Potentially controversial take:

I’ve seen so many articles and posts across the internet lamenting about how difficult it’s going to be for marginalized groups to change social media platforms— and personally I find this offensive, patronizing, and dangerous. I’m being bombarded with what seems like a desperate attempt to get us to stay.

The reality is that it’s actually not hard at all to adopt a different platform. Some people are acting like Twitter is “too big to fail” and I find that mindset ridiculous. Contrary to the attitude I’ve been seeing, we do not actually NEED Twitter. Yes it had a lot of utility for millions of people, but the desperation around its downfall is less about needing it and more about being uncomfortable with change. I would even argue that some people with this mindset of needing it were addicted in an unhealthy way. And needing it for business means this is just another casualty of being forced to live in a capitalist society where your livelihood is tied to the whims of the bourgeoisie.

There was a time when most people were on MySpace and Vine and forums. And when those fizzled out, nobody panicked or wrote endless articles about how devastating it’s going to be to have switch to a different website. They just chose a different place, or multiple different places, and learned how to use them. We are adaptable. We’ve been adapting to new technologies and internet phenomena since their inception. There will be utilization of existing social media, and likely completely new platforms will also emerge. There will be growing pains and updates will need to be made to accommodate people.

But I think everyone should accept that this needs to be the end for Twitter. It is a more dangerous place now than ever before. It’s being run by a fascist who will have access to your private data (not just meta data, ALL of your data- your phone numbers, CC/DC numbers, your DMs, your location etc). And he *will* give it or sell it to ANYONE (the cops, the fed, and even to literal Nazis) to recoup his $44B losses or even just to be petty. Antifa, journalists, and individual accounts of marginalized people are being systematically banned. Hate groups are being allowed to flourish unchecked. It is a culture war battlefield that is being decimated.

The way I see it, Twitter is a lost cause and should be abandoned or it will cost lives. The world is seeing a rise in fascism. Those of us in the US are already watching our loved ones die in a barrage of domestic terrorist attacks. We already knew that companies having their hands on our information was dangerous, but having it in the hands of Elon Musk specifically is even deadlier. Please let’s not legitimize him by remaining on that wretched website and stop trying to convince our most vulnerable communities to stay.