'Let that sink in!': Musk's words come back to bite as X looks like it has become 'worthless' (2024)

It has been just over a year since billionaire Elon Musk strode into the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco gleefully brandishinga bathroom sink.

"Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!" he posted on his newly acquired platform.

Since the world's richest man took over one of the world's most influential social media sites, Twitter as the world knew it is dead.

Over the past 12 months, Mr Musk has gutted content moderation, restored accounts of previously banned extremists, and allowed users to purchase account verification.

The blue bird logo has since disappeared, and so too have many advertisers andusers who could no longer make sense of — or feel safe on — the platform now known as X.

"There's lots of things that have made Twitter less reliable, less friendly, less credibleand, ironically, make less money,"Tama Leaver, professor of internet studies at Curtin University, told the ABC.

"Twitter is, as a real estate, completely worthless now. It's now something that you write cautionary tales about."

The Tesla CEObought Twitter for $US44 billion (about $69 billion) in a deal that closed on October 27, 2022.

US media, including Fortune and Bloomberg, this week reportedthat a new employee stock plan showsX is now worth half of that, valued at $US19 billion.

But while many have been enthralled by the apparent demise of Mr Musk's social media platform, for others hisdecisions have also had dangerous consequences.

Particularly in countries that relied on Twitter for freedom of speech in times of authoritarianism and eroding democracy, there are concerns that the voices of human rights defenders are no longer protected.

And that Mr Musk's lack of regulation has opened the floodgates for hate speech against marginalised groups and misinformation.

'The lines of attack are open'

Xfar from resemblesthe"town square"space Twitteronce carved out on the internet where journalists, academics and activists could share information, campaign and address threats around the world.

It wasn't perfect, but it proved extremely powerful in enabling freedom of expression, amplifying marginalised voices andmobilisingsocial justice movementssuch as the Arab Spring,#BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo.

Rights groups had pushed Mr Musk to ensure his takeover wouldn't silence activists.

But his first port of call was to fire about half of Twitter's 7,500 workers, which included many moderators who kept the site from being overrun with hate, and the executives in charge of making rules and enforcing them.

Research by the Network Contagion Research Institute found there was a nearly 500 per cent increase in the use of the N-word in the 12-hour window immediately following the shift of ownership to Mr Musk.

"The single biggest thing has been basically the eradication of safety and trust teams across Twitter," Professor Leaver said.

"It means thatthose who shout loudest drown out everyone else."

There were fears the loss of staff with knowledge of local contexts and languages, especially in the global south and conflict zones, would lead toa rise in misinformation and harassment.

Deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, Phil Robertson, said across the region content moderation went out the window and left activists open to abuse andgovernment-affiliated trolling.

"Asia was never terribly central to Elon Musk's Twitter business worldview," he told the ABC.

"The lines of attack are open against human rights defenders and social activists in a region where rights-abusing governments ranging from Vietnam to the Philippinesand to Myanmar and many othersdon't hesitate to send their internet trolls to harass, defame, and threaten their critics."

Activists trolled and silenced

In countries such asMyanmar, Twitter has played a crucial role in helping people share information and givingthem a voice since the 2021 military coup.

Yadanar Maung, a Justice For Myanmar spokesperson, said cybersecurity and privacy threats haveincreased for the group since Mr Musk's takeover and so too has the platform's "compliance with requests from authoritarian regimes".

"Recent changes have raised serious concerns about dangers that users might face with increasing space for military junta trolls who target activists and spread disinformation," MsMaung told the ABC.

She added that accounts from independent ethnic media organisations werealso being targeted by hackers.

X has faced tough questions about how to handle takedown demands from authorities,especially content by journalists and activists voicing government criticism.

This has been raised in India where there areabout 26 million X users —thethird-largest market after the USand Japan.

Mr Musk's mass firings cut into teams that dealt with government information requests and content moderation at a time when freedom of expression was increasingly comingunder threat.

