The End is Nigh
Elon Musk's decision to suspend a series of journalists who cover him, suggests that Twitter's downward spiral is now speeding up
The slow death of Twitter sped up last night after Elon Musk suspended a series of high-profile journalists who cover him from the platform.
The journalists, who included reporters from outlets like CNN and Washington Post, had committed the cardinal sin of reporting on Musk’s decision to ban and block those linking to publicly-available flight tracker information about his private jet.
Meanwhile Musk, who claims to be a “free speech absolutist” has also banned Twitter rival Mastodon from the site and has blocked all links to the website as being somehow “unsafe”.
After briefly appearing in a ‘Twitter Space’ in which journalists were discussing the developments, he falsely claimed that the suspended journalists had “doxxed” him, before quickly logging out under further questioning.
Following the encounter, all Twitter Spaces now appear to have been disabled.
Twitter’s apparent downward spiral is all rather worrying. Like many journalists, the site has been enormously helpful to me since first starting my career in 2008.
Until very recently most of the new subscribers to this newsletter came direct from Twitter, and it remains one of the main ways that people find my articles here and at Byline Times.
However, the combination of users deserting the site, Musk’s toxic behaviour and changes to the algorithm mean that Twitter’s reach appears to be going into decline.
For this reason, I will be spending more time building up my presence elsewhere, including here on Substack.
If you would like to help with that, you can take out a full subscription below at a specially discounted rate for the next couple of days.
I plan to host some chats on the Substack app for subscribers over the Christmas period, which you will be able to take part in by downloading the app on your Iphone or Android phone.
Taking out a full subscription to Folded will not only get you the next paid edition, which is due over the weekend, but will also help to support an independent news outlet, free of any reliance on Musk, or any other megalomaniac tech billionaire.
Thank you for your support.