Users' vows to quit Twitter are easier said than done

PARIS • Quit Twitter - that is what some users spooked by technology billionaire Elon Musk's purchase of the social platform say they plan to do. But its unparalleled audience means that is difficult for many who want their voices to be heard and to influence the global debate.

Since Twitter announced on Monday that it had accepted Mr Musk's bid, some users have declared their intention to leave the platform over his plans to unfetter speech on it.

"It's going to become an even more lawless, hateful, xenophobic, bigoted, misogynistic space," English actress and activist Jameela Jamil tweeted to her million followers.

Promises to go Twitter-free trended under hashtags like #LeaveTwitter. But many others are sceptical.

"The people who say they are #leavingtwitter in India because @elonmusk bought it, are the same people who said they will leave India if @narendramodi becomes the PM. Twice. And never did!" tweeted Indian author and columnist Shefali Vaidya to her 665,000 followers.

Earlier this month, French journalist Nicolas Henin (52,000 followers) vowed he would quit the platform if Mr Musk bought it. "I still haven't taken a firm decision," he told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday. "For one, there's the impression of deserting and then there's the lack of an alternative."

No other platform can easily replace Twitter for those who leave. "What makes Twitter is the community" of over 200 million users, said Ms Leila Morch, research project coordinator at Stanford University's Content Policy and Society Lab.

In terms of popularity, Discord with its 300 million users is the closest to Twitter. It supports online communities, but in contrast to Twitter, it is not an open platform: entry into each group requires an invitation.

Mastodon, launched in 2016, is a Twitter clone without advertising and whose source code is open. However, the platform's server is much smaller and it has only 670,000 users.

Others - such as Getter, Parler and Truth Social, which Mr Donald Trump founded after being banned from Twitter in January last year - cater to the US right wing. American conservatives have largely welcomed Mr Musk's bid for Twitter.

Tumblr, another social network and microblogging site that has been around since 2007 but fallen in popularity, could become a refuge for those who abandon Twitter.

"Twitter attracts the media world, a mix of journalists and people, the world of political and economic decision-makers," as well as influencers, said sociologist Dominique Boullier at Sciences Po university in Paris.

While these "opinion makers" represent only a minority of users, they are the ones who "attract the general public" and "cause things to go viral", he said.

Professor Boullier believes Mr Musk wants to serve "people fond of shocking, controversial and alternative news" who have been left in the lurch since Mr Trump's Twitter banishment.

For Ms Morch, Mr Musk's contested takeover of Twitter has one positive element: "People are realising that content moderation is political and that poses questions for society."

Twitter will have to comply with Europe's new laws curbing the power of Big Tech. "Whether on online harassment, the sale of counterfeit products... child pornography, or calls for acts of terrorism... Twitter will have to adapt to our European regulations which do not exist in the United States," European Union commissioner Thierry Breton told AFP on Tuesday.

He was referring to the new Digital Services Act, a major piece of EU legislation ensuring tougher consequences when platforms host banned content.

But for Ms Morch, the question is broader. "Content moderation provides tools, but it is a debate on free speech that is needed: what do we want and don't want to see online?"

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE