We seek the truth and X doesn’t have it

At The Olympian we promise our readers the truth and only the truth, and lately we have not found it on X, formerly known as Twitter. Although some people in our newsroom opposed the idea, our final decision was to disband ourselves from X. 

It all started when social media mega company Twitter was bought out by billionaire Musk on Apr. 14, 2022. The site’s many users fought against this buyout, but to their dismay Musk was able to secure the company. His influence swiftly wormed its way into the site. One of the first problematic things to happen was the mass firing of multiple Twitter employees. Then it  was the switch to a rather odd name, X. Although these things have been explained by Musk, the changes seem odd, erratic, and downright unnecessary.

With the influence of Musk, X as a platform is withering away. Since he bought the company, user rates have noticeably dropped, and the site is becoming less and less useful each passing day. In fact, X has become a breeding ground for toxicity and exceedingly negative behavior. One could even describe X’s current state as a “Toxic Gossip Train.”

The negative behavior found on X can be greatly attributed to the allowance of hate speech. While Musk believes that he is simply giving the right to free speech, this right is often abused in order to demean others. It has given way to several kinds of derogatory language, including antisemitism, transphobia, racism, and many others. We at The Olympian follow a code of ethics to guide us towards respectfully covering sensitive topics, and we frown upon the chaos of a hateful platform.

In addition to hate speech, Musk’s free speech philosophy allows for several kinds of disinformation regarding Covid, elections, and other political discourse, amongst other things. Our motto is “We are born to seek the truth.” With X’s lack of fact-checking, it makes it difficult for us to do so. With the severe increase of false statements, it is difficult to find a trustworthy source on this platform, and we choose not to partake in it. 

While we may have been one of the only truthful users left, we choose to leave X because of the toxic environment Musk’s wrongdoings have created. The severe decline of users also makes it ineffective for us, as there are close to no students still using the app. 

So long, Elon. It’s not us, it’s you. The Olympian is officially breaking up with X because we no longer wish to contribute to a highly unethical platform.