I did not leave Twitter lightly. For years it worked as a digital public square, a place where journalists, researchers, activists, and ordinary users could meet, argue, learn, and organize in real time. Twitter approximated a public service and gave many of us a voice we could not have found elsewhere.
Under X, three changes made staying untenable.
First, moderation moved from harm reduction to permissiveness. When almost anything goes, real speech does not flourish, it retreats. Targets of harassment self censor, disinformation crowds out expertise, and bad actors learn that outrage is the fastest path to reach. A healthy forum needs clear rules, consistent enforcement, and transparent appeals. X now offers too few of these, and the result is a chilling effect on the very voices that once made the platform valuable.
Second, the platform increasingly serves the personal objectives of its owner. Policy decisions, product priorities, and amplification choices are routinely aligned with a single individual’s preferences and interests. When the referee is also the most important player, the game is not fair. A public square governed by personal whim is not a public square, it is a megaphone.
Third, the day to day experience has been hollowed out by ads and clickbait. The timeline now rewards provocation over substance. Paid visibility competes with public interest content. Intrusive ad loads and engagement bait bury the careful work of reporters, scientists, and community organizers. The signal to noise ratio that once justified the time investment has collapsed.
I still believe in social media’s promise. At their best, platforms expand political participation, give voice to underrepresented communities, knit together diasporas, enable mutual aid, and support individual well being by creating spaces of belonging. But fulfilling this public function is not automatic. It requires instruments that prevent the capture of our digital commons by the interests of the few.
What should those instruments be. Independent oversight of trust and safety decisions. Transparent and auditable ranking systems with clear rules and real appeals. Interoperability and data portability so users are not locked in. Public interest obligations tied to market power, enforced by democratically accountable regulators. A serious discussion about treating core social platforms as public services, including public or cooperative models, when private firms refuse basic standards. In short, governance worthy of the civic role these systems play, so we protect digital dignity and democratic representation.
Elon Musk’s stewardship has corrupted the public value that Twitter once embodied and exposed how vulnerable essential communication infrastructure becomes when it is run as a private fiefdom. If the private sector cannot or will not deliver this public function, and resists reasonable regulation, we must rethink the model and treat the digital public square as a public service.
I left X in the spring of 2025. I encourage you to consider doing the same. You will find me in the real world and on Bluesky.