Helen De Cruz
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thread 1/12
Do you remember Medium, the online publishing platform started in 2012? It quickly gained momentum, was doing well, but then declined. Why this happened is instructive, and a cautionary tale for all social platforms. No-one is truly indispensable. People will move if the platform becomes unstable.
02:16 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 2/12
Medium filled a hiatus for long-form writing, longer than FB posts and certainly twitter. It allowed small content creators, such as me formerly, to quickly gain an audience and interact w audience without jumping through hoops to publish in magazines or newspapers
02:17 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 3/12
I began to use Medium in 2016 in the wake of the Brexit referendum. I lived in the UK and was very frustrated with how the rhetoric on foreigners (such as me) living in the UK was playing out and I wrote well-researched content counteracting the official media in the UK
02:19 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 4/12
My writings struck a chord (here's just one example).
https://medium.com/helenldecruz/why-humans-should-not-be-used-as-bargaining-chips-ever-8dd7371ff9fb
I quickly grew from a few tens of followers to 2.3k followers in a few years.
02:25 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 5/12
But then around 2021-2022 I noticed that Medium had begun to de-platform smaller content creators, my reads cratered, my willingness to write new content for the platform also went down, and I stopped engaging altogether.
02:28 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 6/12
Medium struggled with multiple issues namely it kept on changing it strategy and hence did not provide a stable base/reliable platform for its users. It then screwed over the creators who gave Medium its lifeblood through various changes (such as publishing deals with traditional outlets)
02:29 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 7/12
And then Medium became vulnerable to alternative players. People started up Wordpress blogs again, and Substack (launched in 2017) began to grow rapidly, capturing a lot of the small content creators/long form writers that Medium initially attracted.
02:34 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 8/12
Here's the key issue. It's something political philosophers (Mengzi, Machiavelli, Spinoza) have remarked: Even if you are a tyrant your power is *never* absolute. A tyrant cannot rule by fiat or by fear alone. Even a tyrant needs to have the approval of the people.
02:36 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 9/12
The various Medium owners didn't get that memo and it seems Musk did not get the memo either. Musk takes the users of Twitter for granted, thinking they'll stick with the platform no matter what in spite of glitches and de-platforming ppl he disagrees with.
02:38 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 10/12
Musk has a little spat with Substack? Sorry your substack posts won't show up on twitter (or not properly)
Musk has not paid the server space? Sorry your tweets are limited
Musk has fired most people who kept twitter going... sorry welcome to glitches forever.
02:40 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 11/12
Musk doesn't like tweets that support Ukraine bc of his buddies in Russia? No worries, the algorithm will deplatform anything with "Ukraine" in it
Musk doesn't like people who still see covid exists? No worries, let's shadowban "covid" too.
02:42 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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Helen De Cruz
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thread 12/12
The problem is, as all tyrants including Musk soon recognize, you cannot make people dance to your tune and if they have options (and they have to twitter) then they will move. No platform is indispensable, as Medium found out to its shame.
02:44 PM - Jul 01, 2023
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