Twitter is going in a fast downward spiral after Elon Musk acquired the social media platform. This all began with Musk promising to bring back free speech, a ridiculous call to the self-pitying bigot. Free speech does not mean that the speaker and others are free from the consequences of their words.
This has become clear with Twitter, as misinformation and bullying are rampant on the website as of late. Musk has fired many employees whose job it was to moderate Twitter for harassment, hatespeech, bullying, spreading misinformation, and many other problems. This has led to a Wild West hellscape, where Musk bans accounts for impersonating him with no warning, misinformation spreads like wildfire, and transphobes exist within an echo chamber.
That isn’t all. In a dystopian turn, Musk started selling Twitter verification for eight dollars. This meant that not only could anyone get a blue checkmark, but people have now also begun to impersonate businesses without facing any consequences. Because of this, many high-profile people have removed themselves. The feature to purchase a blue checkmark has vanished as of November 11.
Musk has also floated the idea of bankruptcy, indicating that Twitter is taking a worse fall than it should have. This would probably never happened if Musk hadn’t decided to turn the social media platform into a far-right hellscape, something he may have acknowledged by changing his location to “Hell.”
The transphobia, homophobia, and other terrible misinformation being spread on Twitter is not free from consequences. Instead of falling back on the people posting, there are violent consequences in the real world, as Black, trans women remain one of the most harassed and murdered community on the planet. Fake information can have very real consequences. According to HRC, there have been at least 24 Black, trans women who have died in 2022.
