Users are divided on Black Twitter’s chances to survive under Elon Musk
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LOS ANGELES—Black Twitter is mourning the potential end of the influential community found on Twitter more than a decade ago, but users are divided between finding a new app or staying put. “I’m not ready to go because I think that’s the case with a lot of things. Black people bring culture and community and love and so much energy and spirit and soul to every place that we live in, and then Somebody else comes in and completely disrupts the energy and we leave, and they benefit from what we’ve created,” Unique Jones Gibson, an avid Twitter user and CEO of marketing company Culture Brands, told CNN. Told. Gibson, like many other Black users, has bonded with strangers using Black Twitter and advanced movements like “Black Lives Matter” and “Bring Back Our Girls” — the subset of the social media platform where Black people share everything from culture to culture. Things are talked about. race for recognition. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October, the future of Black Twitter has sparked debate among scholars and its users. Gibson said, “We all see ourselves in the position where we are now, like ‘Dang, we made it and now it belongs to someone who doesn’t share the same values as us. ‘”
Andre Brock, a professor of Black Digital Studies at Georgia Tech who has studied Black Twitter, said Black users may not be leaving the platform, at least for the time being. “Wherever we are, we will be there, even if the circumstances are not right for us, but when (have) they ever been?” Brock told CNN, adding that the social media platform has been known to Black users for more than a decade.
But Brock said the collective voice that Black Twitter represents will continue to be “as loud and as passionately as Black as possible,” no matter where he lives. Charlton McIlwain, a professor at New York University and author of “Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, an Affront to Black Lives Matter,” said Black Twitter makes up its mind, and Musk won’t change it. However, McIlwain says Musk could change the platform to make it difficult to find each other or amplify other users’ tweets or create a hostile environment. McIlwain said, “Amplifying the voices of white supremacist users and turning the platform into a haven for anti-Black racism or racism targeting other identities can also have a negative impact on Black Twitter by creating an environment that discourages users.” Seems too hostile to be worth it.” While users are still deciding what to do after recent changes to Twitter — such as the reinstatement of previously banned accounts and the upcoming roll out of a new verification system — civil rights organizations like the NAACP have called for a halt to all advertising on the social media. The companies have called the stage. “Since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, racial slurs have escalated, and conspiracy theories have spread,” the NAACP said in a statement.
