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   Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Tuesday, 20-Jan-2026 01:38:40 JST Cory Doctorow

   From the earliest days of social media, social media bosses have been at war with sociability. To create a social media service is to demarcate legitimate and illegitimate forms of sociability. It's a monumental act of hubris, really.

   --

   If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

   https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/19/billionaire-solipsism/#sirius-cybernetics

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   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 20-Jan-2026 03:53:08 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @jamesmarshall @pluralistic It makes sense as soon as you realize they see friendship and other social phenomena between their users the way a farmer sees interactions between their livestock.

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     James M. (jamesmarshall@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 20-Jan-2026 03:53:09 JST James M.

     in reply to

     @pluralistic it's always been striking to me how little FB and Zuckerberg seem to understand about actual friendship. For example, no one with genuine friendships would think that "AI" friend substitutes could replace real, sentient friends. It seems psychopathic and solipsistic.