Goodbye, Twitter. Hello, X. Since his takeover in April of 2022, Elon Musk has introduced a host of changes to the social media platform, garnering a lot of criticism from former employees, news outlets, and the trans community, among others. Trust in Twitter seems to be at an all-time low. It seems everyone has a bone to pick with Twitter. Yet, one cannot help but wonder: Is this downturn really a bad thing?

Was trust in Twitter, or any social media platform, ever a good thing? Since the “Chief Twit” took over there have been complaints that Twitter has become less safe, more hate-filled, and plagued by impersonators. The list goes on, but Twitter has been, as is currently, all of those things. We’ve already touched on how misinformation spreads faster on social media than does the truth and in 2017 the University of Southern California concluded that between 9-15% of accounts on Twitter were fake! Twitter’s own algorithm was even accused of being racist back in 2021! Given all this Musk’s changes are hardly a reason to not trust Twitter, err… X.

We’re talking about the internet here. Where anybody can create an account with whatever name that suits their fancy, which is actually one of the greatest things about the internet. Trust in social media should not be a thing. Better we place our trust in the institutions and verified sources of information that have proven themselves credible over time, but even that trust should not be blind and unwavering. People are trusting Twitter less? Good.