As the FT notes this morning:
Elon Musk's support for Donald Trump is set to boost X's flagging business, with some marketers poised for a return to the social media platform in order to seek favour with the incoming administration.
That might be true, but the rate of return on their investment might be poor.
I have noticed a steady decline in the number of my Twitter followers over recent months, and I am not alone in doing so. I do not think that I am losing popularity. I think that the platform is. And, with it now being confirmed that Musk is to work with Trump to cut the size of the federal government, I think that the likelihood that a large number of people might feel that it is time to declare that their use of Twitter (I refuse to call X) should come to an end might have come.
I have not quite reached this point as yet. Trump is not as yet in office, and neither is Musk. But, on 20th January I will have a decision to make. Much as I've enjoyed my time on Twitter, will it be time to leave it behind?
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I left Twitter last month. I became sick of the trolls spouting rubbish and the personal insults. I just don’t need that.
I have never been on twitter for the exact same reasons that you gave for leaving.
The trouble I think like a lot of these things is that Twitter was for a long time the ‘Go To’ where you could be seen by everyone.
There are several options, you are on Mastadon and a lot of people seem to be going to Bluesky (?) but what will be the next market leader or will there be several so you end up having to post on or watch several platforms?
I think Bluesky is the likely destination.
I already post blog links to both Mastodon and BlueSky bit have had no time to follow either.
I’ve posted on Bluesky for people to follow you. It’s quite a weird platform though, you can get huge tranches of the same (USA usually) poster on on topic.
I find it very clunky. Its app is not good.
Is it time to leave Xitter? Yes. Although I understand the argument about ‘reach’, for me the stronger argument is about ‘being the change you want to see’ – actively helping to build commons on the internet like Wikipedia and Mastodon – rather than contributing to the private estates of billionaires.
Most of us hate to see public spaces like village greens and village halls sold off to developers – privatised – so why go meekly along with the multinational corporation takeover of our virtual spaces?
I left Twitter many years ago, and well before the start of Elon Musk’s tenure. My reason then was the complete lack of moderation and indecent images were freely offered and accessible by anyone.
What’s it’s like now in that respect, I neither know and nor wish to know. But for an incoming regime that wants to ‘clean up the swamp’, I would ask whether they know that when you point a disapproving finger that there are three pointing back …
Time to go – anything to do with Musk, Twitter or his cars, needs to be shunned
Very worrying overnight news from the US with Musk’s appointment as head of a new “government efficiency” department – a “Manhattan Project” for the state as Trump calls it – that will lead to huge shrinkage of the US state and mass redundancies. “Go and find something else to do”, Musk said.
And it’s even more worrying because what happens there will happen here too, with Farage and Badenoch ready to take the axe to government and regulations and inevitably public services. Project 2025 I think they call it
I know you’re not a fan of Starmer, Richard, but he needs to succeed or the nightmare prospect of Badenoch and/or Farage in Downing Street in 2029 will be a reality
I’ve also just read that Trump has appointed a Fox News presenter as defence secretary. Says it all.
And soon his horse as consul, no doubt.
I’m not sure that installing a ‘Commissioner of Government Efficiency’ whose last efficiency drive sacked 70% of his staff and reduced the value of the company by a reported 70%, is exactly what the US needs right now.
Still, it will interesting (though depressing and worrying) to watch it all fall to pieces as the Federal government is dismantled. I suspect there is a lot of money to be made by private enterprise ‘providing services’ to the individual US states who will need to take over many of the roles previously carried out by central government. I suspect that a lot of the folk in the new administration will be intimately interested in who provides these services. Their wives, family, business associates and friends as well, no doubt.
There is going to be grift the likes of which has never been seen.
It is far, far more likely that Musk will not just be around, but having a huge impact on us all (whatever you want or think), because he has the network, the resources – he operates almost like a state within a state – with access to the required knowledge and expertise – and he typically delivers both for himself, and major change in the way critical processes operate, that we depend on, and that change our world, radically. He will likely continue to thrive long after Trump is political history. This is the world as it is, and the world with which we have to deal. Few in Britain, it seems to me are coping with the plain facts of the case. We are stuck fast in a dead, fossilised past we cannot seems to rise beyond, even to protect ourselves from current economic and political threats.
If Mr. Musk person’s actions do not filter down to the middle-middle class of the USA giving them direct and tangible benefits, he will be gone in twelve moths.
Also, I do not think Musk will be able to tolerate “The Orange One” for more than six months as Musk’s ego is actually bigger, more outlandish and more divergent from reality than Trump’s.
My point about Musk being around and influencing our world long after Trump, was not dependent on him remaining inside Trump’s administration. For both the ‘meeting of minds’ represents businesslike opportunism; after all, they are both risk takers.
I’m on social media to learn things.
