I deleted my Facebook account a few months ago and am not sorry I did. For the last couple of months, I've been thinking about deleting my Twitter account, too. It has become a creepy, toxic place. I'm stunned that Twitter has no problem with people who want to inflict additional misery on the parents of murdered children. It's not about the first Amendment. Twitter is a company -- it can choose whomever it wants to be on its platform. As my friend Sean Bonner posted, Twitter "didn’t start as an open forum for free speech, it started as a way for people to see what their friends were doing. Enforcing the same rules for everyone to promote civil discourse isn’t censorship. Bots spewing hate and attacking people isn’t fun." He's right. I'm joining Sean and others on August 17 by deactivating my Twitter account. The hashtag for this action is #DeactiDay. If Twitter doesn't fix its hate enabler problem in 30 days, I won't reactivate my account, after which it will be permanently deleted. It's very likely it will be deleted, because Twitter has demonstrated that it badly wants Alex Jones and his ilk on its platform. When CNN reported that Jones violated at least a dozen of Twitter's rules after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Jones hadn't and therefore couldn't be kicked off, Twitter didn't do a thing about it. Then Twitter admitted that Jones had indeed violated rules that had resulted in bans for other people, but said it wouldn't ban Jones. Twitter can have Jones, and I'll be happy to be the hell away from the place.
I’ve been watching lots of folks jumping ship over the past weeks and months. I think I could be in for just exactly this. I’ve already got my own website that handles all of my personal content and some great interaction at micro.blog. I’ll even help build sites for others who need a place to go to from Twitter, please ping me at my site. #deactiday
My Formula 1 race fan community does not use Slack. They don’t use micro.blog. They don’t build and post real-time comments via a blog. They don’t use Mastodon. They use Twitter. I’m staying.
My Formula 1 race fan community does not use Slack. They don’t use micro.blog. They don’t build and post real-time comments via a blog. They don’t use Mastodon. They use Twitter. I’m staying.
I get why some people don’t (won’t) have an enjoyable experience on Twitter. Assholes exist (they always have) and some are on Twitter1. But real life is also full of assholes. Some live in my neighbourhood. Some live in your neighborhood.
I used to hang out on Twitter a lot. But over time I used it less and less. Not because of any toxicity I experienced on the service but because I was too busy living life. I spent time with my friends and family instead of checking in with every 30 seconds.
I no longer wanted to react like Pavlov’s dog to the Twitter chirp. Now I visit Twitter on F1 race day. I enjoy watching the race while interacting with the commentary of other Formula 1 race fans. The thing that connects us is the F1 hashtags, #F1 and #Formula1.
Leaving Twitter means leaving them behind.
I too have been the victim of zealous vindictive attacks. A group of social justice warriors decided that I was a misogynistic cis-gendered white man and spent several hours harassing me. It wasn’t pleasant. I did not respond to their attempt to ruin my experience but I spent several hours hitting the block user button in Tweetdeck. ↩