Should we leave X en masse?
Ever since tech mogul Elon Musk bought Twitter at the end of 2022 for a whopping 44 billion dollars and turned it into X, quite some users have left the online platform. One of them is Catherine Van de Heyning, human rights lecturer and cybersecurity and disinformation expert. Socio-economist Ive Marx, director of the Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck, on the other hand, made the conscious decision to stay on the platform.
IN SHORT
- For Ive Marx, leaving X means avoiding confrontation with the real world where people like Musk are calling the shots.
- 70% of X members are male; women and minority groups are most frequently targeted. Research shows that a large portion of X accounts are controlled bots, many of which control several accounts in turn.
- For Catherine Van de Heyning, the valuable source of short and powerful information for researchers that Twitter once was has now become a cesspool.
- Perhaps this is the momentum Europe needs to reinvent itself and develop a radically different tech narrative, based on balance and transparency.
The right resonates
This was to be a clash of opposites with two interviewees diametrically opposed to one another, but there’s at least one thing they both agree on: tech mogul Elon Musk meddles in politics in all corners of the world, normalises a discourse that feels like it’s straight out of 1940 and supports individuals and movements with reprehensible ideas to say the least. But the central question this article asks is: should we leave X en masse for that reason?
‘No,’ thinks Ive Marx. ‘For me, leaving X means avoiding confrontation with the real world, where people like Musk are calling the shots. Look at the world today: Trump has been elected in America, Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orbán are amongst the most powerful people in Europe, the Netherlands opted for the right, the far-right AfD party is up and coming in Germany, and even in my village the American flag is flying. That right-wing discourse clearly resonates well with the world population. That’s exactly the part of the world you find on X. We have to push back wherever our opponents are, not on other niche platforms with only like-minded people.’
We have to push back wherever our opponents are, not on other niche platforms with only like-minded people.
Dick pics and rape fantasies
‘As a cybersecurity and disinformation expert and a human rights lecturer, I often work on security together with digital platforms,’ Catherine Van de Heyning says. ‘As a result, for a long time it made sense for me to be active on Twitter, a well-known news platform with millions of users worldwide. But since Musk’s takeover, I started having more and more doubts about my presence there. For my job, I did want to keep abreast of developments at X, but at the same time I didn’t want to contribute to a medium that reinforces the problems I wanted to call out.’
Van de Heyning noted that she wasn’t the only one to leave the platform, but that women, in particular, were quitting: ‘Currently, about 70% of X members are male. Women and minority groups are most frequently targeted. You don’t want to know how many threats, insults, dick pics and rape fantasies I’ve received. Who stayed on X? Influencers who have very strong opinions, politicians, journalists and a small group of academics. That’s not a cross-section of the world population. In fact, research continues to show that a large portion of X accounts are controlled bots, many of which control several accounts in turn. So who are you actually talking to?’
Power of the consumer
‘I’m surprised about the personal abuse,’ says Marx. ‘I get much less of that. And I don’t respond to that kind of filth anyway. I stay for the people with opinions that interest me, like Dirk Van Damme and Wouter Duyck. I continue to find it an informative platform and try to avoid ending up in those self-reinforcing spirals. There just aren’t any good alternatives yet. Some people are moving to Bluesky, but that platform is still quite marginal and it’s as polite there as at an academic conference. It doesn’t feel like the real world. On X, I find a part of the world I don’t interact with much. It’s a way for me to get out of my bubble of like-minded people and hear what’s really going on in the underbelly of society.’
‘The valuable source of short and powerful information for researchers that Twitter once was has now become a cesspool,’ Van de Heyning believes. ‘What I used to get out of it is no longer there. In the old days, Twitter was an easy way to keep up, discover new articles and meet interesting people. But besides all the conspiracy theories that fall on fertile ground on X, the quality of the algorithms has seriously declined. For me personally, I get very little out of it anymore that I can’t find on other channels. Not only does the platform steer the debate in a certain direction, my presence there also makes an already insanely powerful person even richer. X is and remains first and foremost a commercial product. Why should I invest in a product that I think is harmful to a lot of people and has lost its usefulness to me? Apart from the power of the citizen, you also have the power of the consumer: I don’t like your product anymore.’
Social debate
Both interviewees do believe that, as academics, they can and should weigh in on the social debate. ‘It’s on X that we can currently offer the most resistance to the far-right voices dominating the world stage,’ Marx believes. ‘I’m happy to say that for the time being, I’m still finding lots of critical voices on X. Musk also gets a lot of mud slung at him on his own platform and this doesn’t seem to be censored. That’s part and parcel of free speech. I know successful, well-to-do people who loathe newspapers like De Standaard. We have to accept that a large part of public opinion is completely different from our own. X is a gateway, a forum, a handy megaphone.’
‘I also think it’s our responsibility to participate in the social debate, but I prefer to do so by, for example, going to speak at the Atheneum of Antwerp and really coming into contact with people from all walks of life,’ Van de Heyning says. ‘We humans have always felt the need to seek out the agora to share our opinions and ideas. Those places have always been scattered and spread out. We used to have the pillar system, separating us on a philosophical or socio-economic basis. With the advent of social media, we had a moment in history when almost everyone seemed to be on the same channel. Worldwide, 7 out of 10 people were already in contact with social media. But as our world – due to a whole range of events – became more fragmented again, so did social media. People within a certain social group find each other on their own channels, interacting much less with people belonging to other groups. This more fragmented media world aligns with today’s zeitgeist.’
Cybersecurity
And what about security on those digital platforms? ‘Musk is breaking every European security rule in the book for tech companies. That doesn’t make me very happy,’ Van de Heyning sighs. ‘I’ve already spent hours, days, weekends trying to make the digital world safer for our children, and America wants to tear all of that down. In Europe, we’re working on moderation, and we’re also transparent about the decisions we take when it comes to security. I think that’s a good thing. By simply stating, as in America, that you can say anything you want, you take away the voices of many minority groups and push them aside.’
In Europe, we are working on moderation, and we’re also transparent about the decisions we take when it comes to security.
‘I’m pro free speech,’ says Marx. ‘But now I understand that you can see that as a naive position and I realise that I also look at moderation a bit differently when it comes to my daughters’ safety. I see that my fundamental attitude clashes with how I feel about things as a father. Even though this is the real world and they’ll have to learn to deal with that, I do see the tension between my fundamental stance and the consequences it has.’
Autocorrect
‘As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle,’ reckons Van de Heyning. ‘Young people also get a lot of good things out of social media, but you have to be able to protect them. Europe is clear about this: we don’t want vulnerable young people to be exposed to the promotion of extreme violence, child pornography and things like that. Inciting hatred isn’t permitted and we consider certain forms of free expression dangerous. By also publishing those decisions, Europe is allowing its people to think about these matters, which is a good thing.’
‘Don’t you think the market will correct itself in the long run?’ asks Marx. ‘If people do leave X and Facebook in droves, that can’t be commercially appealing, can it?’
‘In the short term, I don’t see that autocorrect happening yet,’ Van de Heyning responds. ‘For two reasons: Musk is a crazy millionaire who uses X as his business card and wants to spend his money on it, and he can’t be influenced. In the long run, we may well be able to shape that agora differently. I hope this will prove to be the momentum Europe needs to reinvent itself and develop a radically different tech narrative, based on balance and transparency. We all have a role to play in this regard.’