Twitter is Toxic - I Quit

On her Pivot podcast this week, Kara Swisher said there aren’t “enough hugs” in the world to make Elon Musk feel better about himself.?I could not agree more.?Well – I am all hugged out.?I deactivated my Twitter account today.?The reality is – no one will really care of course.?I joined Twitter in 2010 but never worked really hard at it so I ended my run with a few thousand followers – not enough to matter.?However, it matters to me.?As a mother, citizen, woman and communications executive, I can’t continue to stand by and “lurk” on a platform that has devolved into a racist, sexist, conspiracy laden, nasty environment.?Here is my rationale:

1.????See above – racism, sexism, disinformation and conspiracy theories dominate the platform.?Ownership does not seem to have an interest in finding any solution to mitigate the toxic environment – in fact, ownership contributes to the environment.?Elon changed the sign outside of Twitter’s SF HQ to read “Titter”.?Really hysterical – my nine-year old son wants his joke back.

2.????Blue check chaos – there is now a “City of New York” verified account that is not actually run by city government.?The company is also giving dead celebrities blue check marks (?) and actual living celebrities are rejecting offers to have the company pay for their check marks.?We will very quickly not know who or what is actually tweeting.?As a communicator, this obviously concerns me.

3.????We don’t need Twitter.?We really don’t.?The only key stakeholder group left on Twitter are journalists.?Twitter is a small, elite world.?It really doesn’t matter anymore.?Companies and public figures need to find another platform to release statements and provide POVs and context.?Whether it is Post or Substack or LinkedIn (for businesses), we all need to find a new home.?I agree journalists are important, but it’s not worth risking your reputation and/or soul to reach them.

4.????For a platform that is so driven by journalists, Twitter ownership seems to despise both the profession of journalism and the critical role that communications executives play in an increasingly complicated world.?The way the talented Twitter communications team was dismissed was disgraceful.?The response to journalist queries with a poop emoji is just a real laugh (again, my nine-year old is calling).?Eleanor Hawkins (Axios) had a great observation on this point - Elon does not need communications advisors but his reputation has taken a major hit so he goes on a very traditional (ill-advised and badly executed- my POV) PR tour.?Sigh.?The leaders that win understand the need for a strong communications partner to help them speak effectively to all of their key audiences.?

Lastly, I will miss Twitter.?I will miss fun animal tweets, humorous hot takes and of course the NY Rangers tweets (the social media team does a great job!).?I will miss using Twitter as my news feed.?Two terribly overused clichés come to mind here – all good things must come to an end AND the only constant thing in life is change.