With uncertainty about how Twitter will change under Elon Musk, many medical and scientific experts on the platform have started to look for alternatives or are considering giving up on social media altogether.
Mark McCaughrean has been moving his online home in steps. McCaughrean, an astronomer at the European Space Agency, has had a profile on Twitter for many years. In spring, when Elon Musk first suggested buying the social media platform used by nearly 240 million worldwide, many were concerned that such a purchase would increase the nastiness of Twitter and allow misinformation to drown out reasonable discourse—Musk calls himself a “free speech absolutist” and promised to stop censoring accounts.
Originally dismissed by many as a platform for self-promotion, Twitter has in recent years also provided a venue for hate speech, including abuse. But over time, Twitter has become a major public good, says Michael Bang Petersen, a political scientist at Aarhus University . “I believe it has played important roles in the dissemination of knowledge globally and between scientists and the public during, for example, the pandemic.
The greatest fear is that under Musk discourse on Twitter will deteriorate further. Indeed, as part of massive layoffs at Twitter today to cut costs, he let go of its curation team, which is largely responsible for quelling misinformation on the platform. This, combined with an exodus of experts, would mean misinformation could go further unchecked.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan , has been on the receiving end of such abuse. But she notes that Twitter helped her find her current job and start some scientific collaborations. “Right now, I still find it a useful platform to follow colleagues and learn as well as to share,” she says, adding that she won’t leave Twitter as long as the good outweighs the bad.
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