On Sunday, Elon Musk announced that he was letting conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on the platform even though he has a history of pushing dangerous lies (he currently owes the families of the Sandy Hook School shooting over a billion dollars from a lawsuit they brought – none of which he has paid yet.)
Elon has allowed a ton of hateful content back on Twitter, but this one was the final straw for me. The reason? It’s personal.
I worked for Everytown for Gun Safety and I met survivors of that horrific shooting. The fact that Alex Jones repeatedly pushed that the shooting was a hoax and the twenty six year olds who were murdered, did not exist, was about the most shameful thing someone could do.
And Elon just let him back on.
So Sunday I announced I was leaving Twitter. I posted a video telling my followers I was leaving, then left it for a few hours, and then locked the account for good.
I’ve already found a new home and that home is Threads.
I wrote earlier this year how I thought Threads had the best potential to take over the mantle of the world’s real-time app, and while I don’t think they’re there yet, all the tools are there.
I decided to post the same video on Threads that I did on Twitter, and said that I was done and coming over here full time.
The response has been phenomenal. I started Sunday with 2,200 followers and as of Wednesday I’m sitting at almost 11,000. The community has been overwhelmingly positive and I’ve greatly enjoyed my time on Threads.
Where there is next to no engagement on Twitter anymore, the engagement on Threads has been off the charts in comparison.
One of the great things about it is how the community encourages blocking of trolls and not engaging with them. My hope is that helps keep the conversations constructive and not end up in the gutter like most Twitter engagements.
The debate over Threads vs Twitter is over. Threads is better than Twitter now and Threads is the real-time app to spend your time on moving forward.
The ones who join in these early days will get more organic reach and you’ll be able to get away from the hate/intolerance of Twitter.