Elon Musk Broke Twitter | Opinion

In a surprising move, Twitter is shedding its iconic moniker to take on a new identity: X. Propelled by the audacious vision of Elon Musk, the platform appears poised to follow in the footsteps of super-app giants like WeChat, AliPay, and Grab, offering a plethora of services under one umbrella.

It's a classic Musk maneuver, seeking to maximize the potential of the 260 million daily active users that he admittedly overpaid for. This transformation has seemed inevitable ever since Musk took over, given the glaring absence of a home-grown super-app in the U.S., and Twitter's positioning to fill that gap. The vision was crystal clear a year ago. However, Musk's brief tenure has been marred by a downhill tumble. With moderation taking a backseat, trust, once a prized possession of the platform, has eroded. This trust deficit has spurred a mass exodus of users toward more reliable platforms. A trust that took Twitter 16 years to build has crumbled in mere months under Musk's stewardship. Musk's grand vision is now undeniably blurred by the broken trust.

It's not a stretch to say Twitter, once the bustling town square of the digital world, has taken quite a detour since billionaire Elon Musk took the reins.

Now, before you rush to Musk's defense, in the ruthless realm of the free market, no one questions his right to play with his shiny new toy. As an immigrant and entrepreneur, who's achieved a good measure of success in this country I appreciate the free market and accept that he can do what he wants. That said, as a town square and a place where I used to consume a lot of information, I feel like the platform has gone downhill. But what's up for debate, and for lament, is the course he's steering this once vibrant platform.

In its glory days, Twitter was a bustling marketplace of ideas, brimming with global conversations and dynamic debates. A public square where insights from people of all walks of life poured forth in a torrent of 280-character wisdom. It was a digital haven, a place where I could anonymously consume the latest and greatest, from news to memes. Now? It's looking more like a digital dystopia.

Under Musk's rule, content moderation appears to have taken a back seat. Algorithms, far from the human touch, are now tasked with the monumental duty of ensuring the platform stays within the bounds of respectability. And let's just say, they aren't exactly hitting it out of the park.

Musk fans might argue that as a proud member of the capitalist world, he's merely exercising his rights. But the consumers too, have rights. The freedom to choose, the freedom to switch. As an ardent capitalist myself, I would argue that the market is designed to correct itself. If Twitter fails to deliver what its users want, the users have every right to move elsewhere.

An inclusive society demands inclusive platforms. As a member of the LGBTQ community, I try to support companies that don't just talk about open and safe workplaces, but practice these values in their products. Platforms that don't amplify hateful ideologies under the banner of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech, dear reader, is not synonymous with freedom of reach.

No one wants to hang out at a party blaring amplified voices of hate, so I'm choosing to put my money (or in this case, my clicks) where my mouth is. Like many disenchanted Twitter users, I'm looking elsewhere to give my digital attention. New platforms like Threads seem to be winning the migration race and all they had to do was bring back what made Twitter great in the first place.

Remember, it's the users who make or break a platform, not the billionaire at the helm. In the end, power rests not with the likes of Musk, but with us, the consumers. So, for those of you keeping score, this might be a prime example of the free market at work.

Magie Cook is an author, speaker, and founder of Maggie's All-Natural Fresh Salsa's & Dips.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.