Twitter’s Hardcore Regime Change

At 11:35 pm on May 1st, 2011, President Barack Obama announced to the world that United States Navy SEALs had killed Osama Bin Laden. However, many had already heard of the top secret raid… on Twitter. 70 minutes before President Obama’s announcement, a White House insider confirmed the story. In just five years, Twitter evolved from a workplace messaging service to an outlet where major world events were first reported.

Twelve years later, Twitter’s influence on global affairs has only grown. Journalists and politicians promote their messages on Twitter, leading millions to flock to the site for news. Intelligence agencies employ Twitter to influence foreign populations through information campaigns. Internet sleuths and governments alike leverage information shared on Twitter to investigate crimes. Protestors utilize Twitter to spread information and organize. Twitter is globally pervasive, generating a real-time record of daily events.

However, despite its ubiquity and cultural eminence, Twitter may be on the precipice of collapse. In October 2022, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, purchased Twitter and quickly threw the company into chaos. Musk laid off over two-thirds of Twitter’s employees, causing veteran engineers to claim the site is at risk of an inadvertent shutdown. Revenue dropped 40%, and Musk has floated the possibility of bankruptcy.

While there are reasons to doubt that a collapse is imminent, Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has irrevocably changed the platform. The United States must adjust to the reality of a decidedly different Twitter which may not exist in the long-term.

Digital Town Square

Founded in 2006, Twitter has developed into not just a cultural force, but a living historical record. The platform boasts over 365 million users, 80 percent of whom live outside the United States, generating 500 million Tweets daily. 

The information shared in these Tweets forms the foundation of an entirely new type of intelligence — open-source intelligence (OSINT). OSINT, the collection and analysis of intelligence from publicly available sources, was first popularized in 2014 by Bellingcat, an investigative reporting outlet. Utilizing seemingly mundane Tweets, Bellingcat investigators proved that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over Eastern Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists. 

Bellingcat’s investigation brought worldwide attention to OSINT, which has since developed into a sophisticated intelligence discipline. Ukraine, for example, currently exploits OSINT such as social media posts and commercial satellite imagery to identify the location of Russian forces. Twitter’s collapse would undoubtedly alter the intelligence gathering landscape as it would eliminate a prominent source of OSINT.

Further, the company’s collapse would be detrimental to criminal investigations. Journalists and human rights organizations gather evidence of war crimes on Twitter. For example, Ukrainian civilians are posting videos of bombings to the platform, which OSINT investigators verify and archive for future prosecution. Twitter’s disintegration will result in the loss of billions of archived Tweets which may contain evidence of atrocities. This specific issue has occurred before, such as when YouTube removed videos depicting atrocities in the Syrian Civil War, inadvertently deleting evidence of war crimes. 

Moderated Content 

Historically, Twitter stands at the forefront of content moderation practices. The company took politically difficult positions before other social media platforms, such as banning prominent right-wing agitators and labeling false information shared by President Trump. Importantly, Twitter carefully explored innovative content moderation techniques, such as BirdWatch, which allows designated contributors from the community to attach fact checking notes to Tweets.

However, this leadership is unlikely to continue given Musk’s open hostility to content moderation. Layoffs reduced content moderation teams to a fraction of their former size, hitting internationally focused teams the hardest. Hate speech and harassment are rising, and false claims of election fraud spread on Twitter ahead of the recent insurrection in Brazil. Twitter’s content moderation was never perfect, but the company took its responsibility seriously and invested in trust and safety. Musk is undoing that work, which may hinder the content moderation discipline generally while also causing political violence to increase globally.

Freedom of Expression

Despite claims that Twitter poisons political discourse within the U.S., internationally, Twitter is accepted as a tool for freedom of expression. This power was recognized almost immediately — in 2009, three years after Twitter’s founding, the U.S. government requested Twitter delay a scheduled outage to aid protestors in Iran using the platform to organize. Today, Twitter remains a tool for protestors, journalists, and activists. Protestors in Hong Kong leveraged Twitter to organize while political dissidents such as Alexei Navalny utilize Twitter to spread information.

Furthermore, Twitter has staunchly defended freedom of expression. Twitter sued India, a nation with a history of banning social media platforms, over government orders to remove content. The platform was banned in Nigeria after removing a post from a government official advocating violence. Despite the economic incentive to pander to government requests in these massive markets, Twitter stood on its principles. While Twitter, like all social media companies, does comply with some government requests, it has demonstrated a commitment to freedom of expression.

With Musk at the helm, this commitment is likely to weaken. Musk laid off Twitter’s entire human rights team, and banned journalists himself for sharing publicly available information about the location of his private jet. Despite Musk’s proclaimed support for “free speech,” defending freedom of expression requires teams of government relations experts, content specialists, and lawyers. Musk’s destruction of Twitter’s culture and staff will reduce the company’s capacity to push back against state power, which will be a detriment to freedom of expression worldwide.

The New Twitter

The United States must adjust to Twitter’s new method of operations. Government agencies, which communicate critical information to constituents on Twitter, must develop alternative methods of communication. There are many potential alternatives angling to replace Twitter, which government agencies should explore. Further, the Library of Congress’ Tweet archiving project must be reestablished. While archiving every Tweet as before is unnecessary, human rights concerns must be prioritized when making archiving decisions.

As freedom of expression faces threats worldwide, Twitter is no longer a reliable partner. The United States must take a stronger stand against limitations of freedom of expression, particularly from allies such as India and Nigeria. The United States should also support freedom of expression in other ways, such as championing end-to-end encrypted communication (E2EE) and virtual private networks (VPNs). These technologies protect freedom of expression and are similarly under pressure worldwide, including within the United States. Twitter’s chaos is refocusing attention on the peril freedom of expression faces. The United States must seize this opportunity to reassert its ideals and meaningfully defend freedom of expression worldwide.

Author: Chris Borges

Managing Editor: Aidan Christopherson

Web Editor: Riley Graham