So I think the main thing is scale—they're tech companies (in the category they're in) because of the engineering required to build & maintain something that operates at the scale they do

And IMO at least in the early years it was pretty impressive what Twitter was capable of in terms of technology.

If I remember, tech companies are generally those whose primary products are digitally based. And technology these days has essentially become synonymous woth the internet.

There is from a sociological standpoint. The Twitter format is one of several ways we've found people can replace the tea party (that is, the general style of soirée, not the political movement in the US, nor the act of mischief in Boston leading up to the US Revolutionary War). Granted, we have to buy our own snacks, but we save on the commute across town.

But I don't think the Twitter format for communities and threads is patented.

That said, I expect X (Ex-) to go the way of truth social and Gab and Parler, at which point someone can try again.

So as another part of the X Titanic sinks below the depths, it is news for anyone else trying to build their alternative, for-profit or otherwise.

Considering we now are looking at context-aware LLMs, I wonder if they could make a smarter moderation system that lets users know when they used a hate dog whistle (perhaps, inadvertently) and here's an alternative phrasing that circumvents the dog whistle.