This is edition 2024/220 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Welcome to the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
This is the last Ten@10 for 2024. I will resume publishing Ten@10 on 13 January.
This year has been huge for the site, with the redesign, the retirement of Juana and building the membership. We are now sitting just shy of 2000 paying members. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'll see you all again in 2025.
Enjoy!
1. Did the Ministry for Culture & Heritage close its Twitter account to protest Elon Musk?
Liam Hehir
- 🐦 Twitter, now called X, has undergone sweeping changes since Elon Musk took over, alienating leftwing users and organizations.
- 📉 Musk’s "free speech absolutism" has loosened moderation standards, allowing more space for overt racism and bigotry.
- 🔍 Musk’s Twitter reflects trade-offs of digital freedom, being both beneficial and problematic.
- 🔄 Increase in non-racist conservative content on Musk’s Twitter has upset progressives more than overt racism.
- 🏛️ Ministry for Culture and Heritage deactivated @NZHistory due to low engagement and resource constraints, not just politics.
- 💬 Decision was driven by strategic and operational factors, consolidating social media efforts for efficiency.
- 💼 Resource limitations and misinformation concerns influenced the Ministry’s decision to leave Twitter.
- 🔄 Concerns about misinformation often reflect left-coded perspectives and bias against dissenting views.
- 🤔 Ministry’s next steps will determine if its social media strategy remains pragmatic or politically influenced.
- 🐕 @NZHistory case appears routine, driven by practical reasons amid fiscal constraints and engagement challenges.
