We are closely monitoring traffic on Twitter in the aftermath of last week’s takeover by Elon Musk.
Over the weekend Musk put up and then removed a Tweet that suggested a possible conspiracy behind the attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The incident has given critics of Musk early ammunition to use against him even before he announces any major decisions about content moderation.
We are especially interested in how news organizations and journalists manage their relationship with the platform. As Laurel readers know, Twitter is the go-to social media app in the world of journalism, but if Musk’s Twitter becomes a misinformation “Hellscape” how will journalism deal with that?
Will journalists abandon the platform that laid the little blue egg? It would seem journalism’s value for the truth above all else would demand it.
Does the New York Times need Twitter, we wonder? The Washington Post? The Wall St. Journal? Is it time for journalists to vote with their tweet?
