WIRED has written a lot lately about Elon Musk’s Twitter, so forgive me for coming back to it – but for those of us as terminally online as I am, I just want to ask: What happened last weekend?
I woke up Sunday morning to learn that Twitter would block all mentions of or links to “competing” services, from Instagram to Facebook to Linktree of all places. It was claimed to be about “preventing free advertising” from the platform’s competitors and to “reduce spam”. Of course, anyone with two neurons rubbing against each other could see that this was a cover story – you don’t need a journalist for that – and the great link ban was mostly about containing the flow of active and popular users to other platforms while he spoke controlled in the name of Musk’s mission to [checks notes] … protect freedom of expression.
What was essentially a minor online row ensued, with Twitter users from all quarters decrying the new policy. Within hours, not only had the company backtracked, but all mention of the less-than-day-old policy had been expunged from Twitter feeds and the company website. It was a whirlwind for anyone online to see it. (Although if you missed it, I wouldn’t say you missed itIf you know what I mean.)
But I’m not here to speculate on the true motives behind Sunday’s whiplash; I don’t think that’s helpful. After all, intention and impact are separate things. Regardless of someone’s intent when they punch you in the face, they still punched you in the face. Now you have to deal with the situation they created. So my thoughts instead go out – and I hope yours does too – to the people affected by the weekend’s policy change. Those Twitter users who on Sunday wondered if the platform they used and trusted to find and promote their work, connect with others in their field and, in many cases, rely on revenue would allow them to continue .
When we talk about “platforms and power” at WIRED, this is what we’re talking about. Of course, every operator of a platform, whether CEO, founder or middle manager, has the unenviable task of establishing and enforcing policies and guidelines for the safe and legal use of that platform. That is not in dispute. Without such rules, online spaces can quickly break down. What’s a problem is when those platforms choose to actively harm their users through policy decisions, and when those changes are big enough to force users to adapt or abandon ship.
Let me explain: I’m lucky enough to know a lot of creatives, as well as a lot of journalists and techies. When I woke up to the news on Sunday, I was told through tweets from artists who were terrified they would be banned from Twitter for linking to their own portfolios and platforms where they accept commissions for their artwork. I read horror stories of authors terrified that the Linktrees their publishers had asked them to create to promote their books, reviews, and Goodreads profiles were suddenly criminalized on Twitter.
My friends on Twitch paused their streams to discuss the news, worried they wouldn’t be able to tweet to announce they were starting a new stream, or add a link to their Twitter bio to help viewers find them. All of these things created the potential for lost revenue for people who, I would say, need it more than the people who made these policy decisions. After all, these same creators have the kind of disruptive, entrepreneurial spirit that everyone in Silicon Valley claims they want to nurture and amplify.
