Cognition Dissemination: Twitter Will Be Missed
It was easy to see that Twitter would go through a time of turbulence after Elon Musk announced his intent to purchase the platform, considering his terrible politics differed from those atop the company at the time. But even the biggest worst-case scenario estimates didn’t expect that he’d be this much of a disaster at the helm. Elon thus far, has overseen a plethora of job cuts, some initiated by him and his cohorts (too hastily, to note) while others were the result of an exodus of employees who quickly and justifiably got tired of his inane horseshit. It’s also clear that he’s just getting started.
This has only worsened in the past week, where Elon sent employees an ultimatum in which they had to pledge to be “hardcore” workers or resign with severance. Most of the workers, according to several reports, chose to resign by giving their workers salute emojis in the Twitter Slack pages rather than accept them. It’s only more baffling that this all happened while the company was already bleeding engineers, the ones who weren’t part of the previous layoffs. It’s already having an effect, as scattered users like me have continued to see “This Tweet Is Unavailable” error messages on Tweets that are still there, a problem that has persisted on the desktop platform for weeks with no fix. Considering this and the occasional slowdown and broken tweets, it’s only a matter of time before the vaunted and memetic fail whale reappears. Elon’s a big fan of dumb played-out memes, so he’s bound to announce its return on his account any day our hour now with the accompanying ROFL emoji.
There’s been so much happening with the site at a breakneck pace that it would be easy to write one post a day about it. Not that I’m considering it, unless I get employed at a tech journalism website sometime soon.
There’s only one audience that Elon aims to please here, and it’s the very same that would kneel before him and call him “genius” until he’s successfully ejaculated. It’s why this audience, which leans toward the libertarian side politically (“libertarian” these days meaning “conservative who likes weed”), was celebrating when he was forced to buy Twitter after it became clear his bid to back out of the deal was going to bomb in a spectacular fashion. It’s all been just as chaotic as expected, but he’s followed through on his threats by letting accounts like The Babylon Bee, Jordan Peterson, and especially former president Donald Trump back on the service. Hanging out in the mentions of accounts like Libs of TikTok (hot off inciting an LGBTQ+ massacre) and Kyle Rittenhouse sure isn’t helping.
Twitter has long been a toxic place rife with poisonous discussions that can too-easily go horribly awry, a steep fall from its comparatively halcyon days. But the positives Twitter has contributed shouldn’t be forgotten and they’re good enough that the platform will be missed when Elon has thoroughly run it into the ground.
It’s been a good way for journalists to gather up-to-date news from various sources, and to maintain quick contact with particular sources for information gathering. It’s also been solid for gonzo journalism. Observe the recent videos for the still-ongoing protests in Iran, following the state murder of Mahsa Amini for wearing an “improper” hijab. It’s not clear where these videos would be posted if it wasn’t for Twitter, nor is it likely that they would receive as much attention. Twitter has also been a solid organizing tool for minority and leftist causes, particularly protests, and showcasing the demonstrations and occasional abuses that have occurred at them. It’s not clear if they would be the same without Twitter. The negative aspects shouldn’t go unacknowledged, but keep in mind the positive content that will be thrown into a pool of internet uncertainty under Elon’s Twitter.
It will be a miracle if the site holds up after all this chaos. The mass layoffs and departures haven’t helped, among them employees critical to maintaining the site’s infrastructure. Elon could always hire more engineers that he deems sufficiently loyal to him, but they won’t have institutional experience. The Twitter Blue verification plan was a swift disaster that went as badly as anyone with half a clue predicted. Advertisers have already been pausing promotions on the platform by the dozen, and the copyright/DMCA strike system not working won’t help convince them to stay on.
Even if Twitter does survive, its new form won’t be well liked for users outside the biggest online freaks. It will truly become the “free speech” home that Elon dreamed of, largely free of moderators. I say “largely” because Elon quickly learned that no moderation could have horrendous consequences, something a constant barrage of people explained to him beforehand until they realized he was too stupid to understand it. Amidst Elon’s supposed midlife crisis of fucking around and finding out to the tune of $44 billion, Twitter will soon be the dankest den of misinformation in existence considering the platform’s reach.
Twitter will be missed, especially when there’s no clear successor coming. There’s Mastodon, cohost (more like Tumblr than Twitter), and potentially post.news and Hive. But all of those are currently niche, and it’s tough to see them having mainstream reach on par with Twitter. They could keep the toxicity out, but it’s an open question as to whether they’ll inherit the marginalized communities Twitter helped give a voice to. Hopefully one surfaces very quickly, considering the speed at which Twitter is descending into a lava pit.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
