To The People Quitting Twitter Now That Elon Musk Has Taken Over: Why Didn’t You Leave Before?

Just this week, Whoopi Goldberg announced that she's leaving Twitter over Elon Musk. Of course, she isn’t the only celebrity to do so following the announcement of Musk’s recent acquisition – Toni Braxton, Sara Bareilles, Stephen Fry, and others have left as well. Now, “microcelebrities" and social media influencers on Twitter are threatening to ditch the platform too. "I’m leaving Twitter until they decide to reinstate their Human Rights and Ethics teams. You can’t promote Hate speech and call it Free Speech. Until then…Unpleasant Dreemz…" writes user @TheRealElvira.

So Why Are People Leaving Twitter? 

The outrage came after Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion dollars on October 27, 2022. Since then, the Tesla CEO has taken the initiative to make Twitter a more “accurate” platform that allows "free speech" (so he says). Shortly after buying Twitter, Musk fired three of its executives – Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde – after accusing them of "misleading" investors over the number of users that are on the platform. According to Musk, many accounts were fake and mostly bots. In addition, thousands of Twitter employees have since been laid off. 

Musk also monetized the “blue checkmark” badge, a form of verification that gave a sense of authority and authenticity to accounts (well, it’s supposed to anyway). The checkmark has always been a sign of someone’s “officialness,” you could say. But individuals who were already verified got upset over the newly-added $7.99 monthly subscription. Many of them believe some users who can’t afford this price will be unjustly “demoted,” for a lack of a better term. “So - the way to do away with the 'lords & peasants' system is to [checks notes] elevate the tweets and replies of those able to afford to pay $8 a month for this platform Vs those who cannot? And you don’t see the hypocrisy here?” writes @jojofromjerz. 

Keep in mind the average American spends $219 a month on subscriptions. Most citizens can’t even survive without their Disney+ or Netflix, but god forbid they should pay for a verified badge. However, Musk’s reasoning for adding a price to the checkmark might be justified. On November 5, @WSBChairman implied that previous Twitter employees were "selling verifications for upwards of $15,000." He added that other Twitter accounts – including his – would get turned down in the verification process, only to get a private offer of a badge in exchange for money. Musk responded to his post with one word in the comment section: "Yup." 

Twitter Had Issues Long Before Musk

Previously suspended accounts that violated Twitter rules came back, thanks to Musk. What came next after the entrepreneur’s actions were tweets that promoted "hate speech.” So, we have to admit that Musk did create some chaos on the “bird app,” upsetting thousands of users and whatnot. But here's my question to them: Where was your outrage toward Twitter's harmful content before Musk?

Over the past decade, Twitter has supported harmful and offensive content. In 2019, Twitter stealthily modified its terms of service to allow the discussion of "attraction towards minors" as long as it did not "promote or glorify child sexual exploitation in any way." After this, the pedophile networks on Twitter boomed. Jack Dorsey defended the change, adding that free speech “comes with the realization that freedom of expression may adversely impact other people’s fundamental human rights, such as privacy, such as physical security.” And, let’s not forget the other communities who promote unhealthy habits like “eating disorder twitter,” or “edtwt” for short. 

Elon Musk is simply just extending the same logic Dorsey had, going as far as unbanning the “right-wing” accounts that tweet insensitive content. What I’m trying to say is this: Hate speech, harmful posts, pedophilia, and pornography have always been present on Twitter. These are all “problematic” matters that should have been condemned before Musk’s reign by those who are complaining about “hate speech” now. 

The only difference today is that Elon Musk is largely disliked by these individuals. They don’t really care about harmful ideas or posts on Twitter. They just want to jump on the bandwagon and hate on Elon. Why? Because it’s current. It’s trendy. And, let’s face it – political Twitter personalities need their dopamine fix from watching their “like” counts on their posts increase. To do that, they have to ride the wave of relevancy. Plus, the major news headlines are telling them that “Elon Musk’s ‘free speech' is harming America," so it's only natural for them to parrot the narrative.  

The Hypocrisy of the Crowd

On Twitter, you'll find the most sensitive – yet insensitive – individuals to have ever existed. Interestingly, these same users often talk about "mental health" and "acceptance," yet they're the ones who tell others with unpopular opinions to kill themselves. They’re the ones who are upset over the massive number of Twitter employees getting terminated and losing their income, all the while being completely okay with sending millions of dollars to Ukraine. They're the same people who get extremely upset about someone "misgendering" some nonbinary or transgender figure, while also staunchly supporting Zelensky, the president of a country that harbors neo-nazis. A country that, ironically, has yet to legalize same-sex marriage. These are the same individuals who are always preaching about "bodily autonomy" and abortion rights while advocating for vaccine and mask mandates.

These are the people who think they're in the right to complain about "hate speech" on social media. But I digress.

Closing Thoughts 

Nothing makes sense anymore. Every couple of months, there seems to be a shared, agreed-upon outrage present on the biggest platforms. It lasts for a good week, sometimes longer, then it dies out until the newest distraction arises again. But for now, the collective fury is on Elon Musk and Twitter. I wonder what the next one will be.

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