Twitter is a social network and microblogging service, where users can share content and interact publicly via posts known as “Tweets”. Users can also communicate via private messages.
Twitter was created and launched in the year 2006, founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.
Previously a publicly traded company, Twitter became a private company after its purchase by Elon Musk for $44 billion USD, on April 25, 2022.
Twitter’s Features
Tweets, which are short messages posted to the account-holder’s twitter Profile, is the main feature of Twitter.
Tweets were initially limited to 140 characters in length, since the platform’s launch. Eventually, in 2017, Twitter doubled this 140-character limitation to 280.
Other key features of Twitter are: Private Messages, Followers, Following, Likes, Replies, Re-Tweets, Hashtags, Usernames, Image and Video uploads.
There are various settings which affect the visibility and available options of the content that is shared on Twitter.
Users can set their profile as “Private”, where only their Followers will be allowed to see their posted content.
There are also additional settings which can control who is allowed to reply to a user’s shared Tweets.
Issues & Controversies of Twitter
Twitter has developed a reputation of being a toxic environment for most of its users. A very large proportion of interactions on Twitter, tend to be argumentative and combative in nature. The Twitter space, to many observers, appears to breed large amounts of negativity and conflicts.
The negative environment seen on Twitter, spans across mostly all niches of topics and discussions, however, Politics in particular, draws the most heated exchanges, as well as the most publicity, even outside of Twitter.
There has also been great amounts of criticism towards Twitter’s polices, and towards the moderation of the site’s content and users. Certain actions that were taken by Twitter staff, such as, the suspending of an active US President’s Twitter account, as well as the accounts of numerous other public figures, has been seen as very controversial decisions, and a possible overstepping of its powers, drawing great amounts of backlash towards the company.
Twitter Alternative
SimilarWorlds (SW) is considered to be a great alternative to Twitter, by many individuals who have used both services.
Like any online community, SimilarWorlds does inevitably experience some conflicts between disagreeing users; however, SW goes far beyond other known social networks, in terms of having features in place which reduces the conflicts that are perpetuated between users.
Unlike Twitter, SW has many algorithms in place, which attempts to detect signs of friction between users, and attempts to cause separation between those conflicting users. In this way, users are exposed to less of a toxic environment, over time.
SimilarWorlds also does not have the 240-character limitation of Twitter. SW also offers its users the ability to edit posts, after they have been created, with an indicator that the post has been edited. As well, it has many more variant features and configurations for users to benefit from and enjoy.
Users do report a much higher level of satisfaction in using SimilarWorlds, over Twitter. Users also consider SW to be much more fair and balanced in their moderation of users and conflicts.
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