I will admit, back then around 2022 when I had first heard about Elon Musk’s decision to purchase twitter, I thought it would be a good move. I did like the idea of having a social media site that had been more unrestricted in terms of the speech being allowed. Likewise, I found his reasoning that Twitter, now 𝕏, functions almost like a town square of sorts where people are able to voice their opinions, therefore people should be more free to express themselves on the platform.
The purchase happened around the end of 2022, when we were coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, at a time when social media sites had been more eager to crackdown on misinformation spread about the pandemic online. While obviously the spread of misinformation during the pandemic was a big problem, I hadn’t necessarily been entirely convinced that social media sites censoring opinion was the best way to go about preventing the spread of misinformation.
I had believed in the idea of a marketplace of ideas where people engage in debate and discussions where the truth would eventually come out. I definitely didn’t think that some of the decisions that had been made by the content moderation teams working at Twitter always made sense. Moreover, it is clear that there had been some bias involved in some of their decision-making, certainly with regard to American political squabbles.
In Africa, Twitter/𝕏 is typically used a lot by younger people across the continent. There are lots of journalists and activists that use Twitter/𝕏. We have seen many protest movements forming on Twitter and lots of on the ground reporting being done on Twitter/𝕏. Movements like #EndSARS or the #EndBadGovernance protests in Nigeria have been amplified on Twitter/𝕏. Even in Kenya, we saw massive protests built around the #SayNoToFinanceBill hashtag.
So 𝕏 formerly known as Twitter) has undoubtedly been a popular feature among younger Africans for a long time. And has been a thorn in the side of African governments as well. Because of the way, people are able to share information to large audiences that our governments would otherwise not want to put out. That is why, when major protests have taken place across Africa, we have seen African governments seeking to restrict access to Twitter and other social media sites.
In Nigeria, in 2021, the year after the #EndSARS protests we saw a complete ban on Twitter put in place by the Nigerian government, which had been in effect for 7 months. Even recently in Tanzania, amid rising political tensions, we saw access to 𝕏 being restricted by the Tanzanian government. It is a common tactic by our governments to restrict access to social media sites as a form of control over the flow of information.
That is why I believe there is a real sense of appreciation for social media sites from those of us, particularly from the developing world. Because state run media outlets tend to not be very reliable, as they mostly just act as a mouthpiece for the ruling regimes. And private media tend to be severely handicapped from performing their duties of holding the government accountable, as they are typically at risk of fines or shutdowns if they look too much into the actions of the ruling government.
That is why social media sites like Twitter/𝕏 are so important. They give normal people the ability to reach broader audiences with information that would otherwise not be as easily accessible. When Elon Musk had declared himself to be a ‘free-speech absolutist,’ I saw that as a positive step, as more people would be able to share their messages on the so-called ‘town square’ on the internet.
However, 2 years into Musk’s ownership of Twitter and things have not exactly taken the positive step I thought they might have. While there is objectively more speech on 𝕏, not all of that speech is good speech. Many of the assumptions I had about a Twitter/𝕏 with less guard rails on what things would be allowed to post did not exactly play out like I had initially thought.
Twitter under Musk has definitely become a place where far-right racist trolls have begun to thrive. While racism on social media is certainly not only a phenomenon found only on 𝕏, the sheer amount of it that can be found on 𝕏 now is very apparent. The idea that there would just be more people there to debate and push back against such comments, pretty much falls on its face when applied in the real world.
For example, for many weeks throughout this year, Indians have been the subject to some of the most vile racist attacks on 𝕏. It was honestly extremely shocking to see how nonchalantly people have felt comfortable posting some of the most derogatory posts about Indians. Not only that, racism, anti-Semitism, sexism are all on the rise across 𝕏. Why would anyone want to risk their sanity getting into unnecessary debates with racists online, trying to get them to change their perspectives? No one would do that.
Racist tweets have become so common at this stage that seeing a post about an interracial couple, for example, it is easy to assume what the comments under the post will be. It will be comments along the lines of telling the white person in the relationship they have ruined their genes, and that of their future children. This has become so common, I honestly wonder why anyone in an interracial relationship would even post a photo of themselves at all on 𝕏.
Overall, seeing these kinds of tweets and comments on a regular basis, makes for an overall negative experience. I don’t even use 𝕏 that much, most of the time I am just looking for sports related content or breaking international news, and my feed still gets inundated with racist posts. While I have not reached a stage where I have sworn off using Twitter/𝕏 for good, I can definitely understand why so many have come to that conclusion.
It is not as if Twitter was any good prior to Elon Musk’s purchase of the site. It was already pretty bad, but the levels of racism present on the app have absolutely skyrocketed. Which is why we have seen a major pull back in advertising by major companies on the app. Elon claims that it is an attack on him personally, but it is certainly the case that racism has become more widespread on the site, so it makes sense that companies would not want their adverts next to such discriminatory tweets.
That is not even to talk about Elon’s behaviour on 𝕏 over the last few years. From picking fights with world leaders, to constantly trolling and inserting himself into the politics of other nations, it has become quite tiresome hearing about him in the news. Years ago, I saw him as one of the coolest guys of our generation because of all the great things his companies have been responsible for, however my view of him has changed significantly over the last few years.
For someone who serves as the CEO of multiple major companies, he seems to spend an incredibly unhealthy amount of time on the internet. For a long time, like many people, I had honestly been quite fond of Elon for a long time. However, looking at whatever new ludicrous tweet he puts out each day, honestly it feels as this version of 𝕏 is not going away anytime soon.