There is something deeply wrong with X, a platform once beloved by journalists when its logo was a cheery bluebird, and you could quickly tell who was a real journalist or expert. Now, with users able to pay $8 a month for their own checkmark, the site has become borderline unusable for a group that had been among its most devoted addicts.”
Rob Tornoe, digital editor and writer, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Rob Tornoe | for E&P Magazine
The delicate relationships journalists and news outlets maintain on the social media website formerly known as Twitter were underscored last month with a single post by The New York Times.
Looking to respond to falsehoods regarding a column featuring firsthand accounts of violence against children in Gaza from volunteer healthcare workers, the Times posted an editor’s note on X that flatly stated, “Any implication that its images are fabricated is simply false.”
Unfortunately, thanks to changes made on X by its owner, Elon Musk, the top comments on the post were quickly flooded by the type of vile manure that has become a hallmark of the social media platform.
One post pushed racist claims about genetics. Another shared doctored images of one of the victims. Nearly all were critical of the Times and pushed more false information, given prime placement atop other comments thanks to the blue checkmarks the accounts paid for.
There is something deeply wrong with X, a platform once beloved by journalists when its logo was a cheery bluebird, and you could quickly tell who was a real journalist or expert. Now, with users able to pay $8 a month for their own checkmark, the site has become borderline unusable for a group that had been among its most devoted addicts.
It’s been this way for more than a year, but recently, Musk pushed the envelope again with his outspoken support (both verbally and financially) for former President Donald Trump. He regularly attacks journalists in front of his 200 million followers and isn’t reluctant about punishing stories he doesn’t like, even as he promotes the concept of free speech.
Last month, X suspended independent journalist Ken Klippenstein after he published a story on leaked documents about Trump’s running mate, JD Vance. X also marked a less-than-flattering NPR story about Trump at Arlington National Cemetery as spam after previously labeling the news outlet “U.S. state-affiliated media,” lumping it in with propaganda outlets like Russia’s RT and China’s Xinhua.
Former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy predicted this, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review last year that in 2024, “maintaining a relationship with the hate-drenched platform that was once a key communications tool used by newsrooms and authorities around the world will become even more untenable.”
It has certainly become untenable to use X. So, I thought I would take the opportunity to see where things stand with the other social media platforms attempting to offer an alternative. Unfortunately, there’s still no clear off-ramp away from Musk’s horror show for journalists.
The most promising alternative is Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter clone specifically designed to lure people away from Musk’s cesspool. Shortly after it launched in July 2023, 100 million users quickly leapt to the platform. The pace has slowed; as of August 2024, the company said Threads had over 200 million monthly active users, about a third of the 600 million or so monthly active users on X.
Threads has a pleasant enough user experience (not being inundated with cheap ads is a welcome relief) and some decent features, including the ability to cross-post content to the so-called “fediverse" (basically a decentralized network of social media platforms that allows you to share posts and move followers between platforms, at least in theory). Unfortunately, Threads has several drawbacks for journalists looking to ditch X.
For starters, there’s no way to curate lists of content you’d like to see — Meta’s algorithm determines everything on your feed. The only control you really have is to mute accounts you no longer want to see show up in your feed.
There’s also no way to view posts chronologically on Threads, which is a big hindrance if you’re reporting during a breaking news event. The search and trending topic functionality is limited, and it presents the same privacy and data challenges that have caused headaches for users on its sibling platforms, Facebook and Instagram. There is also no way to send direct messages to other users.
Another alternative to X is Bluesky, a decentralized social media app developed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey (who has since left the company’s board). After initially being “invite only,” Bluesky opened up its digital playground to everyone in February and has been rolling out new features ever since.
A number of prominent journalists are fans of Bluesky, and the platform boasts many cool features, including the ability to customize your timeline beyond the default algorithm. Like X, if you’re a reporter in Austin, Texas, you can create a feed filled with people from Austin. Posts are known as “skeets” — a mix of “tweets” and “sky” — which Bluesky CEO Jay Graber doesn’t particularly like.
Unfortunately, Bluesky has a fraction of its competitors’ users — about 4.4 million monthly active users and a global user base of nearly 11 million people, according to a spokesperson.
There’s also Mastodon, the open-source alternative to X that has recently rolled out several new features, including an updated look and a new clickable byline feature to increase transparency and help build a journalist’s following. Mastodon also made it easier to start a new account, a process that had been confusing for non-tech-savvy users.
Unfortunately, like Bluesky, Mastodon has a relatively small number of users — about 800,000 active monthly users.
How to make your X experience better
Since no one platform seems ready to replace X for journalists, here are a handful of suggestions that might improve your experience.
Download the Control Panel for Twitter browser extension. If you use X on your desktop, this amazing free tool will revert a number of changes Musk made and make it seem like old Twitter. By default, it will make your timeline a chronological list of posts from accounts you actually follow and ditch Muck’s “For you” feed. It also displays headlines from shared articles the way Twitter used to.
Make and manage lists. I was once addicted to TweetDeck, but I had to find another workflow once Musk started charging a fee. So, I’ve set up bookmarks pointing to the various lists I’ve created in X using a hack that removes the bulky header and streamlines the content, allowing me to display them in separate tabs.
First, go to your Lists and select the one you want to follow. The URL will look something like this: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1453463171914780672. Highlight and copy the number; then, in X’s search field, write “list:” (without the quotation marks) followed by the number. It opens faster, allows you to sort through content in your lists, and the URL can be saved in your bookmarks.
Stop giving away scoops on X. Everyone loves engagement, and the dopamine hit we get when we see people sharing our content is real. But you need to ask yourself: Why are Musk and his platform benefiting from your hard work and not the organization you work for? Instead, publish your story and share your scoop and URL together on X, which might help convince Google to send it some traffic.
Mute Elon Musk’s account. Unless you’re a media reporter and need to be on top of what Musk writes when he writes it, muting his account is a surefire way to improve your experience on X. While no one admits it, the platform’s algorithm is clearly pushing Musk’s account onto the feeds of users who don’t follow him. (This stems from an incident during the Super Bowl where Musk was upset a post by Joe Biden received more impressions, according to Platformer.)
Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist forEditor and Publisher, where he writes about trends in digital media. He is also a digital editor and writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Reach him at robtornoe@gmail.com.
