The screen is one weekly column devote to everything that happens in WIRED cultural world, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter.
A few years ago, in response one piece about the internet’s love of movies Carol, someone posted a tweet claiming “the year is 2017 and WIRED just discovered gay Twitter.” The objection is fair; maybe we’re a little late to the party, but it’s also a sign that, on Twitter, subgroups are practically endless. gay twitter, Black TwitterTrans Twitter, Feminist Twitter, Asian American Twitter — it’s all there, if you know where to look.
In the last week, since Elon Musk’s $44 Billion Takeover of Twitter, users have kept an eye on the deal, wondering if Musk’s stewardship of the platform might erode those communities. “With Elon Musk in charge, it’s the beginning of the end for #BlackTwitter,” Written LA time. “Elon Musk once tweeted ‘the pronoun sucks.’ What if he owns Twitter? ” Ask themadded that his ownership can be a “nightmare” for LGBTQ+ people.
inside Times works, quoted by writer Erika D. Smith litigation against Tesla because racial bias (most likely lawsuits where Twitter purchases are avoiding the news cycle) is cause for concern. More broadly, users wonder if Musk’s talk about promoting free speech on the platform means looser regulation of content, the kind of thing that could lead to an increase in harassment. puppets and fights. To Musk, free speech is just any speech permitted by law, but as my colleague Gilad Edelman pointed out “Allowing any legal speech means opening Twitter to articulate racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, support for violence, and worse.” If that Not Musk’s intentions, he continued, Musk’s plans still sound like terrible news because “it means he’s spent almost no time seriously thinking about free speech.” before trying to buy out Twitter in the name of free speech.”
In Musk’s mind, “Twitter serves as the de facto public town square,” and as such, it should be a place where people can speak their mind. However, this metaphor seems a bit wrong. Yes, for people like Musk, it’s the place of debates they consider important to humanity; People with millions of followers are often the ones who think what they’re saying is most important. But for the rest of Twitter — some 229 million daily users—It’s more like a city. People have neighborhoods to which they stick; sometimes they go out and talk to their friends, sometimes they watch from their windows, sometimes they talk to strangers in the park. Most of these conversations aren’t the kind of world-changing conversations Musk seems to want, but they’re also important.
In Musk’s view, opening Twitter will encourage dialogue between people with diverse views and will promote “functioning democracy. “But if you pretend it’s a city, Musk has essentially bought the mayor. (Not just a town square head is ideal.) The mayor is elected; Musk is not. He calls himself Twitter’s leader, and while he can hope even his “worst critics” stay on the platform.”because that’s what free speech means‘, he sounds oblivious to the fact that the death threats in your mentions sound much scarier when you’re not the richest person in the world. Musk hasn’t even had the reins yet, and the former far-right and banned neo-Nazis have tried set up a new account. Gab, Parler, Truth Social, and other social media sites with broad definitions of free speech have been “flooded with extremism, racism, alienation, violence, and terrorism.” Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, told WIRED this week. This is possible direct impact Twitter’s neighborhoods are already the most vulnerable. No one wants to go out without headphones knowing someone will randomly shout at them. The doers are usually the ones where no bad words exist.
Perhaps they are also the ones who ignore harassment and hate speech, or are willing to go above and beyond to stay engaged. It’s not like Twitter isn’t a cesspool now. But everyone has a breaking point, and if members of any given community start giving in at an even higher rate, fewer of them will notice each other. Maybe Twitter never deserved their insights in the first place. Twitter has been thought to be a very valuable tool for its elite power users — businesses, entertainers, journalists (hello!), politicians — but this is not true. is about them. They will probably be fine. Those with less than a thousand followers looking for a community on Twitter or trying to build one, are less so. They will be able to say what they want, but they can easily be yelled at.
