Ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter(1) and renamed it "X", I've been toying with abandoning the platform. I don't like Musk to begin with, but at the same time the platform is often a firehose of information about politics information that I find useful. BUT - there are limits, and over the last year or so, I've watched Twitter descend from merely awful into being a cesspool of hostility, disinformation, and outright lies - I've also found myself targeted on the platform by waves of troll bot accounts - we'll come back to that.
Up to a point, I've been willing to put up with that, but the last few months has been a breaking point for me. Moderation on Twitter has become a joke. Right wing hate accounts can get away with calling people pedophiles (and worse), but call them out or react at all to them, and you either get suspended or auto-locked. Try using the term 'cis' on there, and your post gets auto-flagged. Meanwhile the harassing accounts get away with virtually fomenting hate.
I've watched as hate mongers like JK Rowling have the red carpet rolled out for their utterances, while accounts who challenge them, or contradict their declarations get suspended, or shadow blocked.
The uproar over a boxer in the Olympics was astonishing to watch on Twitter. As soon as someone thought that there was "something odd", accounts associated with anti-trans hate suddenly got promoted, and accounts which were reasonably pointing out that the hate accounts didn't have a single fact on their side just had their views plummet.
I've watched for some time as a coordinate hate campaign has been gathering steam, attacking trans people and trying to roll back civil rights for that community. Musk's version of Twitter has played a role in accelerating that campaign, and increasingly I was finding anything I posted was being targeted by troll accounts.
Some people might think "well, it's just online hate", but I've already had that online hate spill into my real life - and I have had to spend the last couple of years protecting myself and my family. When there is a band of people who are all convinced that one aspect of your existence makes you some kind of evil, it quickly becomes important that they don't know where you live or who you are in real life.
When Twitter's "auto moderation" software immediately locked my account for reacting to a hateful post directed at me, I decided "fuck it". If Musk wants Twitter to become a haven for hate and extremism, then I don't have to spend my time there.
When he took over Twitter, Musk called himself a "free speech absolutist", but it turns out that he isn't. He's very much willing to give platform to hate, conspiracy theories, and other malcontents while actively working to suppress those who challenge the hate. That isn't a neutral position.
I want to be very clear here - the idea that "not intervening in speech" is somehow neutral is false. It gives equal weight to hate and disinformation while ignoring the corrosive effects of hate. Elon Musk isn't being neutral - he's handing a megaphone to hate.
(1) Yes, Elon, I'm going to deadname your platform - if you can't find it in your heart to call your daughter by her chosen name, I don't have to respect your choices either).
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