At Twitter, chaos rules; yet there is method in it
Another day on Elon Musk's Twitter, and another day I fear the social media platform will soon become unusable as a source of information and opinions. Today's news was the latest version of the billionaire's plan to introduce its verified service with various colored checks for people, businesses, and governments next Friday.
It follows his disastrous initial launch that saw a spike in users impersonating brands and celebrities on the platform; many effectively made the point that selling a verified badge to unverified accounts would lead to chaos. When it led to a rapid proliferation of verified Elon Musk accounts, Musk realized his folly.
Regular users and companies are unhappy
It was not just the regular users that were unhappy with the devaluation of the verified badge; companies complained too. For instance, a user posing as the pharmaceutical business Eli Lilly & Co. tweeted that insulin would be free, causing a dip in the stock price and requiring the company to publish an apology.
Eli Lilly and a few other insulin-selling pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. charge about ten times the amount for the same product as other western countries. These companies must apologize to the uncountable number of Americans that died prematurely because of their greed. Still, this time the sadness experienced by many Americans because of this tweet was not their fault.
(I will put this paragraph between brackets since it has little to do with Musk and Twitter. However, I think it is relevant to remind you that the co-winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine, Frederick Banting, and his two colleagues sold the insulin patent to the University of Toronto for $1. Banting notably said: "Insulin does not belong to me; it belongs to the world." His desire was for everyone who needed access to it to have it. Instead, Eli Lilly & Co. turned insulin into a profit machine, leading to the loss of lives. They have a lot to apologize for. Blatant greed leads to richness at the top at the cost of the misery of many others. This brings us back to Musk: just ask the Twitter employees he just fired).
More badges in more colors
Musk is back with another badge plan. The most noticeable change is the three-color system of gold badges for businesses, grey for governments, and blue checks for people, including celebrities. His announcement that verified accounts will be manually authenticated before a check is activated is less colorful but more relevant.
In case you missed the news in the past weeks, most of his staff, their dedication, experience, and knowledge, are no longer available to help set up the badge system. Musk wasted no time trashing the relatively well-functioning Twitter he had acquired when he fired half of the network's employees. Next, he threatened to terminate dissenters and demanded that the remaining staff agree to work "long hours at high intensity." This led to an estimated additional 1,200 Twitter employees quitting last week.
A "general amnesty" for suspended accounts
Today's new chapters in the Twitter saga followed yesterday's twist when Musk declared a "general amnesty" for all suspended accounts. This is worrying. Some of the most controversial individuals will rejoin the network in the coming days.
Musk referred to support he had received from his followers on his account and then announced that an amnesty for blocked users would start next week. Only accounts that are pushing spam or breaking the law will remain banned.
The billionaire claims that the people have spoken, referring to "Vox Populi, Vox Dei," but his interpretation of "the people" is flawed; only some of his Twitter followers have spoken. If Donald Trump asks his followers on his Truth Social network for reelection as President of the United States, he will likely be very successful, but the voice of the people is not the same as that of Trump's people.
What's next? Shall we do a poll in jail for immediate amnesty for all inmates? It will likely score much higher than the 72 percent that supported Musk's amnesty in his vote. But these criminals are not the people either.
The potential for further incitement of violence
After publishing a similar poll over the weekend, Musk used the exact Latin phrase before reactivating former president Donald Trump's account. But he never mentioned why Trump's Twitter account was banned; it was for good reasons. The network had decided to permanently ban Trump after the January 6 storming of the Capitol because it deemed "the potential of further incitement of violence" too great. Meanwhile, Trump has no imminent plans to return to Twitter and insists he is sticking with his own Truth Social platform.
Musk's actions may seem erratic and only lead to chaos. But there may be method in what seems to be his madness: at a closer look, many of his actions neatly fit into his right-wing agenda. So let's look at the kinds of accounts that have been suspended. For instance, David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. And then there is Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Donald Trump, and Katie Hopkins, a right-wing broadcaster from the U.K.
Musk's announcement for the 'amnesty' came just days after he unblocked the account of U.S. rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, who was blocked last month for making antisemitic remarks. There is a clear pattern here: the bulk of individuals reinstated have ties to the extreme right and was previously banned for disseminating false information, instigating violence, or posting hate speech.
The original, pre-Musk, Twitter had not taken these decisions on suspensions of accounts lightly. It has for many years struggled to find a balance between free expression and bullying, fake news, and discriminatory remarks. It has taken Twitter years of investment and learning while doing, and in my experience, Twitter was getting better.
Destroy the power of the network
Musk's chaos since buying Twitter may serve a purpose: break down the power of Twitter as a network for nuanced exchanges between journalists, scientists, and politicians; the discourse on this highly influential network may have been far too progressive and left-wing for the taste of Musk.
So his plan of giving anyone willing to pay eight dollars a blue badge to show that you're a verified account was aimed to reduce the influence of well-educated influences. But, as I noted in the opening of this article, he only stalled his plans after scores of blue-badged and "verified" Elon Musk accounts created even more chaos. I remember reading funny exchanges between a verified Elon Musk and a verified Joe Biden that the billionaire may have enjoyed less than other readers.
Musk has a direct stake in increasing the power of the right and breaking down the Twitter we all knew. It fits entirely in his Republican Party beliefs about minimal taxation for billionaires. But there is a price to pay for the chaos created; he is said to have lost many of Twitter's top 100 advertisers and received stern criticism from politicians and Washington regulators.
Mastodon
And in all this chaos, I daily receive the question if I will leave Twitter. I have thought about that, but I won't, at least not yet. At least some of the voices of reason on this platform should try to keep voicing their opinion in these challenging times. We may reach a moment when that is no longer feasible, but I have not yet reached the point of quitting the platform that I have enjoyed for the past twelve years. It is my public space too, and although I can understand why many have already decided to leave, I am not ready yet to not give up and keep sharing my opinions.
I plan to stay active so that I can share a different voice than the right-wing populism that the new owner of the network seems to favor. I might already have jumped ship if there was a better one sailing nearby, but this Titanic is surrounded only by smaller lifeboats.
The best of these, and the most viable future alternative, is Mastodon, and I recently opened an account there that grows with some hundred followers per day. And as I wrote on Twitter: "it's a happy place on the other side." So if you haven't tried it yet, I recommend you look; you will likely find some of your old Twitter friends and quickly make new ones while the bullies stay outside our new playground.
And remember that you enter a community that already for years enjoyed their little secret of a better Twitter; you're - like me - a guest or a newcomer and are expected to follow that community's traditions and unwritten rules. So let's hope more people move to Mastodon; its decentralized approach should provide a better public digital square for the people to speak; no colorful badges needed, nor a billionaire owner.
You can find me at Mastodon at: https://mastodon.social/@alex_verbeek
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Other recent articles about Twitter in The Planet:
A year ago on this day, I wrote:
The Back Page:
Notes:
https://www.t1international.com/100years/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/opinion/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-india.html
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-trump-twitter-account-republican-rcna57861
It’s been reassuring to see more corporations stop advertising daily. He’s unmoored, surrounded by sycophants and there will be a point when the money folks will be fed up. As I posted today on the bird: Truth matters. Justice matters. No man is immortal. No exceptions.
You’ve stated the Twitter debacle perfectly.
Brilliantly assessed and articulated.
Thank you!