The natural consequences of these actions followed. As Hamas attacked Israel and then Israel responded with reprisals against Gaza, the platform became flooded with lies, misinformation and spun-up fakery of the sort that might endanger people. It is obvious that this is the new normal: Whenever any similar, horrible event happens, Musk’s Twitter will be there, to exacerbate the damage. There is no sign that this can be put right. If anything, the evidence on hand suggests that this is part of the business plan.
Much of the myth of social media’s social utility emerged more than twelve years ago, during the start of the Arab Spring. Then, Twitter and Facebook were used to organize mass protests and to apply public, worldwide pressure on repressive, despotic regimes. In February 2011, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Wael Ghonim, a Google executive and organizer of Egypt’s ongoing protests “Tunisia, then Egypt, what’s next?” “Ask Facebook” was Ghonim’s reply. “If you want to liberate a government, give them the internet.”
Few predictions have aged as poorly, though Ghonim’s optimism was understandable at the time. Instead of being a force for liberation, tech has been a force for oppression and, at times, genocide and ethnic cleansing. Disinformation, we now know, spreads as easily, if not more easily, than genuine news; social media’s algorithmic hoodoo seems geared toward helping lies achieve escape velocity. And at Musk’s barebones Twitter, which has a skeleton crew manning its trust and safety desk, anything goes.