According to Twitter reports, Indiais among the top four countries sending requests to remove content.

From July to December 2021, India made more requests than any other country for the removal of tweets by journalists and news outlets,andranked second after the USfor the highest number of government information requests.

Earlier this year, X said it had "withheld" tweetsby Indian journalist Saurav Das dating back to November 2022"in response to a legal demand".

It also blocked links to a BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Access Now, a global digital rights organisation, said after the takeover, many dissidents, activists, and journalists had their accounts suddenly blocked after sharing investigations or criticism of the Chinese government.

In China, Mr Musk's decision to remove blue check marks on verified accounts — and offering it on a $8 subscription model — has caused particular issues.

"The PRC's (People's Republic of China) narratives have become more popular due to the recommendation system's algorithm and because many Chinese diplomats pay for the blue check mark," an Access Now spokesperson told the ABC.

Professor Leaver said there was currently no way to ensure information wasn't being shared in a way that would bring "immediate harm".

Even before Mr Musk was in control, Twitter users, including journalists, had been arrested in India.

"Human rights activists are getting the hell off Twitter because it's just not safe," Professor Leaver said.

'The bar is incredibly low'

Digital rights activists have also raised alarms that they are unable to reach teams to take down abusivecontent or posts that can put people's lives at risk.

Nighat Dad, whoruns a helpline for women facing harassment on social media in Pakistan, told Reuters that theimpact of Mr Musk's staff cuts wasfelt immediately.

Previously, when female political dissidents, journalists, or activists in Pakistan were impersonated online or experienced targeted harassment such as false accusations of blasphemy that could put them in danger, Ms Dad's group had a direct line to Twitter.

But when Mr Musk took over, Ms Dad said they struggled to get responses torequests for urgent take-downs of such high-risk content.

Australian authorities have also written to the social medal platform demanding information about what it is doing to tackle online hate.

A failure to comply with another notice, focused on child sexual exploitation, led to theAustralian eSafety commission fining X$610,500.

Mr Musk announced in October last year that he would form a content moderation council, but Professor Leaver believes he still has no intention of making the platform any safer.

"He's gotten away with turning off almost all safety features," he said.

"The bar is incrediblylow for things wewon't see. You won't seechild p*rn on Twitter, but that's about it."

Earlier this year, attempts tocontact Twitter using a previous media email address were met with an automated response containingthe smiling poo emoji.

The ABC was still unable to reach X for comment, with the press automated email now simply coming back with the message: "Busy now, please check back later."

Misinformation in Gaza conflict

The fast-evolving Israel-Gaza war has been seen as one of the first real tests of Mr Musk's version of the platform during a major crisis.

For many experts, the results confirm their worst fears;that changes have made it a challenge to discern truth from fiction.

"It is sobering, though not surprising, to see Musk's reckless decisions exacerbate the information crisis on Twitter surrounding the already tragic Israel-Hamas conflict," Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the watchdog Free Press, told AFP.

Mr Musk disabled features put in place to prevent users from being duped by false claims and put in new systems that encourage their spread, according to the non-profit fact-checking website PolitiFact.

"Twitter has become the best friend of fake news and myths …but especially deliberate misinformation that is designed to tell acompletely untrue story," Professor Leaver said.

Ian Bremmer, a prominent foreign policy expert, posted on X this month that the level of disinformation on the Israel-Gaza war "being algorithmically promoted"on the platform "is unlike anything I’ve ever been exposed to in my career as a political scientist".

This month the European Commission announced an investigation into X for alleged dissemination of bogus information and terrorist content regarding the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Professor Leaver said anyone who was still on X after relying on the platform for years as a valuable space for public debate was "hanging on by the skin of their teeth wishing there was somewhere else to go".

"It's hard to imagine that the Twitter that was will ever resurrect now," he said.

He added thatTwitter quitters have been spreading across Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads and other platforms in search of a new social media home.

"But it's still a very fractured social media landscape."

ABC/wires