twofourseven.bsky.social

Purgatory?!

What we’re witnessing in America is what happens when disordered discourse captures a political party, then the state itself. The Republican Party was the first to fall - abandoning truth for conspiracy, ideology for grievance, and policy for performative outrage.

Thousands in Midwestern GOP Districts Attend Sanders' First Stops on Tour to Fight Oligarchy | Common Dreams Senator Bernie Sanders is on a mission to fight oligarchy and empower the people. With a powerful message against Trumpism and billionaire influence, he's rallying Americans to stand up for democracy....

This is really smart by @sanders.senate.gov Go to republican districts and push voters to pressure their republican reps.

www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-...

Who’s backing Stargate Project? OpenAI, Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA and SoftBank.

Who isn’t on board? Elon Musk, who’s come out fighting by replying to OpenAI saying, “They don’t actually have the money” - Techbros will battle it out.

Businesses and governments need now to react.

Turbo-Charging AI: Stargate’s $500B Global Impact — Julio Romo Stargate Project is a $500bn initiative to transform AI innovation and drive global opportunities for businesses, investors, and governments. Learn how businesses, governments and investors and their ...

Trump and Big Tech are going all in on AI. First with US$100bn investment to rebuild the necessary infrastructure in place, then up to US$500bn.

This strategy can redesign the US economy and challenge the world.

My thoughts.

www.twofourseven.co.uk/blog/22/1/20...

If the issue concerns risk and influence, an educational system that teaches the importance of facts and critical thinking is needed.

TikTok appears to be taking an intermission. Let's see what happens!

Meta and X go on about the importance of free speech as a reason not to moderate. Yet on Chinese-owned TikTok, it's not about free speech but the risk of influence from 'foreign' adversaries. This signals that allowing US misinformation on Facebook is OK.

What is interesting is how Meta and others have navigated scandals in the US and elsewhere relating to misinformation, hate content and the damage that platforms like Instagram have on children. Zuckerberg apologises for this but is now moving to dismiss content moderators.

The TikTok Ban: National Security or Corporate Competition? — Julio Romo TikTok has gone dark in the US after a law banning it came into effect. But, is TikTok a national security or an example of US corporate lobbying and influence against a foreign and Chinese digital an...

Is the TikTok ban in the US because it's a security risk or a case of corporate powerplay by Meta and other American digital social media companies?

I decided to examine TikTok's history and how lobbying has shaped its perception in the US.

www.twofourseven.co.uk/blog/19/1/20...

One thing is certain: neither understands the cultural differences around the world. They are both just using their view of free speech to benefit their own interests.

By ending content fact-checking, Zuckerberg has increased the reputation risk for companies advertising on Facebook and Instagram Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that Meta would end the fact-checking programme and replace it with a Community Notes system, similar to what Elon Musk has in place on X. Zuckerberg also said that...

Zuckerberg's aims are more focused, especially given that Meta makes about 97% of its revenue from advertising. Here are my thoughts on this LinkedIn article:
www.linkedin.com/pulse/ending...

And my blog: www.twofourseven.co.uk/blog/8/1/202...

Elon Musk’s Political Alignments: Strategic Moves or Reputational Risk? Elon Musk, one of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs, has expanded his role and ambition from disrupting technology to wanting to disrupt global political discussions. The world’s richest pers...

I've written about Musk, his strategy and risks in this LinkedIn Article: www.linkedin.com/pulse/elon-m... and on my blog: www.twofourseven.co.uk/blog/7/1/202...

Zuckerberg, in his statement yesterday, went as far as to say that he and Meta will be working with the incoming Trump administration to "work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more."

Dig deeper, and you start to see that for both Musk and Zuckerberg, it is all about deregulation and influence. Ways in which they can protect their business interests.

Their playbook? Appear populist, support a cause, create chaos and reap the rewards.

Elon Musk this week used his platform to project his support for the people in the UK and Germany.

Then, Mark Zuckerberg decided to end Meta's fact-checking and moderation, claiming these are all about censorship and against free speech.

Their moves are about money and power.

Back in 2004 I worked for a charity that recruited care home staff from Poland. The reason? Just couldn’t find staff in the UK. They followed their recruitment drive into other EU countries.

Staff were brilliant, and needed and helped people in care homes and community.

Gibraltar international airport.

So, here’s to the start of what looks like will be an ‘interesting’ 2025.

Wether in politics, business or investment, now more than ever we need to be strategic and keep focused on the outcome.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and 2025.

More thoughts from me once I land from Gibraltar 🇬🇮

Congratulations to you both. Wishing you all the best for the future!!

Misinformation is an issue, and brands and organisations need to take an always-on monitoring approach in order to counter reputational challenging comments and content that is shared on both open and dark social channels. A huge challenge for those in strategic communications.

Social selling is on the rise, but people are becoming more aware of the value and the quality of what they buy, regardless of who sells them items.

Reaching audiences on social media is not the first option, but strategies need to consider open social and dark social media channels.

The usage of social media, dark or public, is the place to reach audiences, more so that through legacy channels.

As an example, people are watching more YouTube videos on TV than Netflix. But that still requires strategic views on how to create long-form content that secures engagement and trust.

There is a lack of trust in GenAI by users of social media.

While brands and content creators are adopting #GenAI, there is a trust gap between users and the content they see and trust.

AI is a tool and not yet a game-changer.

Trust is the one currency that organisations need to be mindful of when using #AI.

Battenhall: Is the era of mass social media over?

People are retreating into social media siloes, call it 'dark social,' where 95% of content-sharing activity takes place.

This is creating challenges for brands, companies and governments that want to reach and engage with audiences.

Julio Romo on LinkedIn: Navigating the Social Media Landscape in 2025: Audiences Are Retreating… Is the era of mass social media over? Asks Battenhall in its latest 'The Year Ahead In Social' report, launched yesterday in London at a 400-attended event in…

🧵 Social media has changed, and the latest 'The Year Ahead In Social' report launched yesterday by agency @battenhall.com highlights how we are all moving towards the usage of 'Dark Social.'

done a write-up here: www.linkedin.com/posts/twofou....

Some key points on #socialmedia include ... 🧵

Trends in social for 2025. Battenhall Annual Report.

Great panel on a range of subjects.

The growth of Bluesky

Which social channels have how many people.

Bluesky. It’s growing. When X removed the block function, it created an X-sodus!

Battenhall founder and CEO opens the event.

The growth in dark social as a comms channel.

Social is still a place for communities.

The fall of Twitter.

Great to be at @battenhall.com for their Annual Social Media Survey / Report / Trends.

The missions are a great way, but business need to know the destination and the reward and value that can be unlocked.

We are world leading in innovation, 5th out of 130+ countries, but failing at transforming this into growth and productivity.

Focus and sell the value and the future!

In summary, the government needs to:

1. Adopt a collaboration and innovation mindset and establish a collaborative mindset culture in UK business community.
2. Improve how UK invests in itself and high growth sectors.
3. Sell the vision of the future. The outcome of the transformation.

Julio Romo on LinkedIn: Strategic Industrial Transformation: Unlocking the UK's Global… Consultation on the UK’s new Industrial Strategy has closed. Since the unveiling of the Green Paper the government has gone through some turbulent times as it…

The consultation for the UK’s Industrial Strategy closed on Sunday night.

Reading it with the Labour Party manifesto makes interesting reading ane a view into what the future could look like. I wrote some of my thoughts on it here.

www.linkedin.com/posts/twofou...