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Fleeing Elon Musk's X, the quest to re-create 'Black Twitter'

By Elizabeth Dwoskin

06 Aug 2023 · 8 min read

informed Summary

  1. Black Twitter, a highly influential network of Black users on Twitter, has seen a significant exodus of users since Elon Musk took over the platform and restored thousands of banned accounts, leading to a spike in hate speech.

Until Elon Musk bought Twitter last fall, April Reign thought she couldn't live without the platform. Over 13 years and 641,000 tweets, she became part of a community of extremely online Black users who shared everything from funny memes to job opportunities.

In 2015, that community turned Reign's dashed-off hashtag - #OscarsSoWhite - into a viral campaign that sparked real-world change, pushing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to triple the number of Oscar-voting members of color. Other hashtags - #BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, #HandsUpDontShoot - became touchstones for racial justice.

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