The Wall_Spring 2023_Issue 9

Hanna Yeates, (she/her), LVI, writes informatively about why Twitter has had such a tumultuous downfall and whether it has a place in our society

The last few years have been pretty hectic.The number of global events has been growing and growing since the start of the pandemic and, quite frankly, it is very hard to keep up with. The world is becoming unrecognisable from decades ago and the internet is at the heart of that. As humans, we believe we have a fundamental right to our opinions. Whilst that is true that everyone can have a point of view on any subject of their choice, it is a complicated debate about who should be allowed to share their views on something as global as social media.Twitter has recently been bought by Elon Musk, and he has completely redesigned it to become what he thinks social media should be: open to all. He disagrees with Twitter’s old guidelines, believing that political figures were unfairly targeted solely on account of their beliefs. Others argue it is because of their hateful rhetoric, but Elon firmly believes that right-wing political ideals are being silenced on social media. Now, you can buy your own verification tick and nothing you say can be used against you. But is this morally, correct? We all remember the Capital riots that happened in 2021; they have been described as domestic terrorism by all; that is, except for those who organised and supported them.An investigation into Facebook has revealed that the build-up to the riots, and the planning of them, occurred in very right-wing Facebook groups. Because of Facebook’s shady morals, a lot of radical propaganda is spread around the site, and that is quickly what Twitter will become with the complete lack of guidelines.Whether you supported it or not, the Capital riots led to injuries and deaths. Unfortunately, the riots represent one of many examples of social media radicalising people and leading to harm.

No matter what your political stance is, it is undeniable that there are people on the internet that are very impressionable such as teenagers and young children. They should be able to form their own opinions based on cold, hard facts which are not found on someone’s Twitter page but instead come from reliable news sources. Feedback loops are so easy to become trapped in on the internet because of algorithms tailoring your experience to you as an individual, and these loops are incredibly harmful. If you constantly have only one viewpoint being pushed at you from all sides, that is what you start to see as the truth. It’s often what happens within families too. Many children and teenagers are, for example, influenced by the political views of their parents. People support

the same. It has been shown that the feedback loops people become trapped in on social media can very easily radicalise a person.That is why guidelines on social media are a key building block to keeping our society stable, and Elon taking those away is going to lead to Twitter’s downfall. allowed on social media for incredibly obvious reasons.We are in 2022 and if you still believe that there are differences between races, sexualities or genders then I encourage you to do a lot more research on these topics.There are some opinions that are based on incorrect assumptions and misunderstandings. Some might argue that all opinions are subjective and dispute that they can cause any harm to others. Donald Trump has now had his account reinstated and it’s only a matter of time before even more people become radicalised by his false narrative. Ultimately, social media is and will always be a diverse space where people of all political beliefs come to discuss. However it’s when that discussion becomes hate that we must stop further ideas being pushed onto young, impressionable minds.Trump and others were not banned because of their political opinions, no matter what they might say, but because of the harmful rhetoric they encouraged on their pages and that is why twitter is headed down a bumpy road with its new ‘for all’ approach. Genuinely harmful and dangerous opinions should not be

Artwork: Melis Buberka, UVI

ing Elon’s changes to Twitter think he is allowing greater freedom of speech, but the reality is that there are dangerous consequences to his initiatives. This is the main issue, because the viewpoint that radical individuals spread, on both sides of the spectrum, are not just opinions. Racist tweets are loaded with years of history of oppression. Spreading homophobic views is not just sharing your opinion, it is encouraging others to feel and act

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