Small Twitter

I read a Guardian opinion piece over the weekend; “Twitter’s right wing takeover is complete. Why are liberals still on it? It’s a good piece and a fair question and I have a theory as to why it might be. Small Twitter.?

A few years back, when I worked for Twitter, we had a little “Tweet up” (I know…) in a pub near the office and invited a few of our favourite UK Tweeters. One of them was Rhodri Marsden and he probably won’t remember this but he mentioned how he felt Twitter was at its best when it felt small. For me it was one of those “a-ha” moments which I’ve thought about a lot since.?

To be clear this isn’t another one of those nostalgic “it was better when there were less people on it” takes but a distinction between, if you like, two different vibes.?

Big Twitter is politics and culture wars. It’s Trump, Brexit, Covid vaccines, gaslighting, Transphobia, abuse and misinformation. It’s heavy, polarised, often attritional and very often angry. You know Big Twitter, of course you do.?

But Small Twitter isn’t like that.?

Small Twitter is playful, fun, kind & chatty. It’s people trying to make each other laugh, helping each other out, not taking themselves too seriously and joining in. It’s made up of thousands of small interactions and friendships that have sort of evolved. People who answer questions, give advice and recommendations, tell you something interesting or useful or join in the joke.?

We all have our own things and people that make up our own Small Twitter. Small Twitter is Daytime snaps, #JoinIn, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas. It’s Dogs at Polling Stations, Barry at the Bowls, Ed Balls Day and “have you ever seen a celeb at a service station?” It’s Eurovision, terrible jokes, #BuyAStrangerABook. It’s the same joke repeated again and again (by the way I used to be obsessed with randomly quoting Phil Collins lyrics but take a look at me now). It’s boats stuck in canals, it’s Crowborough, East Sussex being overrun with giraffes. It’s the warmth & wit of Simon Ricketts. It’s accidentally hosting games of #BlanketyBlank for years without an exit strategy. This week it’s “do you like aubergine?” Next week it will be something else but the spirit of it remains the same. You will have your own small Twitter. That’s how it should be.?

I don’t want this to be a “Big Twitter bad, Small Twitter good” take because it’s nothing like as straightforward as that.?

Jack Dorsey is on record as saying that “the thing I’m most proud of Twitter for is that it has been a vehicle for historically marginalised groups to share their story”. And that simply doesn’t happen without Big Twitter and people having a platform to speak truth to power. Without Big Twitter there would be no #MeToo, no #BlackLivesMatter, no Gender Pay Gap bot.?

Some people’s circumstances, job or lived experience means they have to be on Big Twitter and don’t have much of a choice. While others choose to go there and find they can never leave, digging further in and becoming more and more entrenched and divisive (often at great cost to their own reputation).

That leads us to Elon Musk.?

Full disclosure here, I resigned from my job at Twitter a few days after Musk’s takeover. I didn’t see a vision, a strategy or a leadership style I could get behind and was in a position where I could decide it wasn’t for me. At the risk of understatement he’s not really my cup of tea.?

That said, I do think that on one level he sort of understands the concept of Small Twitter. His Tweets aren’t generally to my taste (he probably wouldn’t like mine, that’s ok) but at the very least he interacts and replies to people.

In an interview with Ron Baron in November, a few days after the acquisition he talked about how if Twitter was a radio station you should be able to choose whether you want “easy listening smooth jazz” or “heavy metal thrash” which he describes as “full combat battle” where you don’t mind “someone saying mean things to you” and “engaging in vigorous arguments”. Effectively he was saying that people should be able to choose the type of Twitter experience they want.?

But it’s becoming increasingly clear that Musk himself favours “heavy metal thrash” mode and this is having a big influence on Twitter for the rest of us. Big Twitter has got “bigger” (which shouldn’t be confused with more popular or more successful).??

Since the Musk takeover Twitter has decided to replatform previously banned accounts (many from hateful extremists) in the name of “free speech”. Musk has hosted a Twitter Space where Ron DeSantis announced he was running for President and Tucker Carlson has announced he will be launching a new version of his show on Twitter. Musk has leaned into each of these gleefully, aligning himself pretty firmly with one half of “Big Twitter”.?

Most significantly of all, his decision to remove verification from thousands of notable accounts which contribute a huge amount to making Twitter a nice place to be and instead sell verification (and prominence in replies) to anyone willing to pay $8 for it has been catastrophic for Small Twitter.?

If you've clicked on a reply to many Tweets with big reach recently it won’t have escaped you that many of the newly verified are humourless at best and often unpleasant or angry (nearly everything can be turned into a culture war it seems, it’s really quite remarkable).?

At a stroke he has elevated Big Twitter but at the cost of making the thing he’s bought less kind, less fun, less understanding, less enjoyable. Less Small.?

But while it’s getting harder to find Small Twitter and more likely that you’ll encounter Big Twitter whether you want to or not, Small Twitter is still there and for as long as it remains I suspect a lot of us will still be there too. Perhaps using it less, perhaps feeling less good about it when we do but there anyway, doing our best to keep Twitter small.