Why Twitter is important

[MeltsAway]

I'm watching Mr Linehan's and Ms Staniland's evidence to the House of Lords on Tuesday 9th March.

One of the things that strikes me is about the significance and place of Twitter.

When I first spoke to someone in my place of work's HR about the letter they'd just sent me, telling me I would face an enquiry for my 'transphobia' on Twitter in 2017, the HR person I spoke to made a disparaging comment about Twitter, along the lines of "I don't know why anyone uses Twitter."

Sometimes I wonder why I use Twitter. It can be fun, it can be moving, it's also a cess pit. But isn't it also (I wonder to myself) trivial and time-wasting?

But the evidence of @Glinner and Ms Staniland makes me think that Twitter is actually really centrally important in public debate. If I get egg-headish about this, it's part of Jürgen Habermas' concept of the 'public sphere.' And feminists have criticised Habermas's concept for its masculinist bias (and the assumption of human being default man/male).

Don't know quite why I'm posting except to wonder what other feminists & clever women are thinking about Twitter. If you use it, why? If you don't, why?

PS not looking for screenshots etc etc etc. I NC a lot but bona fide feminist of the old school.

I don't use Twitter, as I've always found its format unappealing and unsatisfying. Plus it seems to be a bit of a cess pit. I'll look at posts on Twitter when they've been linked on other sites (e.g MN or FB), but I closed my Twitter account soon after opening it years ago, because I just didn't get on with it.

I don't see how anyone could possibly claim it was unimportant though. Any forum which has such reach and influence is by definition important.

Twitter is the creation of the devil and is only important because it’s there in the first place, you only need to be on the platform for debate because “they” (vague all shouty issues they) are.

Social listening shows over 89% of vicious negative debate across social is Twitter driven. Half these “issues” wouldn’t be issues without its existence.

I’d hit the big OFF button with glee if I could because people need to lift their heads as realise that without it the majority of the population would be unaffected and don’t give a shit. World would be a kinder place.

I suppose what I also see is that people like @glinner are banned because of mass reporting - by gender ideology extremists. Whereas we (I mean feminists for example) tend to believe in debate & free speech, and don't do the same thing.

So it appears as if one side is "winning."

Twitter is a cesspit - a worldwide platform for the hard of thinking.
I'm quite old fashioned and only have a barely used Facebook account though.

If it wasn't for brave people on Twitter then FWR would be a lot less informed.
It is one of the major ways we meet and share important information with feminists around the world , which then gets written up here in longer format.

I wouldn't have known about what happened to the women in Paris on Sunday, nor about Hibo Wadere, not Allison or Maya's cases etc.

twitter is used by very few people but I would argue the people who do use it are disproportionately likely to be people who influence policy and debate such as

policy directors and officers in large public bodies and quangos
directors of charities
MPs
journalists
academics
pressure groups

all talking to each other and agreeing lines of thought

yes of course there is lots of crap on there but lots of alliances and connections on public policy issues are forged through twitter which is why being booted off it particularly in certain fields can be very damaging

The cesspit comments puzzle me a bit.
One can be a anonymous (unlike FB) , choose who you follow, and block anyone you want (unlike mumsnet)

Cess is optional.

The amazing live tweeting from recent court cases and house of parliament shows the power of the platform. Thousands were following along.

OP I agree with you about the significance of Twitter and the attention it gets (Facebook too). Aside from tax avoidance (and of other tech companies), the dependence people have on this must be concerning.

Falling into the Cesspit on twitter is not optional. If a stranger replies to one of my tweets I have learnt to check their profile before engaging (I use Twitter in my professional role). More than once I’ve been confronted with their pinned tweet being a video of a male masturbating why they are responding to my tweet is a mystery as there is no overlap, unless it is to expose their profile to more people outside of their usual circles

Commenting on current affairs on Twitter as a woman exposes you to the misogynists on both the left and the right who attack any woman expressing a view they dont agree with (although in my experience the left wing males are far more vicious than the right and for much smaller a disagreement of opinion).

