E.U. Prepares Major Penalties Against X

Good, it is a start. And much better would be for those EU politicians, journalists and other people to move to Mastodon, Pixelfed, and similar independent platforms. That would make a much better example.

No one is truly independent when it comes to politics. Everyone belongs to a political tribe, and if you don't, you are against whatever tribe you are currently engaging with.

I can't understand why government offices for many countries are still on Twitter. At least Germany has their own mastodon service, but my home country Finland still uses Twitter.

Because most ordinary people are on Twitter and not Mastodon

That's circular, though: the more services become available elsewhere, the easier it is for people to switch.

People don’t move to places without ordinary people for “services”. That’s not how social networks work.

Most ordinary people are on neither

Ordinary people are on neither. The group which is on Twitter are politicians and they can decide to move to Mastodon if they want.

I am not sure how that is a reaction to the grandparent, but we also don't fall into the same us-versus-them trap that divides the US. I think most people in the EU agree on several basic principles regardless of their political preferences:

- If you get sick, costs should be covered by universal health insurance.

- If you lose your job, there should be a safety net.

- When you retire, there should be a decent pension.

- Everybody should have access to good education.

- We don't want war.

- We don't want to be powerless against megacorps.

In other words, there is much more that is binding us than what is dividing us (in my country, pretty much every party from extreme left to populist right agrees on these things). For those things that we don't agree on, we should find compromises.

In my experience it is the other way round. The reason people are on Twitter is because politicians are there. If they move the journalists and politically interested will quickly follow.

That's a pretty bad argument. For one the majority of people are on neither. For two, it's almost always about reading, and twitter doesn't let you read posts without an account.

That maybe true for Meta services but Twitter was never really a thing in EU.

I understand why everyone is one Twitter - because people and important people/orgs are there. What I don't understand is, why not also publish the posts on a Mastodon account. You don't have to engage there, but at least don't force people to use Twitter.

Twitter was never really big in most European countries. I only have an account to follow AI hype and drama.

I guess that depends on location but I’ll refine my statement to say ordinary people are overwhelmingly more likely to be on Twitter than Mastodon.

Those aren't that universally agreed upon (except war/megacorps/education) in working class/middle class. It's just that EU has high amount of people depending on those safety nets/pensions that any politician not for it is committing political suicide.

I don't have a problem with public bodies being on Twitter, but they should definitely be on somewhere else too. They need to be where the people are, and people are going other places.

Ordinary people follow politicians on social media?

Truth social pretty much proves that's the case.

> most people in the EU agree on several basic principles regardless of their political preferences

Most in the US will, too. The nuances are where is falls apart, both in the US and in Europe.

- Should all costs be covered, for everything, no matter the cost? How would that work / How do we disband the laws of nature?

- How long should that net carry you? Does it only break the fall, or does it replace your job for eternity? Who pays for it? Do you have any obligations when losing your job?

- How high should that pension be? Who should pay for it? Should it (in part or in full) depend on you ever having worked? Can you choose when to retire?

- What is "good education", and what is "access"? I'm not all that bright, do I have a right to be taught at university? For how long? Who pays for it? Is anything expected in return?

- Are we pacifists who refuse to acknowledge that war might find us, even if we're not looking for it? Or are we preparing for war because we don't want it and believe that an aggressive imperial force will pounce unless it believe us to be capable of defending ourselves?

I don't believe that everyone in your country, much less in Europe, agrees. Once you remove the vague language and put concrete things in, you'll see people disagreeing on each point.

If it was that simple, we'll have peace on earth because everyone will be able to agree on those core things - as long as you promise them that it's their interpretation that counts.

> I understand why everyone is one Twitter

False premise, most people are not on Twitter. Outside of Japan and the US, comparatively few people use Twitter.

In Pakistan Twitter is banned (and blocked by ISPs) because Twitter won't ban the accounts of people/orgs the Pakistani State doesn't like. So, Twitter is not accessible in Pakistan without VPN (which are psuedo banned as well).

Yet, all the politicians (both government and non-government), media personalities, and many state run institutions actively run Twitter accounts. So it is one of the primary ways to understand what they are saying.