What’s happening right now is eerily close to the “Gleichschaltung” that happened after Hitler took over Germany, basically bringing all media in line with the will of the party and the leader. It was news media then, it is social media now. Because for many people, social media is their primary news source.

Doesn’t mean it can’t drag down the fediverse with it. Threads has already more than four times as many users as Mastodon.