“Elon Musk didn’t understand Twitter”

Since Elon Musk took over the short messaging service, the popular social network has been in danger of sinking into chaos. Ulrike Klinger, Professor of Digital Democracy at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), focuses on these processes.

Ms. Klinger, since Elon Musk took over Twitter, things have been turbulent on the platform: demolitions or days of chaos, that’s what the headlines say. Is the Twitter era over now?
Ulrich Klinger: Twitter isn’t going to break up or go offline any time soon. But what we’re probably witnessing right now is the end of Twitter as we know it. It will be even more toxic, there will be a lot more spam and fake accounts. What happens and at what speed is breathtaking. There are a lot of problems: entire communities are leaving Twitter, financial, technical and legal problems are exposed. I was very pessimistic when Musk took over the platform because I don’t think he understood it.

What does he not understand?
Technical questions, for example. Much of what he says sounds like gut feeling. For example, the debate about bots he started: he wanted to examine 100 random accounts to see how many of them are automated. Like it’s that easy! His entrepreneurial approach also raises questions: He acts as if Twitter were a start-up that doesn’t have a real business model yet. Twitter was already an established public company. He failed to understand that Twitter is less about a technical infrastructure and more about a community.

The community actively defends itself. It’s an open, almost anarchic debate about what Twitter is and should be. Musk is attacked and he yells back. That’s crazy, right?
Not only does he harass users, but also advertisers or a US Senator who sits on the committees regulating social media. But there is not just one community. Very different groups meet here. It would be difficult for many to leave Twitter and then start a new network. Especially for those who are not dominant. Black Twitter, for example, took a long time to develop such a huge reach. Or women who are politically active – and are individually marginalized or exposed to a lot of hate – have built important and powerful networks on Twitter.

There was hatred and malice on Twitter before Musk came…
It is correct. Don’t be nostalgic about Twitter. Many users have a passionate love-hate relationship with Twitter. It’s always been a very rough, hard place. And: platforms like Twitter are not transparent – they don’t share the data, we don’t know how their algorithms work. A large part of our social communication takes place on these platforms.

Can Musk Make Twitter Worse?
He has this idea of ​​freedom of speech. All platforms basically started like this: you can write anything. Community rules have only emerged over time – also because companies and advertisers want to appear in a serious environment. In addition, we have left the time of the Wild West behind us. In Europe, at least, there is legislation, the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), data protection guidelines, not to mention the Digital Services Act that is coming. A platform as big as Twitter must of course adhere to this. Here too, Musk will get into trouble and may have to pay hefty fines.

Can he be prosecuted and what does that entail? If he then has to pay fines, if he is blocked, what is conceivable?
I think it’s all about heavy and repeated fines.

Should users leave Twitter now? What do you personally think about it?
While I will continue to use Twitter, I have deleted many things, such as direct messages or tweets in which I was featured. No one knows who now has access to the data. Many Twitter employees have been fired or resigned; including those who have taken care of data security.

Until now, Twitter has also been important for political communication. Yet many top German politicians have recently retired, from Kevin Kühnert to Jens Spahn. Are they doing themselves a favor, or are they just narrowing their reach?
Compared to other social networks, Twitter has never had so many users in Germany. It was always kind of a niche platform where elite communication took place. Facebook is more relevant than Twitter in terms of reach. But if you are interested in politics, there is no alternative to the platform. Twitter is not a place for makeup videos. This is about society and political conflicts.

Do you think other portals can prevail now? Some are now switching to Mastodon.
Mastodon is different from Twitter, much better in some ways.

In which?
Actually, there is the freedom of speech that Elon Musk envisions. There are no binding rules, every server, every community can decide for themselves how they want to communicate. However, it is unclear what will happen if this platform continues to grow. The NetzDG applies from two million users. Then completely different questions arise: Who is responsible? Shouldn’t we find binding rules?

Mastodon still seems a bit bulky and inaccessible.
Yes, it takes some getting used to, because there’s no algorithm like Twitter that pre-sorts the timeline. If you’re not actively connecting with people and following hashtags, there’s really nothing to worry about. Twitter is addictive. Mastodon hasn’t succeeded yet.

An academic network?
In fact, it’s relatively easy for academics to leave Twitter, as many are already on Mastodon. Until now, Academic Twitter has been important for networking and disseminating research. Twitter itself is also under investigation. There is a data interface for female scientists. I don’t know how long this will work on Twitter. Does anyone else work there? Is there another team? In any case, the press service is no longer answering questions. The management level has disappeared.

Do you see alternatives that could replace Twitter?
It is heavy. As a joke, some have suggested that we could all just set up a large WhatsApp group. But that’s not how social media works. It may be that other platforms benefit from this and, for example, revive Facebook or some switch to TikTok.

Now on

Do you expect political communication to become atomised or compartmentalised? Left-wing academics go to Mastodon, rights to portals like Trump’s Truth Social?
I do not believe that. Because many institutions, politicians, parties, government organizations want to reach as many people as possible. You go where most people are. So far, this fragmentation has not even been successful in the political extremes. Only self-affirmation without opponents – that would be boring.

This article was first published on Zeit Online. Watson may have changed the headings and subheadings. Here’s the original.