Twitter's Traffic Falling Relative to Bluesky
futurism.com
Over the last month, traffic to the site formerly known as Twitter has taken a nosedive as Bluesky continues to bring in more and more users.

Less than 30 days ago article, hope thats ok. It will be interesting to see the effects of the myriad of websites that are de-listing twitter.

  • Glasgow@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    Look who is behind Eliza too. A crackpot who flipped to MAGA to accelerate us to ‘network states’. More info here

    As someone who works in the field I also believe there are several red flags in the way the article is written and a bunch of contradictions. For example, “hiding crumbs in the code” would generally imply something slightly more sophisticated than a public file that the author himself tells you how to find in the repository with even a screenshot of it.

    Maybe there is, doesn’t seem like anyone else is bothering to look.

    The main issue for me though is that it is highly unlikely that the owner of X would need to use an external tool that establishes a finicky integration with X from the outside to generate fake content when he obviously has control over the internal private code and data of X itself. It’s beyond naive to think that if they wanted to create fake accounts, fake posts or manipulate the content users see, they would need this Eliza thing to do it effectively. This tool is clearly aimed at people who don’t own the platforms they intend to use it on.

    Could still acces that through the API all the same? Sure there’s plenty of other frameworks they use they didnt build themselves.

    • HarryOru@lemm.ee
      1·
      3 hours ago

      I hope this doesn’t come off as defensive, but I’m not sure how many times I need to repeat that I’m not at all disputing or discrediting the existence and danger of Eliza, other tools like it, and generative AI in general. Like I said, I very strongly believe that this type of manipulation absolutely happened, is still happening, and was happening even way before LLMs became a thing. I absolutely believe the public should be loudly and urgently made aware of this.

      If there is anything that this Substack proves regardless of its veridicity, it’s that this is just the beginning. Very soon, the internet as you and I know it will entirely cease to exist and the very concept of “truth” will follow. This is the reality we are witnessing today. So trust me, I completely understand and share your discomfort at seeing that “nothing is happening” and no one is (at least publicly) looking into this.

      Still, if the meaning of “truth” is what’s being weaponized here, I cannot in good conscience claim that, to my honest understanding, this specific Substack is currently proof of anything. And please do not take my word for it, keep sharing it and looking into it because I’d be the first to celebrate being proven wrong about this.

      To answer your question about whether they could just do it via API, I mean, it’s certainly possible, but in the same way that breaking into your own house through a window when you have the front door key in your pocket is possible. And hey, again, don’t take my word for it. That is just the most likely conclusion to me, but logic doesn’t apply to these people and their schemes the way it does for you and me.

      EDIT: forgot to say, thanks for providing that link to your thread and collecting the relevant information. I’ll make sure to read it.

      • Glasgow@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        You mistake me as trying to convince you of it’s objective truth, rather than sharing information that stands even without the whistleblower. Someone could’ve figured out it was super weird a org backed by Marc had a public example like that and made this all up. But why was it there in the first place? Super odd considering his MO to accelerate us at all cost. If he isn’t doing it he’s going to be wishing he thought of it.

        Confused what you mean by the API. Eliza is a framework for agents right? Whatever they were doing they’d do it via their internal API as it already has all the methods etc for posting. So they could either write something custom like eliza to manage that bit, or just connect Eliza?