Twitter: For when you need confirmation that even the most reasonable take can bring out the most venomous replies.
That’s the experience Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s social media team had on Thursday. The Democrat from Massachusetts shared a link to a USA Today story about new regulations she would support that would mandate a universal charger type for mobile devices. While Warren didn’t specify that she would prefer to mandate USB-C chargers, it stands to reason that’s what would win the day if any legislation about this subject were drafted. That’s because the European Union is on the way towards mandating USB-C itself.
But of course, even an innocuous push for universal phone chargers brought out people who don’t want the government to do anything about anything ever. Warren’s replies and quote tweets were full of people making the case against such legislation, usually with a better reply making the case for it immediately after.
Some folks seem to believe mandating USB-C charging now would stop anyone from ever making a better charging standard in the future for some reason.
Others laid out plainly why all the different charger types we’re forced to use every day should be flattened out into one.
This post laid bare the partisan motivations beyond some of the worst replies.
While this one made a harsh (but fair) argument about why Apple still hasn’t latched onto USB-C, despite rumors that it may happen soon.
What’s the lesson from all this? Never tweet.
