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There’s a lot going on with the #RIPTwitter hashtag that has spawned overnight. First off, yesterday we saw that Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn have been giving lectures to the Twitter staff. As a side note, the same clown who pressured the company into taking away Milo Yiannopoulos’ verified checkmark was hanging out with the dual frauds while posing for pics in his Feminist Frequency shirt. It’s hard to think of anything more pathetic than this, ladies and gentlemen. In case you don’t believe one man could possibly be this lame, here’s some photographic evidence…

One more shot from the visit, before I get into the main thing that is causing this hashtag to build. It’s been trending #1 in the United States for at least 7 hours, by my count…

 

As I mentioned, there’s more to this than a couple raggedy hoes coming to give a (probably paid) speech to Twitter’s staff. The main catalyst moving this tag is the latest rumor about a new feature possibly coming to the service. Here’s more, from BuzzFeed, where the story originated…

Say hello to a brand new Twitter. The company is planning to introduce an algorithmic timeline as soon as next week, BuzzFeed News has learned. The timeline will reorder tweets based on what Twitter’s algorithm thinks people most want to see, a departure from the current feed’s reverse chronological order. It is unclear whether Twitter will force users to use the algorithmic feed, or it will merely be an option.

The rumor is, you have to opt-in to make it “most recent,” which is the style we’ve all been used to. I think it would be much better to allow the users to opt-in to the algorithmic timeline instead, but Twitter is probably seeing dollar signs here more than anything else (and possibly a way to increase soft-censorship). They also are clearly determined to be more like Facebook, which in my view is not the way to go. You have a unique service as it stands. Yes, it’s been diminished over the last couple years by Instagram and Snapchat, but the core base of fanatical users are still dedicated. Well, they were, at least until you spent the last year pissing them all off. Now, the brass have an open revolt on their hands.

https://twitter.com/GSD_SteVB/status/695949336384008192

https://twitter.com/ibbibby/status/695947840787316741

https://twitter.com/johncenaAm/status/695918790261886976

https://twitter.com/PrimarySklProbs/status/695935635648073729

https://twitter.com/kunaaltailor_/status/695934717242302465

https://twitter.com/scotwilliams/status/695924241728937984

https://twitter.com/mombot/status/695912604212924416

https://twitter.com/AdamBaldwin/status/695892372979191808

https://twitter.com/OTRADaily/status/695920421468659714

Let’s pick up where that last tweet leaves off. Actually, no. I don’t want an edit feature because I see it as ripe for abuse. Perhaps I could be persuaded towards support if it had a very strong protection mechanism against said abuse (like a block against edits after a certain number of retweets/likes), but I just see all that as more trouble than it’s worth. I also wouldn’t mind them raising the limit to around 175 characters, but if they don’t do that, they could at least get rid of the way URLs and pictures both take up 23 characters in a tweet. That’s been a frustration of mine for quite some time.

https://twitter.com/turbofaggots/status/695961529007661056

There’s definitely a huge story here revolving around the ways Twitter has changed their service in some pretty baffling ways over the last year or so, but to me the most important part of all this is how the company has abandoned its commitment to free speech. Yes, I think the new timeline is garbage, specifically if it’s setup as the new default. Still, I have a lot more concern about the unjust banning of users, the unfair deletion of accounts (often with no explanation), and the way they’ve gone towards a safe space mentality over the last 18 months. The stock price is now below $16 dollars, with people so sour on it that some are now saying the company will eventually disappear altogether. If all this news combined with the #RIPTwitter hashtag sounds dire, that’s because it is. I honestly love the service, even though many people I respect would be happy to see it go. I’m just not sure what can be done to save it now. I think listening to the power users of the service would be a good first step, though.

 

UPDATE: Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, has come out and said that this was basically all just a big misunderstanding. Suuuuuure, Jack…