Others are there to propagate their opinions, causes or for commercial reasons.
All that is legitimate.
Some are there for surveillance purposes, something that is well documented, and can be very sinister. (IDF Unit 8200, or the use the Labour Party make of historic tweets) I’ve experienced state surveillance, and 2 instances of corporate thuggery, one was criminal, the other involved low level police harassment. So I’m careful.
Then there are the owners – why does Trump run Lies Social, and, more particularly, why is Musk running Tw****r?
I left Tw****r in stages, first deleting my posts (after downloading my archive), then deleting all the following list, then editing my profile to give a forwarding address (to the Fediverse), then after a while, deleting my followers and locking the account. That was all done over a year ago. Then over a month ago, I finally deleted the account, and now, over 30 days later, like the Monty Python parrot it is deceased, hopefully with v little left in search engine results).
There are 2 questions I think for an “influencer” like yourself, first, the moral association one – that’s YOUR decision and not for anyone to judge.
Then there’s the issue of what Musk will do with his platform. I am certain he will twist the algorithms (he already does, it will get worse) and secondly, he will use the data (your follower list) for nefarious purposes, and he will industrialise the trolling process even more, and facilitate the misuse of the platform by others including state actors, who do not have our welfare as their goal. Trump & Congress will remove any legal obstacles to that. I can’t predict the timetable, and Musk isn’t v efficient at actually running the platform but I’m sure he’s started already.
Good luck with your decision – but my advice is – diversify, because your access to billionaire platforms is entirely subject to the whims of the billionaires. Start exploring open source platforms & software (Linux etc) and Fediverse, including alternative video platforms, BEFORE the ones you use now clamp down on you for political reasons. Fascists are going to behave like fascists, they now have power. We have to rethink our way of doing things.
Your work is important and I would urge you stay on Twitter for as long as you think it is a useful platform. I left it years ago for moral reasons but you don’t have that same luxury.
I would suggest that you should be cross-posting to as much social media as you can; it can all be automated after all. Maybe start using Bluesky as the main platform and automatically post to Twitter and just read the replies on the platforms you get the highest quality interactions.
You are in a ‘Titanic situation’ and I’m afraid you must stay for as long as the band is playing!
Interesting argument, and noted
A well made point. The speed of change is accelerating. Standing still is a form of losing ground …. rapidly. I would propose a method of ‘discardable experimentation’; move on perpetually, with whatever vehicle works best*.
* And remember, driverless cars will come. Musk has already launched his robovan idea (he pronounces it, “roBOvan”). It is a 20-seater (driverless luxury coach, instantly convertible into a van; and for Musk the clincher is pure economics/profit: he claims it will operate for 10 cents per mile. This is the world that is revolutionising us; we do NOT revolutionise the world through politics; we are revolutionised by technology and economics. Politics is a sideshow.
When driverless cars are widely available it will suit me very well, but I wonder; where will they park them while they’re not being used?
Richard the decision to quit Twitter is entirely yours. From my perspective you can already see the direction of travel and its something that you need to seriously take into account.
It could also be the case that in the near future you are banned or suspended so you must be prepared for that.
What is crucial and of great importance is that voices like yours and many others have a platform and continue to be heard. Make no mistake, life will get tougher from now on. So you and many others really need to start thinking of joining efforts, cooperating on stuff, creating/building alliances and platforms and frankly doing a lot more in this space and in the era of social media and AI.
In this regard I would also like to share with you Mehdi Hasan’s e-mail to the subscribers of Zeteo.
I am sure you will agree with his message as there is a plenty of common ground. I think you could easily argue and put up the same case for all of the economic, environmental, political issues, topics and all the stuff that you work on and advocate.
https://zeteo.com/
Trump Is Back, Gaza Remains on Fire, and Zeteo Will Need Your Support
A request to all of our subscribers from Mehdi, on this most monumental of political weeks.
MEHDI HASAN – NOV 10
Former U.S. President Donald Trump walking on stage ahead of his election night victory speech on November 06, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Dear Subscribers,
Whether the outcome of the US presidential election last week came as a surprise to you or not, it is a result that is weighing heavily on me and the team at Zeteo, for countless reasons.
Many of you may recall Donald Trump’s first term in office: the constant attacks on the free press and minority groups; the rise and rise in hate crimes; the brazen corruption and non-stop chaos. Trump 2.0 is guaranteed to be worse on every level, and bring a new and dystopian assault on our freedoms and liberties. Already, the Columbia Journalism Review this week is warning of how an emboldened and authoritarian Trump administration in 2025 could start limiting access for journalists to the West Wing “or even closing the White House briefing room outright”; turning “the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission against the media”; and detaining “reporters covering protests and immigration enforcement.”
