Leave Twitter!

Preface

I started writing this post three weeks ago, but it still hasn’t made it to the blog. However, the topic hasn’t lost any of its relevance, so it’s not too late to publish it.

Twitter is Broken

At first, I wanted to list a long series of reasons why Twitter is no longer what it once was and why there are reasons not to be present there anymore. But all these reasons have been obvious for a long time and don’t really need to be explained in detail. After the takeover by Elon Musk more than two years ago, the platform has gone downhill. Engineers critical to the infrastructure were laid off, the blue verification was introduced for money, and in the name of “free expression,” the entire platform became even more repulsive than it ever was. A similar fate has befallen alternatives like Facebook and even Instagram.

The Man Behind It

The once-existing culture of discussion has given way to a repulsive blob of hate and fake news. Since I started running my own Mastodon instance, I have said goodbye to this platform and only toot on Mastodon. The fact that this content change was not accidental but explicitly desired and brought about is also becoming increasingly obvious. The best reason to renounce this platform is that every call to a Twitter page (which, by the way, runs into a paywall for outsiders) gives money and attention to the company and, above all, the person behind it, which is misplaced. The person Musk should not be supported. It’s no coincidence that more and more Tesla drivers are ashamed of this personnel issue—rightly so.

Alternatives

Of course, I advise everyone to become a Mastodon user. However, I can understand that the entire ecosystem seems overwhelming and initially discourages new users. But even if you delete your Twitter account and switch to BlueSky or Pleroma instead, you’ve already gained a lot. The fact that unregistered people can no longer see tweets will hopefully lead to an even faster demise of the platform.