However it’s not all bad, as a liberal ‘feminist’ trans ally who was feeling a bit disquieted about what I saw trans people tweeting about women I also saw their many disparaging references to mumsnet so if I hadn’t have been on twitter I may not have found myself here

If an online forum has turned into a cesspit its down to the users and the way they are moderated, not the format. If trolls or bots start posting and they aren't moderated then they attract others, and you lose the forum to them because thats how bullying and abuse work. It thrives where there are weak rules and poor boundaries.

During the JKR issue I set up an new Twitter account where I could be fully GC and engage in the debate without it risking my professional life. I also chose a gender neutral name for some reason, which has turned out to be very interesting as I realise a lot of people have assumed I'm male.
Sometimes it just makes my blood boil so much I just have to step away for a while. Then it's nice to be able to go back to the 'real me' account which is all books and cooking etc!

@StillFemale agreed. I never made a Twitter account because I saw what happened to friends on there in this fashion! It's not passive aggressive commentary like you might get on here either. It's full on vitriol. The head tilts are in the profile pic rather than some sort of 'sub text'!

I found this a bit frustrating in the HoL's evidence. The chairmen kept on asking whether they had had problems with FB as that is the world's largest sm platform apparently. He didn't seem to realise that Twitter and FB are used in different ways. Like it or not, Twitter is used far more for debate and I would say currently has a larger reach and influence than FB. Being banned for life from Twitter as HS has been is almost like being banned from appearing on tv - it is not niche. (BTW I doubt very much that Twitter will always be so influential but it certainly is at the moment and excluding certain voices skews the debate and perception of the problem).

Falling into the Cesspit on twitter is not optional.

Exactly!!

When a masturbating stranger replies you are under no obligation to reply back . Just block.

It is horrible , the porn the harassment etc but the biggest problem is people being kicked off for innocent everyday feminist opinions.

You don't owe horrible wankers any of your time. Mute and block all the abuse. We have to tolerate a lot more goady fuckers here.

If you can cope on AIBU you can cope on Twitter. Don't let these people scare you off. The more women's voices there the better.

Being banned for life from Twitter as HS has been is almost like being banned from appearing on tv - it is not niche.

Yes @Gerla it was Ms Staniland's point about the life ban which got me thinking. If Twitter is part of a robust demos - a way for the voice of the people - to be heard, then what is the political cost of being banned?

And then I thought, like PPs upthread - well, really, most of the world isn't on Twitter.

Leaders are increasingly suffering in the real world because they misjudged the public mood. I think that's due to over-reliance on Twitter and I think people in power are starting to realise their mistake.

Twitter is becoming more extreme by the day due to the policy of banning people for expressing mainstream opinions. This must speed its demise as an influential source.

A few more embarrassing misjudgements of the public mood might tip the balance into political influence oblivion.

Most of the world is not on twitter but most journalists are.

Twitter is in fact the least used SM platform.

But it is only important, not for the interaction between twitter users who are little more than drunks in a sleazy bar having a bunch up, because lazy indolent MSM "reporters" cant be bothered to investigate and repot news so pick and choose which bit of twitter they will amplify.

It allows the MSM to wallow in the mud.

So it you want to accept that the only way to get attention of the public is to accept the shit storm nonsense of a platform created and still run by adolescent males, fine.

The problem is the more feminists say I have to be on twitter to be noticed is to accept that men make the rules and we need to follow them.

A bit like in the old days (and still true today) that as a woman you will get more attention if you appear sexy and appealing.

It just shows we dont have a voice. We only have the option of adopting male pattern behaviour.

And worse still it means that in terms of news and opinions as a whole what gets reflected in the main stream is in fact the loud mouths.

Twitter is in fact the least used SM platform

Evidence?

There are plenty of niche SM platforms out there. If you mean that Twitter is not nearly as frequently used as other mainstream platforms like FB, etc..then say that. It is absolutely worth noting that it's less used than FB, for example.

If you google any of the annual stats for use of SM platforms you will see it is way down the league.

But the real point is that it is only important because the MSM media important. ie the agenda isn't set by twitter or twitter users it is set by who journalists decide to take notice of.