the mass manipulation at work.

I’ve also heard the argument that BlueSky is an echo chamber, but then again, all social networks are at one point  or another, and your followers are, as their name suggests, people who follow you because you share their ideas and beliefs . Did you say echo chamber?

I’m not so naive as to believe that BlueSky isn’t subject to disinformation, but then again, BlueSky’s moderation service is effective. The proof of this is a recent attempt by Russian bots which was quickly aborted and deleted by BS.

The reason I left X is that I couldn’t, in good conscience, stay on this network which, in Musk’s hands, has become a tool for propaganda, relaying fakes and interfering in Europe and other countries. The network is also flooded with bots (many of them Russian), which amplify this disinformation and brainwash people, and the results are seen, not just on X, but in real life in the ballot box.

When Elon Musk bought X (formerly Twitter), he pledged to rid it of ‘bots’, i.e. fake accounts that tend to act as trolls and disinformation vectors. ‘We will defeat spammy bots or die trying,’ tweeted Elon Musk in 2022, a few months before he officially bought the social media platform. But the bots love his tweets and amplify his misinformation so he keeps them.

https://www.gzeromedia.com/news/analysis/musk-promised-to-rid-x-of-bots-but-they-love-his-tweets#toggle-gdpr

On X, you are constantly insulted, threatened and attacked by these same bots, trolls and other accounts who think that freedom of expression means freedom to insult, defame and threaten.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/10/nearly-48-million-twitter-accounts-could-be-bots-says-study.html

So, no, I’m not a deserter because I’m not going to post on X any more. On the contrary, it’s a choice I’ve made with a clear conscience, the choice to lose 7,920 followers, but to be able to look myself in the mirror and no longer put a toe  on this site where the buyer’s aim is to destabilise democracies, allow the far right to gain ground everywhere (remember that he officially supports the AfD), and whose moderation no longer moderates anything, leaving you vulnerable to insults, threats and the like.

So those who stay and try to make us look like snowflakes would do well to question themselves, because of the two camps, who is the more virtuous? those who are in accordance with their conscience, or those who stay under false pretences, for fear of losing followers, and try to make us feel guilty and, at the very least, belittle us?

I know where I stand, I always agree with myself, and I never stray from that. X is a gutter of hate and disinformation (across the political spectrum), overrun with bots and terrifyingly unmoderated. It has also become a political tool, a formidable weapon for destabilising democracies.

 

And if you agree with that, don’t come and judge those who don’t.

 

 

Murielle STENTZEL.