This metaphor seems slightly off, though. In Musk’s mind, “Twitter serves as the de facto public town square,” and as such, it should be a place where people are able to speak their minds.
“Elon Musk once tweeted ‘pronouns suck.’ What could go wrong when he owns Twitter?” asked Them, adding that his ownership could be a “nightmare” for LGBTQ+ people. “With Elon Musk in charge, it’s the beginning of the end for #BlackTwitter,” wrote the Los Angeles Times. In the last week, since Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter, users have been cautiously eyeing the deal, wondering if Musk’s stewardship of the platform could erode those communities. Gay Twitter, Black Twitter, Trans Twitter, Feminist Twitter, Asian-American Twitter-they’re all there, if you know where to look. Several years ago, in response to a piece about the internet’s love of the movie Carol, someone posted a tweet claiming “the year is 2017 and WIRED has just discovered Gay Twitter.” The criticism is fair we were probably a bit late to the party, but it was also an indication that, on Twitter, the subgroups are practically endless.
The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter.
