People and organizations in the south and southwest suburbs using Twitter ought to be looking for an exit strategy.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s latest moves targeting The New York Times and NPR signal that the social media site is rapidly heading in a direction that could prove damaging to brands if they continue to treat operations like business as usual.
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Twitter removed the blue verification check mark from the main account of The New York Times, one of Musk’s most despised news organizations, The Associated Press reported. Twitter seems to have targeted the newspaper with the move.
“The removal comes as many of Twitter’s high-profile users are bracing for the loss of the blue check marks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the social media platform,” according to the AP.
Fresh concerns about Twitter emerged Wednesday when the site labeled the account for National Public Radio, or NPR, as “state-affiliated media.” No government entity controls NPR’s editorial content. NPR receives federal funding that accounts for less than 1% of its annual operating budget, the organization told the AP.
Twitter users should be worried about these and other developments. Individuals and organizations would be wise to immediately pause and consider what messages their continued use of Twitter send to their followers.
Recent changes have major implications. Twitter this week abruptly replaced its bird logo with a dog image that is the logo for Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency. The change caused Dogecoin’s stock value to surge, CNN reported.
Musk switched the logo shortly after asking a federal judge to dismiss a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit that accuses Musk of running a pyramid scheme to support Dogecoin, Reuters reported.
People and businesses from Blue Island, Tinley Park, Chicago Heights and other towns should be aware of how these rapidly occurring changes affect their ability to use Twitter to interact with people and build reputations.
For starters, many organizations post icons on website homepages that help people find their accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Should companies swap out the old blue bird logo with the new yellow dog logo?
No one knows, but people who care about their brand’s reputations should be thinking about it. Musk could decide tomorrow to go back to the blue bird logo. He seems to be running the company based on whims and a desire to create chaos.
Many public school districts, municipalities and other publicly supported government websites have Twitter icons on their homepages. Taxpayers have a right to have a say in whether these entities continue to engage on a platform that seems to embrace authoritarianism.
Twitter users ought to see that their continued participation on the site makes a political statement. Twitter can no longer claim to be neutral. Musk is clearly steering the site to the right.
Changes are occurring incrementally but quickly. There’s no telling how radical Twitter could become in a relatively short period of time. Musk has said he will resign as Twitter CEO by the end of the year, but he could inflict a lot of damage by then.
Technology analysts have raised concerns about how Musk might manipulate Twitter’s algorithm to promote content that advances a right-wing agenda. There is concern, for example, that Musk supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
By continuing to use Twitter and promoting it with links on their websites, are school districts endorsing alleged war atrocities being committed against children? Superintendents and school board members ought to be prepared to answer such questions when citizens exercise their rights to comment during public meetings.
The wise course of action for all elected or appointed officials and their organizations would be to pause their use of Twitter pending a thorough risk analysis.
Hopefully no government entities are spending taxpayer dollars to pay Musk’s $8 per month ransom for Twitter Blue subscriptions. Musk, who ridiculously overpaid by spending $44 billion to acquire Twitter, has to raise revenue somehow.
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Major advertisers have fled the site over concerns whether Twitter is doing enough to police hate speech, child pornography and other content that could appear next to their messaging.
Twitter is no longer a platform that public school districts and other government entities or officials should feel safe using to communicate with parents and citizens. Individuals who manage social media for organizations should be well aware of these developments and mobilizing to respond to Twitter’s tilt to the right.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.