X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, is marking some links to news organization NPR’s website as “unsafe” when users click through to read the latest story about an altercation between a Trump campaign staffer and an Arlington National Cemetery employee. The warning being displayed is typically applied to malicious links, like those containing malware, and other types of misleading content or spam. However, in this case, the web page being blocked is an NPR news report, raising questions about whether or not Musk’s X is actively trying to stop the news story from spreading.

  • @_bcron
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    9815 days ago

    Media outlet: “X did this horrible thing”

    Also media outlet: links directly to X, giving them free revenue for doing said horrible thing

  • @[email protected]
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    9415 days ago

    If everyone could just delete Twitter, that’d be great. I don’t get how people just prioritize “there are good memes sometimes” over staying out of the metaphorical Nazi bar.

    • @ripcord
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      15 days ago

      I keep hearing “it is the only way for me to get critical weather updates in my area!” which at least would be better than being addicted to memes, but still seems to me like a shitty or bogus and/or ssuper rare reason.

        • @ripcord
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          515 days ago

          Trying to be charitable, I’m guessing for some countries there aren’t a lot of good sources. Maybe?

          Definitely in the US and Europe there are a billion sources.

      • @krashmo
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        815 days ago

        I’ve never had a Twitter account in my life and have had no issues finding weather forecasts or emergency notifications. That’s a shitty excuse even by the shitty excuse standard.

      • @[email protected]
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        215 days ago

        I’ve deleted my account, but for twitter was nice for a run to get notifications on local road closures and weather alerts. Sigh.

      • @[email protected]
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        115 days ago

        Armature Porn Twitter’s new lack of moderation and large userbase makes for a perfect storm.

    • @rsuri
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      1014 days ago

      The problem is no one has really made an effort to take over in the news/politics space. Meta basically decided Threads wouldn’t be for that. Mastodon exists, but given it’s nerd-based nature it’s way more tech focused. Then there’s Substack’s half-assed effort, but they seem happy to focus on newsletter subscriptions for now. So there’s competitors in microblogging generally, but there’s still zero competition in news/politics.

      • @[email protected]
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        1214 days ago

        I think it’s a little like “no one goes there anymore it’s too crowded”. If people started posting on mastodon people would use it, and it wouldn’t be so nerd-dense.

        A friend and I had a minor fight about this. She was like “but all the good content is on Twitter” and I was like sometimes you have to be the change you want to be and suffer a little to make the world better. I think you can suffer through less immediate memes. She did not accept this.

        But anyway yeah you’re right that content needs to move. NPR and others could probably just switch, but none of them probably want to be the first to move.

        • @yamanii
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          13 days ago

          That’s true, the truth is that most people are lazy, if you are a company your social media person should be mirroring your stuff everywhere, it’s just copy paste.

          This is why misskey actually gained some traction over in japan, the artists there are mirroring their drawings there alongside twitter and pixiv.

    • @criss_cross
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      815 days ago

      It spent a lot or time carving its place for quick news updates and getting people off platforms is surprisingly hard.

      I don’t use it anymore but it’s hard not to inadvertently find a news article that links to it.

    • @[email protected]
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      515 days ago

      It’s this weird game of cat and also cat right now, I think. The media uses Xitter because people read their twats. People use Xitter because there’s media to deliver twats. Until some other short-social platform hits a critical mass of popularity to replace it, that probably won’t change much.

    • @stoly
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      415 days ago

      Fear of missing out is probably a huge driver here.

    • Aedis
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      115 days ago

      Ok, where do I get distilled news and incidents regarding covid and other infectious diseases/viruses spreading?

      • @[email protected]
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        615 days ago

        I would hope the CDC or other government agencies would have their own website and feed, and not rely entirely on a private entity that could go away at any moment.

        • Aedis
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          115 days ago

          Sure, the CDC, the NIH and the WHO are some sources. But what about a source that has information about what people are encountering?

          • @[email protected]
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            315 days ago

            Well, fediverse stuff like Lemmy and Mastodon come to mind as one solution.

            Web forums were pretty sweet sometimes, too.

            I bet there are other options that don’t devolve into “some billionaire asshole owns this” and “value is being extracted”

  • @Buffalox
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    15 days ago

    This is an obvious abuse of power, and is clearly illegal, or at least it is in EU, but since this is about USA, it’s probably alright, because USA is no longer a country of law. If it was, Trump would not still be walking around a free man, running for president.

    I hope EU will never decline to the depths Trump and republicans have dragged USA.

    • @disguy_ovahea
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      1215 days ago

      It’s about accreditation in the US. It’s the same reason Fox News and Newsmax are classified as “entertainment.” Social media companies are not required to provide accurate information. They’re only held accountable by civil suits for slander or libel.

      • @Buffalox
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        815 days ago

        Well the way things are going, X may need to shut down in EU soon.
        Even Brazil doesn’t tolerate their bullshit anymore.

    • @FlowVoid
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      -1215 days ago

      Twitter operates in the EU, so if this were illegal in the EU then the EU would file a complaint. Maybe it’s not illegal in the EU.

      • @[email protected]
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        1715 days ago

        First as other people said, it doesn’t work like that. Second there’s already a process in the EU Comission against X because of them knowingly spreading misinformation.

        • Omega
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          15 days ago

          “If this were illegal” is already a bad assumption. In the U.S., SCOTUS already determined that the 14th Amendment is unenforceable.

          And any other time, there requires somebody to file charges.

      • @suction
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        115 days ago

        They don’t act that fast.

  • @vegeta
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    2715 days ago

    It is unsafe. Unsafe for Elmo’s conspiracy/misinformation posts

  • @Burn_The_Right
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    14 days ago

    Yet the same news sites keep linking to X and keep posting to X accounts.

    What do you call someone who uses a fascist-owned platform with a fascist user base? Motherfuckers need to let that shit die already.

      • @jorp
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        1114 days ago

        you forgot to take your pills

          • @jorp
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            514 days ago

            ah the crazy variety

            • ettyblatant
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              714 days ago

              Lol the account is minutes, maybe hours old. What a silly little troll

      • @LePoisson
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        614 days ago

        Fascism and Marxism are very clearly defined and I assure you the government / USA establishment is about as far from Marxist as you can get.

        Unless I missed the part where we all own the means of production and aren’t wage slave proletarians.

  • JaggedRobotPubes
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    1115 days ago

    Unsafe for den of liars because people could hear something true.

  • @[email protected]
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    913 days ago

    Yet Twitter would probably sue other sites like Facebook if Facebook blocked them. Hypocrite

  • don
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    615 days ago

    Turnabout’s fair play, everyone start blocking links to xhitter. It’s an unsafe site.

  • @squirrelwithnut
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    613 days ago

    Blocking access during an election year to a well respected and accurate news outlet that has never been known to be “unsafe” seems like election interference to me.

  • @800XL
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    513 days ago

    Fuck Elon Musk.

  • @frickitickitavi
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    315 days ago

    What do you mean “caught”? Do you “catch” someone punching you in the face?

    • @krashmo
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      215 days ago

      Yes you do. That’s what the phrase “catch these hands” is referring to 😁