Online chat rooms and social media platforms have long-been used for all forms of discourse, including political discussion.
Twitter, launched in 2006 and quickly growing in popularity through its rebranding to X, has long been the top dog when it comes to online chatter, defined and distinctive through its limited character limit, lack of an editing button, and simple sharing interface through “retweets”.
Following community guidelines, of course, users are able to say and express essentially any opinion, thought, or feeling that comes to mind for a public audience, and unlike other social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat, the words chosen in this precious character limit are the highlight of the show.
In order to maintain a healthy and robust democracy, it’s essential for the public to have a forum for discussion on political issues. While this has been historically achieved on a smaller, in-person scale, Twitter, now known as X, completely shifted the way in which public opinion is formed, expressed, and shared.
With the integration of latest news, trends, and specific topic categories all bolstered by hashtags and tagging users, individuals are able to learn about current events and important political matters quicker than ever before in real time. With this, they are able to exchange opinions and express their right to speech in a way that is unparalleled on any other platform, connecting the world not just town by town, but city by city, state by state, nationally, and internationally on the issues that influence our lives every day.
According to The Guardian, in Aug. 2023, “The social media company formerly known as Twitter said on Tuesday it would now allow political advertising in the US from candidates and political parties, reversing previous policies and raising concerns over misinformation and hate speech ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Before the billionaire Elon Musk acquired the company, now called X, in October 2022, Twitter had banned all political ads globally since 2019. In January, the platform lifted the ban and began allowing “cause-based ads” in the US that raise awareness of issues such as voter registration, stating that it planned to expand the types of political ads it would allow on the platform.”
This shift is massively important and influential on the platform. No matter what happens in the future of this app, X’s user base deserves to regain and retain the ability to navigate political issues in an unbiased way that is unaffected by larger powers or one-sided algorithms. They also deserve to freely and confidently avoid hateful speech and messaging, as well as dangerous mis/disinformation that can have unimaginable consequences on the health of our democracy, continuing to use the best public, political resource available in a responsible and informed fashion.
