In a world suffocated by constant reminders of how awful our society is, I’ve always felt that social media could be an escapism. Whether it’s watching cute videos of puppies or enjoying weekly memes, I love using social media to escape the terrifying news cycle that keeps spotlighting horrific events.
Social media isn’t always beneficial. TikTok recently introduced a new trending term “leggings leg”, a short-lived hashtag that glorified thinness to the point of promoting body dysmorphia and eating disorders in young girls. It’s nothing short of ridiculous if you ask me.
But my problems with Twitter run much deeper than hateful hashtags or the painful feeling of constantly having to compare myself to models. It really feels like Twitter is falling under the influence of the dark web.
Before I get into this discussion, I should clarify that I do not and will never refer to Twitter as X. It doesn’t seem crazy to me why Elon Musk’s first decision about the future of his app was to change its name to letters, but I digress. If Musk’s plan for Twitter was to reduce censorship of content, he has succeeded in a big way.
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First, Twitter is currently private land social media platform. What exactly does that mean? Essentially, the app will be subject to less scrutiny and Elon Musk will be given the power to decide what content is shared on the platform. In my opinion, this is exactly the problem right now and what makes Twitter so bad.
Twitter used to be an attractive and casual app. Musk’s attempts to allow users to post more freely failed, but his only guarantee was a complete absence of regulation. Have you ever noticed a pop-up on Instagram or TikTok informing you that the content you are about to view may be sensitive or offensive to some viewers? This gives users of those apps the power to decide what they want to see. While these pop-ups may be irritating to some people, they give you active control over the type of content you receive. Users can flag their own content as offensive, but the app’s guidelines specify that it does not review or remove potential content. attack content.
This brings me to the exact reason why I deleted Twitter. Immediately after the war between Israel and Hamas began, Twitter was flooded with horrific images of devastation and death. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen explicit content on Twitter, but seeing images of dead bodies appearing between casual posts was deeply upsetting. I’m not the only one who has noticed this dramatic change.There is a documented undulation Hate speech on apps in general.
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Do I believe that it is most important for all of us to be educated about what is going on in our world instead of living in a state of blissful ignorance? Absolutely. Do you think Twitter is the place for that to happen? Absolutely not. I truly believe that everyone should be informed about news that has reliable reporting dedicated to informing the public about important events in the world. That being said, Twitter just isn’t the place to be.
Not only was there such horrifying and graphic content, but Twitter’s demise also cost thousands of workers their jobs.It used to be about 8,000 employees I work at Twitter. After Musk bought the company, he laid off about 80% of its employees. Perhaps this is why there is little or no moderation for such content.
I think the biggest question that needs to be answered is how do we balance our right to free speech with protecting what certain groups, especially children, have access to?maybe in the past, Twitter is too restrictive and quickly deleted the post for no great reason, but having free rein for all content is completely unacceptable. I have no intention of re-downloading Twitter unless there is a change, or more precisely, the enactment of content regulations.
Talia Aleman (she) is a third-year student studying journalism and public relations.