Marcus Mendes
He is a publicist and co-founder of Rede Gigahertz, where he presents a series of podcasts regarding technology and productivity. It also presents the daily news Bolha DEV, and has been saying that it will launch its first app by the end of 2023.
Yesterday it finally happened. After who knows how many years, I deleted the app from Twitter from my iPhone. It is true that it was basically decorative, since I always used the Tweetbot for reasons that are beside the point. Still, deleting Twitter from my iPhone was a huge change, as it’s always been my only really active social network.
Anyone who follows the clipboard podcast knows that three years ago the Elon Musk had activated my Spider-Sense. At the end of 2021, I chose the “cult of Elon Musk” as the “Fail of the year”. I mentioned how he had already been unnecessarily opting for antagonism and intimidation. I commented that I was disappointed with the chances he wasted to be a good example, given the responsibility he has for being such an outstanding person. I also spoke regarding the fact that he has been directing his growing army of fans to attack disaffected ones, often for reasons that border on irrelevance. These are people who often buy into the tale that intimidation equals respect, and that aggressiveness equals power.
This facet of Musk was nothing new. In 2016, for example, he canceled the purchase of a Model X made by a guy who, days before, had published a blog post criticizing the lack of organization of a Tesla event. Already in 2018, he called the rescue diver responsible for saving 12 young people trapped in a cave in Thailand a pedophile. The reason? Musk was criticized for trying to promote himself at the expense of the bailout. And I am not even going to comment in depth here on the imbroglios involving the manipulation of the price of cryptocurrencies or the famous case of “secured financing” to buy back Tesla shares.
The fact is that, in all these opportunities, it was already possible to observe a petty and cowardly pattern of behavior, which brings us to the end of third-party apps for Twitter. In these last few days, there has been no lack of discussions — as in the podcast of MacMagazine, in which I participated — echoing the incongruity with which Twitter handled this situation. We all listed numerous alternatives that Twitter might have adopted to better communicate this decision: notify with any in advance, releasing third-party apps only to Twitter Blue subscribers, explaining what was going on, treating developers with respect, etc.
The problem? All these discussions were, as Arthur Conan Doyle would say, an exercise in futility.
Of course Twitter knew there was the alternative of informing developers in advance of the change. Of course, the new leadership knew this was the decent thing to do. Just as he knew he might have treated with more dignity the thousands of employees fired in recent months, the journalists banned a few weeks ago, the brands cloned with a verification seal through Twitter Blue, and so on.
The big question is that this lack of consideration was not a thoughtless consequence of impulsive attitudes, but rather part of the aim of these manoeuvres. After so much commenting on these changes, I came to the conclusion that these discussions are completely useless. I finally understood that the objective is to cause exactly this indignation in people like us, who start from the premise that we should always choose the right thing to do. More and more, Musk seems to act with the intent to revolt. And pointing out his contradictions does nothing but give him some sort of sadistic pleasure in knowing that he has once once more pissed off exactly who he intended to piss off. Score!
When cruelty is the aim of an attitude, no counterargument is effective. At this point, who doesn’t see a problem with form how Elon Musk has been acting, he will never be convinced otherwise. Everyone does what they want, of course. And for those who are not bothered by any of this and continue to use Twitter normally, I must confess that I feel a little envious. I’m not even nailing that never I will use the network. But right now, using Twitter gives me the feeling that I’m signaling my agreement with what’s going on. And this my conscience was definitely not able to accept.
Many independent developers and companies have been severely affected by the inadvertent termination of third-party Twitter apps. These are teams that have spent more than a decade building apps that, in large part, have defined what it means to use Twitter.
Did you know, for example, that the term “tweet” was invented by Iconfactory? So it is. With the end of Tweetbot, Twitterrific and so many others, these people literally saw their livelihood disappear overnight. If you can, consider subscribing or purchasing some of the other apps they offer. Or, take a moment to send an email of encouragement or thanks. Especially in times of crisis, an outpouring of support can make all the difference.
Trust me, I speak from experience. ????
