Thus ended a decade and a half of my active—and occasionally hyperactive—participation in Twitter, then X. I am not shuttering my account, in case new management comes around one day, and because my job requires me to visit the site from time to time. But I’m not contributing to the platform anymore while it remains under its current leadership because I feel that now amounts to supporting someone who doesn’t merely have inhumane views, but who has done his damnedest to chase away those who disagree with him, while financially rewarding those who seek to fuel discord and hatred. Fine, X is what it has become, and I’m off. Now I’m spending all my microblogging time on Bluesky and Mastodon.

Do I miss X? Really not—my brief time off the platform has already spared me the confusing consequences of Musk’s decisions to scrap headlines and to throw unmarked, unblockable programmatic ads into the mix. I do miss Twitter, but Twitter doesn’t exist anymore. Are those other platforms adequate replacements for Twitter? Kind of.

Bluesky, which is enjoying an extremely visible influx of Twitter evacuees, is fast becoming a lot like certain aspects of old Twitter—the left-wing cool kids and the policy people, who also tend to skew progressive. It’s a bit too echo-chamber-y, but on the other hand, most users currently seem to be enjoying the chance to bask in expertise and mutual respect. I will be interested to see how Bluesky evolves once it inevitably moves from an invitation-only model to something truly open.

Mastodon is…Mastodon, only far more active these days. Again, there’s a leftward tilt, and some policy wonks, but it’s still largely old-school tech people hanging out. It’s also fun, but it feels as if the more usable Bluesky is achieving greater momentum right now.

So now I’m actively using two platforms instead of one, but I would say my combined time spent still doesn’t match that from back when Twitter was fun. That’s probably because I’m not following as many people as I did on Twitter, so there isn’t as much content to read. The volume of content is growing quickly as the migration continues, though. On Bluesky and to a slightly lesser extent Mastodon, it is now possible to abandon X and find a rewarding experience on the other side.

But again, I miss the Twitter that doesn’t exist anymore—the place where everyone agreed to hang out. Things did sometimes get nasty when ideologies clashed, and it’s frankly therapeutic to have a more harmonious environment, but I’m not sure it’s healthy to have a situation where people risk losing touch with what the other side thinks. On the old Twitter, for all its faults, that was impossible.

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David Meyer

NEWSWORTHY

23andMe data breach. Hackers attacked the genomics firm 23andMe and have been sharing a database of users who have Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. NBC News reports that some of those affected fear the list “could be used by Nazis.” It appears the genetic testing outfit’s systems weren’t hacked as such, but rather attackers got access to some accounts, which gave them visibility into thousands of other accounts via 23andMe’s DNA Relatives feature.

China computing power. China’s tech ministry wants the country’s aggregated computing power to be 50% greater a couple of years from now, with a particular increase in data center capacity in the west of the country. As Reuters notes, this all has a lot to do with China’s AI ambitions.

More nuclear power for data centers. It’s not just Microsoft that’s looking into powering its data centers with small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs)—data center operator Standard Power is also planning two SMR-powered facilities that will use NuScale’s technology to generate nearly two gigawatts of power. The Register reports that the target markets will include AI and blockchain mining, which is usually a notoriously dirty business.

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

63%

—The amount by which global venture funding for crypto startups contracted between Q3 2022 and the last quarter, according to PitchBook data. Bloomberg reports that early-stage crypto deals are still happening, but many late-stage investors have left the sector behind.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Elon Musk is cutting Tesla prices in the U.S. again after poor Q3 sales, leaving bulls with ‘no way to sugarcoat this,’ by Christiaan Hetzner

AI is getting ‘more hype than it deserves,’ Warren Buffett’s right-hand man Charlie Munger says, by Chloe Taylor

The biggest sports battle isn’t on the field. It’s at the negotiating table as Big Tech fights Big Media for dominance in streaming major league athletics, by Rachyl Jones

Sam Bankman-Fried wanted to shut down trading firm Alameda weeks before FTX bankruptcy, says cofounder Gary Wang, by Leo Schwartz

How stablecoins are accelerating dollarization in the Global South—and why financial inclusion needs Web3 solutions, by Alex Tapscott

Congress gave schools $190bn in pandemic aid for tech firm software and services but there’s little evidence the programs helped students, by the Associated Press

BEFORE YOU GO

Bad times at Bandcamp. Epic Games’ sale of Bandcamp to Songtradr, an audio-licensing company, doesn’t seem to be going well for Bandcamp’s employees—who weren’t included in the sale. According to Wired, Songtradr hasn’t given job offers to some Bandcamp workers, and many report being unable to access critical systems.

Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire indicated that there is no need to change the platform, which is hugely popular among independent musicians, but worker representatives fear the new management doesn’t appreciate how much its employees have to do with that popularity. “We’re all here because we love artists and we want to create a space for them to succeed,” said software engineer Blade Barringer.