You would think that after spending $44 billion buying Twitter, Elon Musk would be keen on trying to make a return on his investment but apparently not. A while ago, I wrote about the weekend of madness that saw Rate Limits introduced (click here to see my thoughts on that) which led to my concerns that Twitter was on an irretrievable downward spiral. The renaming of Twitter to X...just made no sense to me although given he wants X to be a one-stop shop for EVERYTHING, I kinda understand even if I'm still baffled.
His latest pronouncement however is one that absolutely caught the eye completely in a way I didn't expect it to
Now as someone who has blocked because they don't want to be subject to views from narcissists or been blocked because I dared to express a different opinion (not perfectly by the way) this is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because when I go on Twitter and see the following (see picture below), I know this refers to Ronni Salt. I was blocked because I called Ronni out on something (I think) and she doesn't like that. With the removal of the block function, I now will be able to see it and the only thing she can do is mute me.
It is a curse though because suddenly the open slather that's occurred on Twitter since Elon took over is about to take a very sinister turn. By removing the block function from Twitter (except for DM's), you're essentially inviting women to be harassed by absolute morons.
Women cop a lot on social media. They get a lot of suggestive comments; they get a lot of sexism and misogyny; they get harassed by men who don't like the fact these women choose to express their views (especially on sport) and men who have a 1950s view that women belong in the kitchen.
That's not to mention what they cop in DM but at least the block function remains there for now.
Suddenly with this pronouncement, Elon Musk is basically inviting an open slather as Twit...sorry, I mean X, continues on its rapid downward spiral. It's one thing to disagree with someone. It's another to not want to see the views of morons (in your eyes) and narcissists (also in your own eyes). It's beneath the pale however to basically allow free harassment of people on X and the only 3 options they have are 1) Ignore them (easier said than done) 2) Mute them (how long before Elon removes the mute function?) 3) Report them (no guarantee of a justified outcome)
In what world is this even remotely acceptable???
I know Elon wants free speech but there's gotta come a point when his desire for free speech puts X at greater risk than it is already. Social Media at the best of times is a sewer but compare the sewer to the dumpster fire that X is becoming, surely at some point, someone is going to come up to Elon and basically tell him to STOP! Stop making these pronouncements without taking into account the consequences of your pronouncements (both intended AND unintended).
At the moment, X is starting to slip over the precipice into complete ruin and pronouncements like this certainly don't help. While the whole point is to facilitate conversation and discussion, there is also a responsibility to provide a safe environment for your users. This responsibility is basically being neglected by Musk in his free-speech "crusade" and it's not good enough. There has already been an exodus off X to places such as Mastodon, BlueSky and Spoutible...this decision is going to lead to a further exodus and those who remain are now having their right to safety compromised by a megalomaniac who seems more than happy to continue the demolition of what made Twitter safe and communal.
I suppose the one saving grace if there's any is we can continue to learn "how NOT to throw away and burn $44 billion?"
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