Already, Benjamin Netanyahu is taking advantage of the shock election result to install a far-right settler who supports annexation of the West Bank as his new ambassador in Washington DC, and Trump could give Bibi the greenlight to launch a genocide in the West Bank as soon as January 21, 2025.
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What does that mean for Zeteo? It means we will have a lot more work to do – and we can’t do it without your support!
Not only are we going to find ourselves having to report on an unpredictable (but predictably volatile) US administration, without fear or favor, but we will also continue covering the sins and crimes of US foreign policy in a way that most of the mainstream media refuses to do. It is a big responsibility, and not one that I or any on our small (but mighty!) Zeteo team take lightly.
Our Unique Record
I hope that over the course of the past 8 months, we have shown our value to you as a new media company, whether it is our coverage of the ongoing Biden-backed genocide in Gaza; or the under-reported genocide in Sudan; or the very real threats to democracy from the Trump-led Republican Party.
Remember, you don’t have to agree with everything that Zeteo publishes, you don’t have to agree with my opinions, or any of our contributors – in fact, we welcome debate, disagreement, and robust conversations (the comments section in some of our posts are really lively!) – but I hope you see a value in that editorial diversity:
• Big-name contributors from Naomi Klein to John Harwood to Fatima Bhutto to Greta Thunberg to Bassem Youssef have all come to you with very different views of the world.
• We’ve commissioned provocative pieces from commentators and freelancers that no other outlets were willing to publish, and produced a documentary on Gaza that mainstream TV networks refused to fund.
• We’ve given paid subscribers access to prominent figures, from members of Congress to UN officials, allowing subscribers to directly ask these powerful people their own timely and necessary questions.
• We are challenging influential people in a climate where accountability journalism is so incredibly rare – and necessary!
• And we’ve hosted live events, allowing subscribers to connect with the Zeteo community in person outside of social media.
And, most importantly, we’ve managed to do all of this without corporate sponsors or advertisements or anyone that would render us beholden to them. We are free to do what we have done because of the tens of thousands of paid subscribers who believe in the need for an independent media endeavor like Zeteo.
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Help Us Fight Back
But, as I have said before, a free press isn’t free.
So please help us continue this fight.
If you are a paid subscriber, thank you! Please tell us what you’d like to see more of and please do continue to share Zeteo with your friends and family. And, if you have the financial means, do consider upgrading to a Founding membership to help us expand our resources further.
If you are a free subscriber, what you are you waiting for? Consider supporting us financially and becoming a paid member – ideally, before January 20th 2025. Help us produce more documentaries, commission more pieces, and bring on more contributors. Remember: we are not planning on turning to corporations or advertisers to help us grow, so we can only turn to you if we want to get bigger – and we do!
As I have said before, I have no plans to “bend the knee” to the people in power. Zeteo has no plans to go anywhere. And you, I am sure, have no plans to give up the fight either.
Together, in solidarity!
Mehdi
Thanks
I admire what Mehdi does.
Why the Guardian is no longer posting on X.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/13/why-the-guardian-is-no-longer-posting-on-x
Chart of decline in UK users posted today.
https://x.com/jflWrites/status/1856556152001093837/photo/1
I think many have left and are going to leave. I hardly go there these days. I was tired of all the right wing, especially Reform UK, propaganda sent my way. I get the impression on Twitter-X that if you say anything remotely political, you will then get a deluge of right wing propaganda, but very little that is “left”.
Musk is toxic.
Thanks
It seems I am not alone….
I never liked Twitter – in fact this is the only online activity I do.
However, your decision to go on it was sound considering what you are trying to achieve.
You work admirably hard so take this suggestion as nothing more:
Might it be best for Musk to close you down, rather than leave?
That would be fun
I have taken the decision to leave twitter, after just over ten years on there. It has been more than a year since I first developed the misgivings that led me to set up a mastodon account (https://mas.to/@autisticphotographer), and I have now decided that today is my last day as atwitter user, and that I will delete my account there before switching off for the night.
Good luck with the new account
When I was at school, getting an X next to my maths homework meant wrong. Kinda sums up my view of Twitter’s whole existence since it was bought by Musk. I’ve left
Most of the people I follow on Twitter are moving to Bluesky and as they move I’ve deleted their Twitter link and moved over. By the end of the month I suspect I’ll have no reason to use Twitter, which is now nothing more than a Musk vanity project and propoganda and mis/dis information channel.
That said , it’s well worth watching this segment on Trump and Musk from MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. It seems like now Trump’s used Musk’s money he’s not that keen on him hanging around. But then that’s no surprise really is it, as two people with such vastly overinflated egos are hardly going to appriciate each other for long (the excerpt starts with a piece on Matt Gaetz, Trumps proposed Attorney General).
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-trump-humiliates-elon-musk-by-telling-house-gop-elon-won-t-go-home-224415813970
Thanks