Twitter, or “X” as he calls it, is not worth it for people like me anymore.
I used to utilize Twitter to promote my work. Same for my books. My articles. My ideas. My voice. I used to connect with like-minded people. Commenters would give their perspectives in a safe space.
Not anymore. All that is over.
I left Twitter/X because dissent-the kind that matters—doesn’t belong to Elon Musk.
And more importantly, it doesn’t belong on Twitter anymore. The occasionally richest man on earth made sure of that. He broke Twitter not only in name with the idiotic “X” rebrand, but in so many ways.
First, It Was A Platform for Resistance—Now, a Platform for Hate
In its early years, Twitter was a tool for global resistance.
Arab Spring. Ferguson. Black Lives Matter. It was the space where citizens could tell the world about abusive government regimes. It was the place where marginalized voices could organize, shout back, be seen, and be heard. News agencies would pick up the latest happenings globally and bring them into mainstream news. If I vaguely heard of an event in a remote corner of wherever, and wanted images, videos, the on-the-ground take, I could get that while it happened.
Even with the idiotic trolls (why don’t they get a life and go read a book or find someone to love?) and the pile-ons, Twitter was a place where truth could spread.
It was a digital space where the algorithm didn’t always favor power, bigotry, ideologues, and mad people.
Hashtags could ignite movements and often save lives.
But that Twitter is dead. We don’t even recognize the Twitter of the past. Even Black Twitter members are slowly switching to other platforms due to excessive harassment.
Buried under the weight of white supremacist influencers, far-right agitators, incels, propagandists, and Elon Musk’s fragile and unhappy ego.
People Think The Musk Takeover Was Just About Ownership. Nope! It Was a Warning
When Musk bought Twitter, he wrecked it. We remember the early reports of the mass termination of staff who kept the machine together. But he was insistent that he wanted this particular business. I suspected someone like him wanted his own propaganda machine. I underestimated him.
He wanted a surveillance tool, a reputation weapon, and a control machine.
Once he established ownership, he immediately:
- Reinstated banned neo-Nazis and hate preachers
- Banned journalists who criticized him
- Boosted his own tweets algorithmically above all others
- Dismantled teams that policed disinformation and hate speech
- And then, quietly, transferred Twitter into his AI company xAI
That last move is a big deal. At first site, it looks like he is increasing the value of Twitter (his X) since it’s now worth half of what he purchased it for due to all his controversies as investors and advertisers run for the hills. But look closer.
If you follow history, for example, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) bolshevick regime used loads of people as surveillance to spy on and control the Russian people, to keep everyone under suspicion, to eradicate any opposition, you would worry about what Twitter in an AI company could mean. Now you don’t need a host of spies and spies for the spies to check up on the population. Just use AI to monitor what people do online. Because it means that your data—your tweets, your DMs, your connections, your likes, your comments, your posts, your activity—no longer belongs to a social media platform.
It belongs to an AI surveillance company led by a man who jokes about eugenics, publicly makes Nazi salues and repeat them in case you thought he made a mistake (read about it here ICYMI), and fantasizes about civilization being “destroyed by woke culture.” He means in his mind, civilization (whatever that is in his head) is being destroyed by black and brown people—putting it simply and uncut!
AI, Censorship, and the Authoritarian Blueprint
Musk is already testing the waters of digital authoritarianism.
He’s publicly suggested that people who disagree with him should be sued, doxxed, or discredited. Agree with him and you will live. Oppose him, and you should die, or at least be unsafe until you comply with being subjugated.
He’s incentivized people to attack judges who rule against his interests.
Now imagine this:
An AI system with access to billions of conversations—flagging, tracking, and profiling users who promote racial justice, decolonization, gender equity, environmental resistance, and anti-capitalism.
Not because they’re wrong. But because, to him, they’re in his way. They may not have his money or power, but the fear of stirring up any resistance means he and people like him believe they should crush anyone who even raises a hair of resistance to their authoritarianism and image of the world they desire.
Twitter Rewards Fascists and Silences the Rest
Let’s be real: if you’re a white nationalist, you thrive on Twitter.
The algorithm promotes you. You are Loovvveed!
The trolls amplify you. They Love you ,too!
Elon retweets you. Elon Loves You! Wow! You get famous, maybe even paid and make money.
But if you’re a Brown or Black rational voice?
If you write about economic racism, social justice, a better more hormoneous world where people don’t believe in these idiotic fictions of whiteness?
If you challenge white supremacy, workplace bigotry, implicit bias, settler colonialism, or U.S. foreign policy?
Your posts get buried.
Your reach gets throttled.
Your account gets flagged or shadowbanned.
You get mobbed, doxxed, and drowned in replies from trolls and bots.
And you’re expected to “debate” them for “free speech.”
Nope!
Free speech on Twitter is a myth—unless your speech protects dictatorships, authoritarian regimes, aparthied, hate against women, attacks on trans, LGBTQIA+, judges, or brown people.
It’s Not Just Toxic—It’s Dangerous
I don’t just fear being shouted down online.
I fear the long-term digital profile being built on me.
My IP. My clicks. My article links. My followers. My family. My politics.
Stored. Mapped. Flagged. Doxxed.
Then fed into Musk’s AI empire, where every data point becomes a training set for profiling, surveillance, and control.
If you’re politically outspoken, if you work globally, if you challenge abusive government systems, you are being watched.
And Twitter is the worst place to keep speaking freely right now.
So I Got My Ass Out Of There.
I didn’t deactivate my account with fanfare. I made a final post to my followers on where they can find me.
Then, I simply stopped posting.
Stopped sharing.
Stopped feeding the machine. xAI has been feeding data from Twitter/X since 2023, so it’s already got whatever I posted earlier. I just refuse to give it more.
Instead, I moved where real communities are being built—and where dissent hasn’t yet been eaten alive by fascist tech bros.
Where I Am Now – Please Connect with Me
I post on Bluesky—a federated platform where community still matters.
I write long-form on LinkedIn, where professionals are more open to policy analysis and systemic critique.
I use Threads for personal storytelling, mini essays, and short-form engagement with people who actually want to think.
Afer a break, I have returned to use Instagram to amplify my work visually—with art, reels, quotes, and slides that cut through noise.
I know that none of these platforms are perfect. Meta still censors Palestine. LinkedIn still has its “tone policing” problem.
But none of them are run by an egomaniacal billionaire who wants to end democracy, engineer human behavior, and track your dissent through AI. At least, not yet.
What I Gained by Leaving
- I used to get heart palpetations going through some of Twitters more recent feed, especially over the last few months. No I get peace of mind.
- I would spend hours of my valuable life arguing with trolls. (I recently resolved to stop doing that on Medium). Now, I stopped wasting time arguing with these silly trolls, many of which may be bots, or trained AI.
- I protected my voice, my safety, and my vision. I am calmer now.
- And I made room to build something better—on my own terms. I can focus on writing about the world I see and doing my part to help people via my experience and understanding of economic racism and related topics.
Final Thought
Elon Musk doesn’t own dissent. And I’m not giving him mine. I want to be free to speak, to learn, to be liberated and to encourage others to be liberated from whiteness and all its harm to the planet and to us as humans.
You don’t have to thether yourself to a hateful echo chamber of people all shouting “long live whiteness!” You don’t have to stress about all the misinformation, poor qualify news, rumours, attacks by mad people on this platform.
Leave Twitter.
Speak the truth elsewhere.
Build power where it can still grow.
If there are other social media platforms you recommend, please let me know in the comments. I will give them a try.
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