Archive for X

Now you REALLY need to leave X (and so does your employer…)

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on January 7, 2026 by telescoper

I have written many times (e.g. here) about the reasons I left the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. I quit Twitter in August 2023 and have no regrets for doing so. I have more followers and better engagement on Bluesky and Mastodon than I ever had on Twitter, and far less abuse. Unfortunately, my employer, along with most public institutions, still maintains an account there, a position I find ethically indefensible. Not to put to fine a point on it, I find it outrageous that Maynooth University persists in using Xitter. Touting for trade in a far-right propaganda channel is no way for a institution of higher education to behave. I’m very disappointed that I have only heard of a few organizations that have taken the principled decision to leave. You can read more about my views on this matter here.

My opinion on this has hardened considerably with the revelation that the AI bot known as Grok, which is integrated with X/Twitter, has developed a facility for creating nonconsensual and sexually explicit deepfake images, including pictures of children, for circulation on the platform. Grok/X not only condones this activity, which by the way is against the law, nor merely facilitates it, but actively encourages it.

If you don’t leave a social media platform when you find out that it endorses and encourages abusive exploitation of children then you are supporting that behaviour and helping to promote it. There is no grey area here in this. If you don’t draw the line here, when will you draw it? Staying on X is morally indefensible. It is the Epstein Island of social media.

Moreover, any institution or organisation that maintains a presence on X must be content to endorse the promotion of child abuse. I would like to hear an explanation from my employer why they think it’s appropriate for them to operate an official account on the Twitter/X that built a machine for generating images of child pornography. Perhaps readers could ask their employers the same question?

My preferred resolution of this matter would be to ban X entirely.

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Cold Turkey Twitter

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , , on October 8, 2023 by telescoper
Image: The New European

I’ve seen quite a few articles (such as this one on LinkedIn) by academics lamenting the terminal decline of the website formerly known as Twitter, so I thought I’d add my thoughts. I come to bury Twitter, not to praise it.

I joined Twitter in 2009 or thereabouts. Over the years, I accumulated around 7300 followers. Not an enormous number by any standards, but a reasonable one. I used the platform only partly for academic matters. I found it in turns amusing and annoying. I dealt with the latter aspect largely through liberal use of the block facility. I admit I found the recreational aspect mildly addictive.

In recent times, however, Twitter (or X as we’re now supposed to call it) has turned to shit. Since Elon Musk took over, users are basically silenced unless they pay for a blue tick, the social media equivalent of buying a megaphone for use in a library. The API that allowed me to post there from WordPress was axed, which was an additional pain. Add the constant stream of promoted tweets and other ads to the deluge of unmoderated bigotry, and the result is unbearable.

I deleted my Twitter account completely at the end of August and haven’t looked back. Since I’d spent a lot of time there, a number of friends expressed scepticism that I’d manage to do it cold turkey like that, but it was no problem, and I have no withdrawal symptoms.

I now much prefer Mastodon, where I’ve had an account for about a year. I have just over a thousand followers there, just one seventh of the number I had on Twitter, but much higher levels of engagement. More importantly, it’s far more civilized. I’ve only had to block one person. WordPress has also introduced an autopost to Mastodon, so every blog post I write appears there automatically.

I have also joined BlueSky. This site is still in development and, for the time being, is by invitation only, so is rather quiet. In recent weeks, however, I’ve noticed quite a large number of astronomers arriving there, so it is an interesting place to be. I have some spare invites, actually…

Just say no to Twitter. It’s not worth it.

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