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business Monday 16 May 2022
As Musk buyout looms, Twitter searches for its soul

By BARBARA ORTUTAY valed influence on news, ers. People who are think- Black Twitter, feminist Twit- This is the Twitter of Nazis,
AP Technology Writer politics and society thanks ing about things tend to be ter, baseball Twitter, Japa- of demented trolls, of con-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A to its public nature, its attracted to a text-based nese cat Twitter, ER nurse spiracy theorists and of na-
toxic cesspool. A lifeline. A simple, largely text-based platform. And it’s full of Twitter and so on. tion states funding massive
finger on the world’s pulse. interface and its sense of journalists. So Twitter is both “It’s enabled interest networks to influence elec-
Twitter is all these things and chronological immediacy. a reflection of and a driver groups, especially those tions.
more to its over 229 million “It’s a potluck of pithy self- of what people are think- that are organized around Jaime Longoria, manager
users around the world — expression simmering with ing about,” says writer, edi- social identity, whether of research and training
politicians, journalists, activ- whimsy, narcissism, voyeur- tor and OnlyFans creator we’re talking about gender for the nonprofit Disinfo De-
ists, celebrities, weirdos and fense League, says Musk’s
normies, cat and dog lov- purchase of Twitter jeopar-
ers and just about anyone dizes a platform that many
else with an internet con- experts believe has done
nection. a better job of reining in
For Elon Musk, its ultimate harmful content than its
troll and perhaps most pro- competitors.
lific user whose buyout of “We’re watching and wait-
the company is on increas- ing,” Longoria says. “The
ingly shaky ground, Twitter Twitter we know may be
is a “de facto town square” over.”
in dire need of a libertarian In a series of tweets in 2018,
makeover. then-CEO Jack Dorsey said
Whether and how the the company was commit-
takeover will happen is ted to “collective health,
anyone’s guess. On Friday, openness, and civility of
Musk announced that the public conversation, and
deal is “on hold,” while to hold ourselves public-
tweeting that he was still ly accountable towards
“committed” to it. Earlier progress.”
in the week, the billionaire Twitter, led by its trust and
Tesla CEO said he’d re- safety team, has worked to
verse the platform’s ban of improve things. It enacted
President Donald Trump if new policies, added labels
his purchase goes through. to false information, kicked
The same day, he also said off repeated violators of its
he supported a new Euro- rules against hate, inciting
pean Union law aimed at violence and other harmful
protecting social media activities. In fits and starts,
users from harmful con- things have started to im-
tent. Twitter’s current CEO, prove, at least in the United
meanwhile, fired two top The Twitter application is seen on a digital device, Monday, April 25, 2022, in San Diego. States and Western Europe.
managers on Thursday. Associated Press Outside Western democra-
All that said, It’s been a cies, though, not much has
messy few weeks for Twit- changed when it comes
ter. One thing is certain: the to clamping down on hate
turmoil will continue, inside ism, hucksterism, tedium Cathy Reisenwitz, who’s or sexuality or race, to have and misinformation.
and outside of the com- and sometimes useful infor- been on Twitter since 2010 really important in-group “There’s a lot of hate on
pany. mation,” Associated Press and has over 18,000 follow- dialogues,” says Brooke Erin Twitter, especially directed
“Twitter at its highest levels technology writer Michael ers. Duffy, a professor at Cornell at minorities.
has always been chaos. Liedtke wrote in a 2009 She finds it great for dis- University who studies so- And so there’s always a
It has always had intrigue story about the company. covering people and ideas cial media. constant battle to get Twit-
and it has always had dra- Twitter had 27 employees and having others discover THE DARK SIDE ter to clamp down on hate
ma,” says Leslie Miley, a at the time, and its most her writing and thoughts. On the flip side of Twitter’s speech, very often violent
former Twitter engineering popular user was Barack That’s why she’s stayed all immediacy, public, open hate speech and fake
manager. “This,” he says, Obama. these years, despite harass- nature and 280-character news,” says Shoaib Daniyal,
“is in Twitter’s DNA.” Today, the San Francisco ment and death threats (once 140-character) limit associate editor with the In-
`WHAT PEOPLE ARE THINK- icon employs 7,500 peo- she’s received on the plat- is a perfect recipe for pas- dian news website Scroll.
ING ABOUT’ ple. Obama is still its most form. sions to run high — espe- Musk’s free speech abso-
From its 2007 start as a popular account holder, Twitter users in academia, cially anger. lutism, Daniyal says, doesn’t
scrappy “microblogging followed by pop stars Jus- in niche fields, those with “The anonymity of Twitter make much sense in In-
service” at the South by tin Bieber and Katy Perry quirky interests, subcultures empowers people to take dia because there have
Southwest Festival in Austin, (Musk is No. 6). small and big, grassroots shots sometimes, but it is not been many curbs on
Texas, Twitter has always Twitter’s rise to the main- activists, researchers and till one of the most effec- speech on the platform to
punched above its weight. stream can be chronicled a host of others flock to the tive ways to communicate begin with.
At a time when its rivals through world events, as platform. with people with similar in- “It’s fairly filled with hate
count their users by the bil- wars, terror attacks, the Why? Because at its best, it terests,” says Steve Phillips, anyway,” he says. “And
lions, it has stayed small, Arab Spring, the #MeToo promises an open, free ex- a former general manager Twitter hasn’t done a lot
frustrating Wall Street and movement and other piv- change of facts and ideas, of the New York Mets who about it. So let’s see where
making it easier for Musk otal moments in our col- where knowledge is shared, now hosts a show on MLB it goes.” Which, given
to swoop in with an offer its lective history played out in debated and questioned. Network Radio. Musk’s mercurial nature,
board could not refuse. real time on the platform. And those subcultures — But there’s also the mas- could be almost any direc-
But Twitter also wields unri- “Twitter often attracts think- they’re formidable. There’s sive, dark part of Twitter. tion at all.q