On Monday morning, she used that expertise to slam Musk’s $43 billion bid for Twitter — in a Twitter thread (Of course). Just a few hours later, Musk became the official owner of the platform.
Here’s what Donovan thinks for the future:
1. Content moderation is likely to be further restricted.
At this point, Twitter has long been “a polarization machine,” Donovan tweeted. Users have, over time, called for increased moderation of content to alleviate some – though not all – of the harassment and disinformation that is thriving on the site.
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But Musk has been vocal in calling for platforms to be less intrusive about content. In Donovan’s words, Musk wants a mandate for “free speech,” as he defines it.
“Freedom of expression is the foundation of a functioning democracy and Twitter is the digital marketplace where important issues for the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said posted after the deal was announced on Monday afternoon.
According to Donovan, Musk’s interpretation of how to ensure freedom of speech would likely exacerbate harassment and culture wars.
“Musk’s desire to make it private will likely mean a lot of cuts for those working on it [content moderation] and company policy,” she wrote. “Musk sees [content moderation] as a tool for censorship, not for customer service.”
My other thought is that Twitter, fwiw, will continue to become a terrain for culture wars. With a “free speech” mandate, the kind of harassment that manipulates content moderation will go into overdrive, targeting LGBTQ groups, women, BIPOC and anyone else fighting for civil rights.
— Joan Donovan, PhD 🦫 (@BostonJoan) April 25, 2022
In a phone interview, Donovan added that content moderation teams have been a driving force behind Twitter timelines for over a decade, controlling fraud, pornographic content, and data collection efforts. Now the future of “platform studies” – a behind-the-scenes but crucial component of the online landscape – hangs in the balance.
“It’s going to come under fire in new ways and the politicization of content moderation may continue,” she said. “That’s going to put us in a race to the bottom on social media.”
2. It’s not just about business.
Donovan called the sale an “interesting way to do politics through other means.”
She went so far as to say that Musk would likely allow President Donald Trump to revive his Twitter account, which the platform permanently suspended shortly after the Jan. 6 riot for inciting violence by Trump. And that, Donovan surmised, could help him boost another candidacy for the presidency in 2024.
3. Could Crypto Find a Home on Twitter? Perhaps.
A Musk acquisition could help the rise of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence on Twitter, according to Donovan, potentially turning the platform into an unregulated financial marketplace.
“Musk could use customer data to build cryptocurrency and AI tools,” she wrote, eventually creating a space for “social banking.”
What that would look like in its final form is unclear, but Donovan envisions Twitter enabling in-app purchases with a form of payment that could easily be converted to dollars and cents.
It happened before when Facebook launched Libra, the Facebook digital currency that fell out of favor with users in 2019. Today, the culture surrounding cryptocurrency has changed, even if the market remains volatile, and Musk is a proponent of Bitcoin and Dogecoin.
She called on lawmakers to increase regulation to prepare for a future where crypto is an integral part of Twitter. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently advocated increased surveillance of crypto, and President Biden signed an executive order on digital assets in March.
“Politicians should probably make some regulations for social media banking so that when Twitter reaches its final form there will be some semblance of rules governing it,” Donovan tweeted.
The move would be a “natural move” for social media companies — and Musk in particular.
“Musk has long been the advocate of anti-establishment, anti-authority and making your own rules,” she added in a phone interview. “And there is no greater subversion of government than to deface its currency and thus undermine its economy.”
Social networking became social media and will become social banking I think.
We know there is a market for hate, harassment and disinformation, and when fundraising is built right into the design of platforms, hateful content is encouraged.
Como, fwiw, tame it.
— Joan Donovan, PhD 🦫 (@BostonJoan) April 25, 2022
4. Twitter will not be the same.
Say goodbye to the Twitter you once knew.
At the end of the day, the platform is a product, Donovan said, and putting Musk at the helm will inherently transform its value.
“The creation of controversial content, the fear of being moderated, and the desire to continue raising funds are very intertwined, especially for the worst of the worst offenders,” Donovan wrote of the product as well.”
What could be in the cards is an app that will completely replace Twitter. The “HUGE if” now, she tweeted, is if anyone could “build a stable alternative.”
Still, it would take years for a competing app to reach a similar number of users.
One strategy that has benefited Parler, a far-right social media platform, is “a grow-at-any-cost mindset” and support from conservative politicians and mainstream news outlets, she added. According to Forbes, the page had been downloaded at least 11 million times across the App Store and Google Play as of June 2021, although interest plummeted soon after.
Users might be more interested in moving to a new site, Donovan said, if “it had an interface where you could re-upload all your network connections and maybe even all the posts you made so you don’t do that posting- lose history.”
Diti Kohli can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ditikohli_.