We're blocking twitter at our house

[CloudWatcher]

I'm the "admin" for our home network. I've finally had enough and added twitter to our Raspberry-PiHole black-list.

We're blocking all of twitter.com, x.com, and t.co now.

I suggest everyone do the same with their ad blockers or router firewalls or whatever it takes.

And I'm posting here to encourage people not to post links into the twitter, we won't be able to see them

[leftstreet]

1. Social media is the people's media. Block corporate news instead n/t

[paleotn]

5. Not really.

Social media is where nuts and psychos reach critical mass and negatively impact our government and politics. The home of vast amounts of disinformation. It’s an open sewer with a flaming dumpster on top.

[leftstreet]

12. "vast amounts of disinformation" come from corporate news

You can ignore or block nuts and psychos on social media

[Midnight Writer]

16. Question. Where do the people who post on social media get their information from,

if not corporate news?

The people who keep telling me not to rely on "mainstream" or "legacy" media also keep citing news from mainstream news sources to make their arguments.

[leftstreet]

17. Good question, but part of my point

Social media interaction helps us debunk corporate newspeak and allows us to access non-corporate news

[paleotn]

20. Depends on what you call MSM

Do you include Infowars as MSM? Fux News?

[paleotn]

19. Like what specifically? Give me some examples of

the MSM passing crazy misinfo that compares to the insanity we see daily on social bullshit.

[claudette]

2. I never

Open links to Twitter

[CloudWatcher]

6. DU auto-opens them for you

Often we'll get links into Twitter without them being labeled as such. Lots of cat pictures and other cute videos for example.

[JohnSJ]

3. Be careful, Musk may sue you like the ADL

[CloudWatcher]

8. I'm quaking in my boots (not)

Lol, I wish. I would be so proud! You are known as much by your enemies as your friends

[JohnSJ]

11. +++

[usonian]

4. Try getting your news from aggregators on the web.

I use DU and Hacker News (cuz I am a tech head) but you might consider DU and one or two others.

I visit twitter only when I click or press a twitter link by accident!

And I am fully informed (maybe too informed). I share the best links I find,

Some ideas are here. YMMV. This is not an endorsement. Other lists were pretty awful by comparison.

https://themeisle.com/blog/news-aggregator-websites-examples/

Or you might choose Fark.
https://fark.com

Snide beats outright lies. (screenshot)



Few people know how to block sites in their routers, computer firewalls, DNS provider (you might try listing twitter in your DNS provider’s “adult site” list?) or even ad-blocker lists. I wish there were a simpler answer that the unsophisticated user could apply. I suspect that for most, asking their internet provider about “parental controls” might lead to a way to block “obscene” sites like twitter.


As for twitter links, I agree and have urged people to post screenshots. Unfortunately, DU’s images must be posted offsite and that’s a layer of complexity that most have trouble with.

[paleotn]

7. X twitter or whatever it's called has been off my list for a while now

[MineralMan]

9. OK. Do what you wish. We will, too.

I got off Twitter the day Musk took control of it. But that's not the point.

Each of us controls our own online activities. Telling everyone else to do or not do something is a little presumptive of you, I think.

And, I include everyone in your household. It is easy not to use Twitter. You simply do not use it.

As for your broad banning on a site across the board, well, that's your decision, and you made it for others, as well.

Hmm...

[CloudWatcher]

10. DU

> It is easy not to use Twitter. You simply do not use it.

Sorry MM, this is not true.

DU posts often have embedded links to twitter that auto-load when you open the post. And the OP's are often not labeled as linking to Twitter. So just opening a "cute video" or "funny meme" post on DU is enough to send traffic to twitter.

And, yes, I checked with the other household members before throwing the switch. I've been talking about it for months. And yes, I closed my Twitter account the day Musk bought the thing, but keep seeing twitter stuff here on DU.

Edit to add an example: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181881124

[hunter]

15. Yep. The way I'm set up all I see is "Link to tweet"

If I click on that, I've inserted an "Are you sure you want to do that?" message.

Since Elon Musk bought twitter my answer is generally "NO." He doesn't need to know I'm fond of hummingbirds.

[MineralMan]

18. Sbrug...I

[hunter]

13. I blocked Twitter before Musk bought it simply because it annoyed me.

The signal-to-noise ratio was unacceptable to me. I avoid television news and opinion for similar reasons.

I'm not someone who is excited to know the "latest up-to-the-minute news" especially if it's something that does not affect me immediately or something I cannot possibly influence in any way, for example, the war in Ukraine. I'll leave the job of separating the wheat from the chaff to the journalists I trust.

I support honest thoughtful journalism with my dollars, not so much by my willingness to make myself a soft target for advertisers and propagandists.

[WarGamer]

14. Everyone is free to do what THEY want to do...

Block Twitter.

I love Twitter because Twitter is what THE USER makes it.

I don't see politics and Trump BS on my feed because the algorithm knows I'm not interested in it.

I follow sociologists and archaeologists and historians and educators like Mary Beard.

Link to tweet