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Crazy thought: if there was to be a major event (say a Russian invasion of Ukraine) would taking down Twitter, which seems to have a high proportion of journalists and politicians on it, not be a smart move? The few hours of confusion it would buy might be valuable.

It’s most likely just a run-of-the-mill outage, but the thought crossed my mind.


Occam's razor says it's the same thing it's always been: a bad release or a capacity problem.


I remember back in 2014, just before annexing Crimea, Russian operatives managed to shut off the power to the Ukrainian army's headquarters in Crimea, leading to a lot of confusion and inability to communicate (they had to use mobile phones). I think what's more likely, and more useful, is to somehow isolate Ukraine itself from the rest of the world (instead of just Twitter), so that the news of the invasion could not spread outside. Although in either case you still can't do much about satellite images.


I'm not seeing the value. Basically foreign civilians would be a couple of hours late to know about a foreign war?


Meanwhile pissing a lot of people off, turning more against them and making it harder for their own propagandists. Seems like a net negative.


Twitter's popularity in many places isn't nearly the same as in the anglo-speaking world, though I don't know the stats for the countries in your example. I'd say if internet access just got spotty in those areas, that would certainly benefit any kind of panic that might happen.


It's interesting there hasn't been so much as a peep about the Russia/Ukraine situation on here. I wonder why.


I am more worried about US/Canada border


How would that take down Twitter?


How is Russia invading Ukraine would take down Twitter? Does Twitter keep their DCs in Luhansk? I was speaking in context of significant ongoing global developments


It would create widespread confusion in at least two of its principal rivals, the UK and US, and slow their ability to react.


Why?



I’ve heard crazier ideas.


you would need to take down also Whatsapp, Facebook and telegram as well, though people could still exchange emails


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