Short update: Today, I exercised my power as a user and left Twitter. Here’s why.
In case you wonder what happened to my Twitter account: I deleted it in the larger context of the riots in the US Capitol.
US Capitol Stormed - BBC News
All the latest news about US Capitol stormed from the BBC
The day after the insurgence, I read the follwing two offical Twitter statements:
As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy.
This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.
In other words: Twitter didn’t permanently ban Trump from its platform that he used to fuel the riots (and many other things I don’t agree with at all). As a private company, they’d be entitled to do exactly that. Yet they decided not to.
In my opinion, it means that Twitter is passively supporting Trump and what Trump stands for. This is in violation of my core values.
So while Twitter doesn’t ban Trump, I ban Twitter. A platform is only worth something with an audience, so I removed myself from that audience.
More and more, I realize that I want to grant whatever little I have (time, money, attention, …) only to people that have their and my longterm benefit in mind. Social media providers less and less appear to be of that kind of people.
I invite you to do the same.
Michael Schmidle
Business Transformation Manager at the Swiss Broadcast Corporation SRG SSR. Start-up consultant, hobby music producer and blogger. Opinionated about technology, innovation, and leadership. In love with Mexico.
Jul 27, 2020 · 11min read
Card or Player: Who Wins Poker Games?
… and other counter-intuitive lessons from working 18 months on developing and executing SRG SSR’s technology strategy. Continue…
Jun 29, 2020 · 6min read
Westworld Scoring Competition: Content, Process, and Relationship
How a high-profile music competition by Spitfire Audio and HBO with 11'000 participants ends in a PR disaster—and how distinguishing content, process, and relationship levels could help to recover. Continue…
Apr 20, 2020 · Jan 7, 2021 · 5min read
Conscious Followers Are Better Leaders
Every leader follows something. The more they are conscious of what they follow, the better is their leadership. Continue…