I Still Call X Twitter

by Benedict Ballaran

Elon Musk ruined — flat-out destroyed — Twitter.

Marked as the ‘worst buyout’ since the global financial crisis in 2008, Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the platform in 2022 plunged Twitter into shambles — completely changing its algorithm, user experience, business model, and name for the worse. Proclaiming himself as a “free speech absolutist,” Musk took complete control of the platform, essentially turning the knobs on the political, societal, and cultural discourse of 413.3 million users globally. Since his takeover, hate, and disinformation have become viral — like an infection indiscriminately plaguing X users.

Before Musk even thought about buying the app, he was a big critic of how it was run, most particularly on Twitter’s moderation policies. Eighty percent of Twitter employees were fired the moment the deal was struck with Musk, casting doubts on its reliability to moderate and function. What was once a platform moderating hate speech, disinformation, and online abuse was completely refurbished, essentially fulfilling the billionaire’s philosophy of “letting people say what they want” regardless of its consequences.

Twitter went through a massive overhaul under the free-speech-obsessed billionaire. One of his promises was the reversal of Donald Trump’s permanent ban on the platform for inciting violence after his successive tweets in 2021 regarding “election fraud” ultimately leading to the storming of the Capitol on January 6th. Musk called the ban “morally wrong and flat-out stupid” because it removed Trump’s “voice.” In 2023, the billionaire lifted the ban on political ads on the platform, which was put in place to limit false and misleading information, especially during elections. Likes on X are now hidden, arguing that it would encourage users to like ‘edgy’ tweets without fear of retaliation or public shaming. There have been talks that the format of tweets will be refurbished as well, removing the date and time of posts. Perhaps the only good thing that came about this whole debacle is the community notes that give further context and fact-check tweets on the platform — the closest thing to moderation Musk can provide.

This is not to mention the billionaire’s attempt to milk X of its worth by launching the strongly opposed Twitter Blue. This feature allowed users to purchase the coveted blue check mark, once exclusively granted by Twitter moderators to verified accounts, news outlets, and other sources of information. The badge was once an indicator of genuine accounts and credible sources of information, now it is reserved for those who were willing to pay to be viewed as “credible.”

But most of all, Musk’s buyout of the platform ultimately gave him the right to tweak the algorithm as he saw fit. As of 2024, X now has an unmoderated Tiktok-style ‘for you’ page tracking your activity on the platform and recommending posts you seem to like. Yet, it has been found that the X algorithm boosts conservative, right-wing, Republican, content everywhere where Elon Musk and Donald Trump were the biggest benefactors. For a free speech absolutist, it seems he is dictating what people must say and talk about.

For Musk to recoup his $44 billion dollar investment in the app, his new business model is built on hate, disinformation, and conspiracy. So much of X’s posts today is an attempt to ‘rage bait’ users into responding to an allegation or an outright bogus claim about their favorite artists, a politician, or an outrageous take about the world, society, or culture. The more engagements, the more money these baiters make, and thus inevitably Musk makes in ad revenue, no matter how wild the tweet is. In fact, the more ‘unhinged’ and ‘edgy,’ the better. Think pieces after think pieces of hate and divide will come with every scroll on the Musk-led X, with every engagement monetized and ad revenue increasing exponentially.

Musk feeds off of polarization. He cheers whenever there are people debating on X about an insignificant topic or something that regresses societal or political discourse. After all, if we debate on something — whether it be about human rights, trans rights, women’s rights, pronouns — we agree that these are subjective instead of being inherent to our society. When it is repeated, the truth becomes subjective and the only true thing is perception. None of the debates benefits its users, only the elites like Musk who work to maintain the status quo.

Because Musk has allowed users to say anything they want without moderation or consequence, Twitter became a platform of hatred — by people who are paid to be as callous as possible to incite a knee-jerk reaction and by people who are just jerks to begin with.

When someone like Musk manipulates what people perceive, the platform tilts towards his cohorts — Republicans, Trump, and other elites favoring his business. The truth then becomes subjective. For this very reason, The Guardian decided to leave X as fair truthful journalism does not fare well when lies are amped up instead of the truth.

Elon Musk seems to forget that freedom is not absolute. There are consequences to the things we say, and lies must be moderated. Otherwise, facts become debatable, the truth distorted, and reality slips off our grasps.

This is why I still call X, Twitter — a refusal to submit to the system manipulated in favor of the richest man in the world.