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Threads vs. Twitter: the liminal border between culture and politics
Adam Mosseri wants Threads to be a platform for culture rather than politics. Can the twain ever be separated?
Meta’s Threads is a runaway success. It is claimed that the platform reached 100 million users in only five days. News about it dominates the blogosphere.
Threads, however, has its critics. In the design community, the new platform has been criticised for not allowing non-Instagram users to sign up; not possessing a “Following” feed (as of writing, Threads users see what the platform displays and users do not have the option of curating their own feed); and, no chat/messaging functionality. Additionally, I’ve seen discussions on the platform between type designers who feel the logo buttons are too dark against its white background and cause retina burn or fatigue.
Writing in Fast Company, Jesus Diaz states that: “Threads is lacking the infrastructure for doing what Twitter actually excels at helping people discover news, live sports, and events — and talk about those things in real-time.” It seems this is intentional rather an oversight. Adam Mosseri, who is running point on the app for Meta, has been quoted: “politics and hard news aren’t ‘worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks.” He goes on to elaborate: “There are more than enough amazing communities — sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment, etc. — to make a vibrant platform without needing to get into politics or hard news.” This has echoes of Mark Zuckerberg’s untenable position, in a 2018 testimony to Congress, that Facebook was not a media company. Historically, Zuckerberg has resisted playing editor. However, it appears that Threads main differentiation from Twitter is going to be aggressive moderation of hate speech.
This leads to the question — is it possible to separate politics from culture?
In Ways of Seeing (1972), John Berger concludes the first essay of the book by saying:
“A people or a class which is cut off from its own past is far less free to choose and act as a people or class than one that has been able to situate itself in history. This is why — and this is the only reason why — the entire art…
