In the space of a week, Musk has just made a Nazi salute and supported for a German far-right party.

For some time now, he has been haranguing nationalist parties to stop this "multi-culturalism that dilutes everything".

Ok.

Musk is the owner of Twitter, well X, but I can't get used to that name. And this owner sees his social network as a medium, a medium on which he imposes his editorial line, which is obviously hardening over time.

So, maybe it's time to put some distance between me and Twitter.

At least, I'm going to do it, but the reason I'm writing this article is to tell you that you too should do it.

Obviously, I'm not your father, neither your conscience. I can't really tell you what to do or what not to do. But I can tell you why I think it's problematic to stay on this network.

A political weapon

Since Elon Musk took control of Twitter in 2022, the platform has become a political weapon for Musk.

It would be difficult to list them all, but we can mention :

• changing the algorithms that recommend tweets to users, to amplify Elon Musk's holy word in particular. Even when you don't follow him.

It may sound funny (or pathetic), the story of a great megalomaniac who "just" wants to be heard by the whole world.
It's less so when the person in question writes crazy thing after crazy thing, dozens, even hundreds of times a day.

• the selective reinstatement of people who were banned from Twitter, the vast majority of the time for harassment, incitement to hatred, racism, anti-Semitism etc...

Yes, because Elon has discovered a great passion for freedom of expression.
The only problem is, he seems to have a rather original definition of freedom of expression.

For example, apparently anything too "woke" in Elon's eyes tends to get censored pretty easily.

• here it talked too much about trans-identity
• here Rose McGowan got censored for talking too much about Harvey Weinstein

And funniest of all, it's finally Republicans who have been banned from Twitter for disagreeing on the management of work visas issued to foreigners.

But wait, you've got to understand, freedom stops where Elon's opinion starts, it's normal.

• the removal of identity certification, which has led to numerous account usurpations, in favor of subscriptions, allowing greater visibility.

The famous "certified accounts" are paid for on Twitter. In exchange, the visibility of their posts is boosted, and they can be paid according to the number of views of their posts.

Except that Twitter's algorithm favors tweets with high levels of engagement, i.e. mostly provocative, hateful, racist, etc. content.

Which brings me to my next point:

• the total disappearance of the anti-bot fight

The proportion of bots was estimated at around 10/15% before the Musk takeover.

While there are no official figures today, it is worth noting that :

• CHEQ estimates that 75% of Twitter traffic during the superbowl was bots.
• 5th column estimates that 64% of accounts are bots

These figures seem high, and the exact measurement seems complex, but there's a consensus in the press that there's been an increase in bot activity, and especially during election periods.

And it's precisely this point that's starting to become very disturbing. The use of bots to influence elections has been proven.

If we need reminding, here are a few events we already know about:

• Cambridge Analytica in 2016
• Russian interference to favor Trump in 2016
• opinion manipulation that favored Brexit in 2016
• the annulled Romanian election of 2024 on suspicion of massive interference.

But what happens when the owner of the network is himself in charge of propaganda operations? When he can amplify one type of content and censor another?

That's exactly what I don't want to find out, even if I know it's already a bit late.

Elon, a problematic guy

So, let's not beat around the bush, the subject would already be problematic even with a well-meaning person.

But here, we're talking about someone who openly promotes far-right parties in Europe:

• In Germany, with the support of the AFD
• In Italy, with Giorgia Meloni
• In the UK, defending the Reform UK party and calling for the imprisonment of the Minister for Child Protection

Ok, surprise, this is the first time I've talked about politics on my blog and rest assured, I won't be doing it often.

It's not that I'm not interested in politics. On the contrary, the world we live in and the society we create are important to me.

But basically, I understand that we all have different cultures, different life experiences and therefore different opinions.
So, really, the last thing I want to do is go on the Internet and fight complete strangers to convince them that I'm right.

But an opinion can be dangerous. And Elon, he's starting to cross the line...

So yes, I'm worried, about his influence and his participation in a government that's already starting to be aggressive towards Canada, Greenland or Panama...

Now that we've said that, individually, we all need to realize that we vote with our actions.

The programs we watch, the shops we shop in, the social networks we use - these are all economic and, ultimately, political acts.

We vote with our wallets, or our brain time.

And, for me, staying on X becomes complicity.

