Elon has nothing on the bureaucrats. The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) is shutting down in two weeks their unused “alternative social media platforms that prioritise individuals and their rights to privacy and data protection”. That includes the Twitter clone “EU Voice” and “EU Video”, a YouTube alternative. The latest exhilarating clip there – “EU Coast Guard Cooperation: Online Platform & Exchange Programme” – has 19 views after a week…

The EU’s Twitter clone has 18 active accounts – despite at least 40 EU bodies being told to use it when it kicked off. That’s privacy of a kind…

Twitter’s “Community Notes” system was designed “to create a better-informed world, by empowering people on X to collaboratively add helpful notes to posts that might be misleading“. The additions can be humourous and useful. Guido has crunched the numbers, though, and along with a marked uptick in the number of notes, it looks like they have a distinct target: Tories. Institutionalised bias, anyone?

The content of the notes themselves disproves any claim that the only answer is Tories talking more twaddle on Twitter. Editors “add context” by advertising Labour, defending Labour policies and clarifying Starmer’s comments when attacked by Tories. Labour attacks and vague policy promises go unchecked and uncontextualised. The only community note handed down to Labour’s account, meanwhile, explains that Sunak was instructed to use the side of the hammer in November…

Many of the notes attack Tory celebrations of Autumn Budget tax cuts by arguing threshold freezes are increasing overall tax – one goes so far as to say “It is misleading to suggest that “taxes are being cut“‘. Another says “tax has not been cut”. It’s fair to attack stealth tax rises and Guido does often, though it is factually incorrect to claim there has not been a tax cut. It also happens to be an explicit Labour attack line…

Noting power is given to a small number of Twitter users – Guido being one – and even fewer are proactive Community Note editors. While Elon Musk complains Wikipedia is “losing its objectivity” to the “biases of higher ranking editors” the same syndrome is affecting his platform. Twitter is not objective and shouldn’t pretend to be – it risks falling into the same trap…

Guido has long-campaigned for someone – Elon Musk, the government, anyone – to intervene and stop Robert Peston tweeting nonsense. He has a chronic problem. This morning ITV’s Political Editor yet again fired up Twitter before having his first cup of coffee. Here he is amplifying fake news to his 1.3 million followers, retweeting a claim that Downing Street had Photoshopped a picture of Rishi Sunak next to a group of school kids – as though it is inconceivable that such a photo could actually exist…

Apparently this is “quite funny“. It is also completely untrue. Here is the original image, which has been on the Downing Street Flickr account since February…

Eventually Peston realised he’d screwed up and admitted the photo wasn’t a “Photoshop boo-boo“, it was just “bad luck” and akin to a “modern Thick of It episode“. If journalists tweet without bothering to check, what does that say about the approach they take to their stories…

Since 2012 Guido has been promoting the idea of the last Friday in August being one day of positive exchanges on Twitter / X. For one day we can take a break fron culture wars and political extremists generally being unpleasant. Nobody is immune from negativity; Guido has been a repeat offender. Wouldn’t it be pleasantly calming if, for at least one day tomorrow, we all tried to be nice and civil in our tweets? We can do this – just for one day…

In recent years a lot of mental health charities got involved and helped spread the message and a bit of civility in these polarised times. Twitter / X can be a place for the exchange of information, rather than the abuse of political opponents. Friday is #PositiveTwitterDay. Let’s try for one day to make Twitter a positive experience for everyone…

To tweet your support just click this link: #PositiveTwitterDay

According to research by Westminster lobbyists Headland, one in four MPs (26%) have set up a profile on Threads, while 90% of UK MPs have their own Twitter/X handle. Despite the hype Meta’s Instagram linked Threads has gained 169 MPs.

Headland crunched the numbers and found that while there is only a marginal difference between which party had the most MPs on the new channel – with 39% (67) of the early adopters on the Conservative benches and 44% (77) Labour – Labour MPs have been the busiest. Only 12 Conservative MPs have been “active” (i.e., posted content more than once in the past week), versus 29 Labour MPs.

Headland’s Gregor Poynton tells Guido:

“It’s difficult to imagine how Westminster worked before tweeting, and while it seems as though X’s influence over the political news cycle is unlikely to change anytime soon, it is waning. The question for MPs will be whether it’s worth the time and energy to engage with both Threads and X.”

Despite Elon Musk’s exasperating at times tinkering with Twitter / X it will be hard for a rival social media platform to beat it because of the strong network effect – with 90% of politicians and 100% of political media on Twitter a rival will have to have a compelling advantage to cause a mass migration. Threads so far looks bare.