Elon Musk takes over of the Twitter To be complete. After going into the company’s headquarters on a Play with the word “sink” Earlier this week, the Tesla founder officially took the helm, closing a $44 billion deal and mining at least four of the company’s top brass in the process.
Everyone knew this was coming, knew Musk intend to make changes about how the site is moderated (or not). They used to scary day since news of the deal started spreading in April. So yes, people went to the foundation’s burial ground – i.e. the bird app itself – to deliver its eulogy.
Not long after Musk dashed into Twitter HQ with a sink, NBC News writer Ben Collins posted a reminder on the platform: “Okay guys, this is Hour 0 for this site, post your favorite tweets and give them a kiss goodbye.” He attached a screenshot of a 2021 tweet that read, “Me and my friends will kill ET with a hammer, I can tell you a lot of that.”
Another topic call for Members of the Black Twitter to share “things you learned, people you met, memes, tweets, videos”.
Both threads reveal the long string of Twitter’s biggest hits, the little moments that, since 2006, have made up the site. And while many praised Twitter That Was, others – who did not recommend alternative platforms – talked about how to use the site’s existing functionality to stop the bad guys. Because of all the talk about Twitter being a hell space, people go back and forth again and again, avoiding racists, deviantists, TERFs, homophobes and Nazis in the hope of finding that one insightful tweet or one mind-blowing topic makes it all worthwhile.
Those are the moments that people fear losing the most. Because even as Musk talks about wanting Twitter to be a digital city squarehe also has some insightful ideas about content moderation, ideas that can be devalued or completely removed, important voices for the platform.
Like Chris Stokel-Walker reported, bot followers noticed an uptick in right-wing accounts in April after Musk’s deal made headlines. Some have pointed out that those who have been de-disclosed could return to Musk-censored Twitter, which Christopher Bouzy of bot detection system Bot Sentinel said “could be catastrophic for women and communities”. disadvantaged groups already face targeted abuse and harassment on the platform.”
In general, I tend to agree with my colleague Jason Parham that a mass exodus from Twitter not necessarily a bad thing. If it happens – something that could still be a few years away – it “could create the next iteration of social media somewhere else.” Digital culture is constantly changing, and it is not necessary to stay on a platform that is already a nightmare. However, in this moment, it is difficult to hear the prayer being sung on Twitter and not want to sing along.