We can no longer say "yes, but we didn't know", "yes, but that's just talk, he's not really dangerous".
We know, and he's dangerous.

Most frequent opposition

Okay, I know what could be answered to me, so I'm thinking ahead.

It's symbolic and ineffective

Admittedly, my departure is very minor. I don't represent anything on my scale.

But the number of Twitter users has really fallen in recent years, notably to the benefit of Mastodon and Bluesky. So it's really the sum of individual actions that ended up having an impact.

Major press groups are leaving, official communication channels are leaving the platform. There's a real groundswell.

And in any case, we need symbols. Even on an individual scale.

You create an echo chamber

By leaving, you leave the platform to the opinions you oppose.

That's an argument that really misses the point. I've listed above everything that shows that the platform is totally flawed and has completely hijacked the meaning of freedom of expression.

Twitter's recommendation algo is biased. No individual action can do anything about it.

Why leave Twitter and not facebook, amazon, bluesky etc.?

Yes, I know, we often lump all "techs bros" together. And it's true that the recent allegiance of all the Silicon Valley bigwigs to Trump is chilling.

Right now, Musk is the most dangerous. He's the one who's most involved in his network's editorial policy.

And I must admit, it's hard to say goodbye to all the social networks.

That's not to say that things won't change, given how fast they're evolving at the moment...

You're funny but it's been 3 years since you should have done it

I had to list this point, I already know I'll get comments like this because it's been a while since some people came to this conclusion.

Well, I don't know, I don't have an answer for you. I understand quickly, but you'll have to explain it to me at length.

Stop talking about the US, we don't have a lesson to give them, and it'll soon be the same here.

Well, one doesn't preclude the other. I can be worried about what's happening here AND be worried about what's happening there. Especially as the two are actually linked. Because the manipulation of opinion on social networks has an influence on OUR local life.

When Musk funds parties in Europe, he brings his opinions here. We can't just say we're going to treat the symptoms without talking about the cause behind them.

I'm losing all my followers

Yes, for some people, leaving X means losing a solid network with lots of interaction.

I don't have a ready-made answer to that.

I could tell you that the Guardian did it with 27M followers.

And in a Guardian article, they talk about Salome Saque, a French journalist who did it with an account of 200,000 subscribers.

So, if it's not your business, if you have a "small account", honestly, the question doesn't arise.
Personally, with 2,000 followers on Twitter, I'm living it up. I swear, we survive.

Yes, but Twitter is part of my business.

Twitter isn't just a social network. It's a business tool. It's a way of reaching an audience to promote something.

Some for training, others for service, or content.

I understand it's hard.

But tell yourself one thing: the more total you come to the alternative networks, the further ahead you'll be in recreating your audience. It's in your interest to do so. Be ahead of the game, because the shift will happen. It's already started.

It's hard to get the figures since Twitter is no longer listed on the stock exchange, but, apparently :

• it's a company that's still not break even.
• it's advertising revenues in freefall, with a sizeable debt, with major advertisers like Disney, Apple and Coca Cola leaving the company
• a company now worth only 20% of what it was at the time of the takeover

And to reassure you, all those who have switched have noted stronger engagement on other platforms, perhaps because Twitter is now full of dead accounts or bots, perhaps because there's no algorithm that puts you at a disadvantage.

End of an era?

Yes, it's true. Twitter has left its mark on social networking, and unfortunately will continue to do so.

Born in 2006, we couldn't see it disappearing, even if its business model remained a mystery.

It was the first time you could literally talk to anyone on the planet.

It was the first time you could have an exchange with Mark Hamill, Neil deGrasse Tyson, the head of NASA, Lebron James and the list goes on.

And I'm going to miss it, because right now, we're heading towards a fragmentation of networks.

So yes, it's going to be weird.

But Twitter has also been shown to have a negative influence on morale:

• like here, the Yale study
• or here, from Royal Society for public health

(Even if there is other studies that say the opposite, like this one.)

For me, a sentence that sums up Twitter would be this:

It's a place where you can hear everyone's thoughts, unfiltered. But who wants to constantly hear everyone's thoughts without a filter?

So maybe it's a blessing in disguise for me, even if it will take me a while to wean myself off.

My account remains open, but will be inactive with a link to my bluesky account in the description.

Bye