Notices by Austin Kocher 🌎 (austinkocher@mastodon.social)

The Twitter meltdown continues. It is glorious.

Elon Musk's rocket SpaceX Starship explodes after launch. 🤣

#elonmusk #musk #elon #spacex #tesla #rocket #failure #fail

Twitter announces that they are placing new restrictions on linking to other social media sites. There's just one little problem. The EU has a law that prohibits this type of restriction, and if it takes action, Twitter could be fined billions of dollars.

#TwitterMeltdown #TwitterImplosion

Casey Newton (tech guy) reports this evening that: “a large number of number of #Twitter contractors were just laid off this afternoon with no notice, both in the US and abroad. Functions affected appear to include content moderation, real estate, and marketing, among others. Contractors aren’t being notified at all, they’re just losing access to Slack and email. Managers figured it out when their workers just disappeared from the system.” Yikes. 😳

Best write-up of @Mastodon for new people I’ve seen so far by @peterbutler of @CNET. (Let me know if you agree.)

“Leaving Twitter? Check Out the Open-Source Social Network Mastodon. The Elon Musk era of Twitter has some users opting for alternative social media.”

#TwitterMigration #MastodonNews #technology

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/leaving-twitter-check-out-the-open-source-social-network-mastodon/

I've noticed a massive influx of journalists in the past 48 hours. @jbf1755

Mastodon will update to 4.0 soon! Here are the most exciting new features (in addition to fixes & changes):

- ability to follow hashtags
- ability to filter by language
- ability to translate posts
- ability to post HEIC files (i.e. your iPhone’s native photo format)
- define user roles (big deal for admins)
- define sign-up process on your Instance (admins again)

See all changes here: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.0.0rc1

Thanks, @Gargron and @Mastodon Team. #Mastodon4

Good morning, @Mastodon!

Here are some more great accounts to follow. Please tag others you recommend below.

@carceralpolicy
@paulknightly
@maxkennerly
@willoremus
@jbf1755
@ryanlcooper
@UnicornRiot
@GreatDismal (THE William Gibson)
@kitoconnell
@grammargirl
@MattGertz
@adamdavidon
@feditips (should be your FIRST follow)
@madeleinehamlin
@kyjts @rjgeography
@AlidaCantor @scottmatter
@katherinebrickell
@JulianBrigstocke

Here is also a new list of reporters/writers that were shared with me yesterday. Can any of you please tag reporters I didn't mention below? I do a lot of media engagement and I want to be able to still do that here. Thanks!

@rcourt
@willknight
@skrishna
@tchambers
@fredericl
@romaindillet
@bheater
@zackwhittaker
@riptari
@willoremus
@dell
@riptari
@joshsternberg
@adamdavidson
@mollyjongfast
@molly0xfff
@clive
@SaraMorrison
@mmasnick

I'm thrilled to welcome some more of my favorite people to the @Mastodon platform! Check out these amazing folks:

@tusk81 (Gabe Ortiz!) is here!

Immigration law heavyweights @Gsiskind and @chuckk also in the house.

As well as:
@BonnieHonig
@Colarusso
@katelister
@kalhan
and many more.

If I missed you or if your username doesn't make you easily identifiable, please introduce yourself so I know you're here!

#TwitterMigration #TwitterTakeover #Introductions #Welcome #ImmigrationMastodon

I’m excited to welcome @lawandspacejournal to #Mastodon! Give us a follow. We are a brand new online journal that focuses on short, punchy research posts related to legal geography — and we are currently accepting essay submissions. Learn more below.

#geography #law #legalgeography

https://lawandspace.com/

“We are witnessing the real-time destruction of one of the world’s most powerful communications platforms,” said Nicole Gill, the executive director of the nonprofit group Accountable Tech, said about #Twitter. “Unless and until Musk can robustly enforce Twitter’s existing community standards, the platform is not safe for users or for advertisers.” @nytimes

#TwitterImplosion #TwitterTakeover

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/technology/twitter-advertisers.html

"Elon Musk’s Twitter timeline is making one of the clearest cases that meritocracy is a myth. Whatever myth of Musk’s genius still existed is shredded by shitposting."

#motherjones #news #elonmusk #Twitter #TwitterTakeover

Link to article: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/11/elon-musk-dumb/?utm_source=mj-newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-newsletter-11-04-2022

Now that the future of Twitter is murkier, you may want to download your Twitter data. Here’s how to do it.

#Twitter #TwitterMigration #Privacy #data

https://www.pcworld.com/article/1368195/how-to-download-your-twitter-data.html

Fascinating to see that a very large number of my academic and professional colleagues have created accounts on Mastodon, but as far as I can tell, not a single reporter has. Trying to think about what this means and whether this is an advantage/disadvantage.

In other #Twitter news, Twitter stopped releasing information about the total number of users on its platform, two years ago. But the last time it released data, the data showed that its user base had more or less plateaued.

#data #chart #dataviz

https://www.statista.com/chart/10460/twitter-user-growth/

U.S. officials are weighing whether to open a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter as new details emerge about the privileges granted to large foreign investors under the terms of the deal, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

#twitter #elonmusk #dataprivacy #news @washingtonpost

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/11/01/musk-twitter-treasury-department-review/

Fascinating analysis from the Economist: “In the four days after Elon Musk took the keys to Twitter, Republican members of Congress collectively gained around 470,000 followers. The opposite was true for Democrats in both chambers. Their House and Senate representatives lost 420,000 followers.”

#Twitter #TwitterMigration #ElonMusk #TheEconomist #data #dataviz

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/10/31/how-will-elon-musk-shape-twitter

So important to understand this principle about how @Mastodon works! It’s fascinating technologically and it’s better. #mastodon #opensource #decentralizesocialmedia

New to @Mastodon, so let me introduce myself:

I’m a researcher and writer focusing on immigration, politics, and data. I work at an institute called TRAC at Syracuse University, which is maybe the most cited immigration data source in the country.

I will be posting about new research and data with lots of graphs, photos, and new articles. If you want to stay up-to-date with the latest immigration news, I’m your fella.

Follow me here and introduce yourself!

#introductions #immigration #data