As X’s owner and most followed user, Elon Musk has increasingly used the social media platform as a microphone to amplify his political views and, lately, those of right-wing figures he’s aligned with. There are few modern parallels to his antics, but then again there are few modern parallels to Elon Musk himself.
It’s crazy that Twitter has such an outsized influence on the public, and I think it’s because news outlets amplify it so much.
It doesn’t have that many active users. And news rarely covers other platforms when something makes a lot of noise and reaches many eyeballs.
It’s definitely amplified to pretend that any existing story is a “real story” or to just pad a slow news day.
You can just say “Twitter users are saying” and suddenly something sounds important. No need to clarify that it’s just a few dozen people, and by “people” it’s just Twitter accounts many of which are bots.
The sooner Twitter implodes the better off we all are. Sure I’d like folks to move to Mastodon, but really I don’t care where they go. Bluesky or Threads is fine. Some new hotness/flavor of the week is fine. But Twitter is a lost cause. It’s speeding towards failure since Musk took over but he just accelerated its eventual fate.