Twitter is ghastly at times, but also educational, informative and joyous – I hope Elon Musk doesn’t ruin it

Despite the moral panic about misinformation spread on social media, Twitter is an immensely powerful self-correcting truth machine, writes John Rentoul

It’s fashionable to complain about the negative effects of social media, but Twitter has improved my journalism (Reuters)

The common view of Elon Musk buying Twitter is, according to Ian Leslie: “Twitter is terrible, we hate it, it’s ruining everything – and now Musk is going to spoil it.” Leslie has written a defence of Twitter which is worth reading, even if you don’t use the website, because it is about how to write and think better.

Leslie says that for him, Twitter “has been a net plus”, although whether it has been a net plus for society is a harder question to answer. It certainly seems to amplify some opinions that are expressed in crude, partisan and formulaic ways. And it seems to push some people in those directions. As Leslie says, “Look around: there are idiots, and what’s more not all of them were idiots before they started tweeting.”

But I am with Leslie in saying that, for me, the positives outweigh the negatives. Twitter has transformed journalism – as I wrote 12 whole years ago – because it is an extremely fast news-dissemination network, but also, which is just as important, a fast judgement-dissemination network. News is never just neutral facts. If we learn that the Durham police have reopened their inquiries into Keir Starmer’s lockdown beer-drinking, we need to know how important that is, why they might have made their decision, and what the consequences might be. Twitter instantly summons rival interpretations, with references to credible, checkable sources, and links to what Starmer said before, for example, namely that the prime minister should resign simply because he was being investigated by the police.

All of that happens faster than in the pre-Twitter days, with confirmation, rebuttal and opinions available within minutes, in an unforgiving environment in which errors are exposed and unconvincing explanations contradicted. In the moral panic about misinformation spread on social media, it should be remembered that most conspiracy theories are minority pursuits and that Twitter in particular is an immensely powerful self-correcting truth machine.

Twitter has also improved my journalism, because I can find people with deep knowledge of any subject quickly and easily, and make use of one of the universal rules of life, which is that people who know things love explaining them.

Like Leslie, I think that Twitter helps to make you a better writer, partly because of the discipline of brevity but also because debating with people online – difficult because most Twitter arguments are pointless trolleries, but possible – helps to adjust and refine the most persuasive way of making a case.

But above all, I enjoy Twitter because so much of it is fun. It is, as Caitlin Moran once said, like having a bunch of friends in your pocket. There is always someone being funny, or posting a photo that I like, or making a satisfying observation about life, the universe or everything.

I hope Musk doesn’t ruin it.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator