To those who know me or who read my editor’s desk each month, it will come as no surprise that I don’t care for social media.
For all the good it does, it is overshadowed by the trolls, the disingenuous and the ill-informed who post up every thought, idea and conspiracy theory without even taking a minute to verify if it carries any weight of truth. Of these platforms, Twitter to me is the worst of the bunch.
When Twitter first launched and started to become popular, I was pursuing a journalism degree in college. Back then, Twitter was just 140 characters and it was an excellent tool for journalists because forcing you to say what you had to say in as few words as possible helped to improve your headline writing.
Among all social media platforms, Twitter was unique in its way to quickly disseminate information. In 2010, after a massive earthquake struck Haiti, many people used Twitter to get word out about survivors and what was happening on the ground in real time. A year later, Twitter was a powerful tool assisting activists in organizing during the Arab Spring. Twitter is why words like tweeting, hashtag and going viral are so engrained in our lexicon.
As Twitter gained in popularity, it started to become THE place for famous people to interact directly with fans. It is also the platform most responsible for turning online trolls into celebrities. Under the guise of “freedom of speech,” Twitter became a swamp of hate, racism, bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism and xenophobia. It turned into a cesspool where conspiracy theories were fed, Nazis were praised and individuals like Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kanye West and more were allowed to pedal whatever lies they wanted without consequence. Only after the January 6 insurrection did Twitter finally ban its number one peddler of hate and lies, Donald Trump.
As if the social media landscape couldn’t get crazier than it already was, in October of last year, Elon Musk became the owner and CEO of Twitter for the bargain price of $44 billion. Since taking over, he has reinstated Trump and other internet trolls on the platform, he has muddled the verification process giving parody accounts the ability to impact real businesses and organizations and he has begun gutting Twitter’s rules and regulations leaving marginalized users free to be bullied, attacked and abused. It is the latter that concerns me the most.
I personally left Twitter many years ago; however, Watermark has maintained an account since 2009. Last month, Twitter removed a policy against “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.” The policy was put in place in 2018 to prevent deadnaming and purposefully using the wrong gender for someone as a form of harassment.
The removal of this policy sent a clear message that Twitter does not care about the safety of the trans community and other marginalized groups. This policy removal came on the heels of Twitter falsely labeling PBS and NPR as “state-affiliated media.” That controversy led PBS and NPR to state that they would no longer post new content on Twitter. The removal of the policy against deadnaming trans individuals led dozens of LGBTQ+ community centers, including The Center Orlando, to go dark on Twitter as well.
That brings us to Watermark. While our 2,000+ followers on Twitter are far less than NPR and PBS have, we made the decision April 28 to not post any new content on our account. You can read our full statement pinned to the top of our Twitter page but it states in part, “As a company that understands the power of words, Watermark condemns Twitter’s decision wholeheartedly. It stands in contrast to our values and amplifies hate towards the most vulnerable members of our community. We stand with our trans siblings, today and always. As such, we will not utilize the platform unless and until this decision is reversed.”
Since coming under the watchful eye of Elon Musk, Twitter has become an unsafe and unreliable way of communication, and we cannot continue to utilize it in its current state. I hope you will join us on our other platforms, which are not without flaws but stand above Twitter in protecting LGBTQ+ users, and I hope that while social media has become a leading source for many to get their news that you will continue to read Watermark in print and online, and support the independent journalism that we have been bringing to Central Florida and Tampa Bay for nearly 30 years.
