Word of the Day: Conflict Entrepreneur
Where there is online strife, there's a buck to be made.
I heard a story on NPR about the new location feature on X which revealed that many users are not located where you would expect. For example, an account focused on gay rights in Japan was actually set up in Brazil.
Renee DiResta, a professor of public policy at the University of Baltimore, refers to so-called ‘conflict entrepreneurs’, who seek to monetize areas of online contention. X is cancelling some of these accounts if they misrepresent their origin.
Not seeing post location notes on my account - likely because I'm stationary (on desktop, no mobile tracking device) in Toronto - and I put a latitude-longitude on my account description indicating the local Community Centre a block from my house.