Dozens of regional LGBTQ community centers are deactivating their Twitter accounts today, decrying recent policy changes despite the rise of hate speech and calling on the app to do more to protect its users.
The announcement came from CenterLink, an international nonprofit network of more than 325 LGBTQ organizations, many of which will also be leaving the platform.
"Twitter has become increasingly unsafe in recent months for LGBTQ and BIPOC people with anti-LGBTQ, anti-trans, anti-Black, and antisemitic tweets on the rise. The removal of this policy was the last straw," Denise Spivak, CEO of CenterLink, told Mashable.
Earlier this month, Twitter, led by CEO Elon Musk, quietly removed a portion of its hateful conduct policy that specified protections against misgendering and deadnaming transgender users, adding to an already hostile, hate-speech filled environment.
In response to the conduct changes, CenterLink and its members have decided to forgo the app entirely, formally deactivating their Twitter accounts today. Some participants have already left the app, announced they will no longer be active, or pinned statements opposing the app's changes.
I was late signing onto Twitter myself, getting on board shortly before Musk took over the joint. The headline on today's post notwithstanding, I don't have plans to deactivate my account there at this point, even though our value to each other is really quite marginal. (I've also tried Counter Social and Mastodon, but the experience is kind of like finding yourself in a huge stadium filled with people each of whom is talking to him/herself.)
Just the same, if my Twitter feed were to become intolerably toxic, I would probably hang it up.
And neither of us would miss the other much.
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