𝕐

Are you still on 𝕏?

Staying on a social network and sharing your writing, photos, and other work with its users and owners is a choice. Asking yourself 𝕐 you're still there is always a good idea, no matter what the network is or who owns it.

What's wrong with 𝕏?

Elon Musk has turned 𝕏 into a right-wing hate network, with violent racism and transphobia promoted next to your work and your words. Unlike its competitors such as Gab and Truth Social, 𝕏 is successful in normalizing white supremacist ideologies because of the large userbase it inherited from Twitter. A userbase that, when you post on 𝕏, includes you.

For more, read You are the fuel that energises Elon Musk’s hate machine by Ketan Joshi.

Where else can I share things on social media?

Thankfully, the internet is a big place, and there's lots of ways to share your work with everyone else that finds their home on the internet. We've listed a few here, but there's many more options as well. Whatever your choose, make that choice intentionally. The internet is always changing, and it's easy to get stuck in memories of how a social media network used to be.

POSSE: Publish on Own Site, Syndicate Everywhere

Especially if you're a government agency, non-profit organization, or charity, the best option might be to simply put your message out there on web sites that you own and operate. From there, you can syndicate by posting links to your articles and updates on other social media networks, or your readers can directly subscribe to your site by using tools like RSS that are supported by a huge number of apps and services across different platforms. Increasingly, many self-hosting platforms such as WordPress support not only RSS, but also ActivityPub, which allows your users to read your posts from Mastodon, Lemmy, and other networks that communicate via ActivityPub.

Federated Social Media

If self-hosting and syndicating isn't the right way for you to participate in social media, another option can be to join an existing ActivityPub-based server, such as a Mastodon, Pixelfed, or Lemmy server. By using an ActivityPub-based server, your users and readers can follow and interact with you from their choice of server, client, and network, just the way the open web was designed.

Small Social Networks (e.g. Cohost)

In addition to the broader web of federated social media platforms, there's also a number of small, independent social media networks that might be useful if you're looking for a way to share your art, queer-friendly shop, or similar. For example, Cohost is a relatively small network, but with a strong and inclusive community.

Competing Platforms (e.g. Tumblr, Bluesky, Facebook/Threads/Instagram)

As a last resort, it may be worth considering other corporate social media platforms. Out of all the alternatives to 𝕏, competitors such as Meta's Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are the most likely to be subject to the same hate and discrimination that has ruined 𝕏. For example, even though Threads now partially supports interacting with other ActivityPub-based servers, a queer-led movement to block Meta has gained a lot of momentum and adoption, protesting amongst other things, Meta's support for violence against transgender people. When a corporate platform is bought out or changes policies in ways that hurt your readers and users, it can be hard to leave and to tell your followers where to find you. If having the most possible users is the most important to you, though, a closed corporate platform may be your only option; in that case, make sure you have an exit plan so that you're prepared in advance.

How can I ask companies, government agencies, charities, and non-profit organizations to move off of 𝕏?

It's important to let those organizations around you know how your feel about being forced to use 𝕏 in order to interact with them and to participate in online life. Doing so with a polite but pointed letter can help your point get heard. We've included an example here, but tweak it to make sure it reflects what you want to say and what you want to get across.

To whom it may concern:

As a {e.g.: queer, transgender, disabled, racially marginalized} {user, customer, reader, taxpayer} of {company, newsletter, charity, city/state}, I am distressed that you have chosen to make 𝕏 (formerly Twitter) the primary way for me to interact with you on the Internet. Since Elon Musk bought out Twitter, it has become a platform for right-wing hate that targets me, my family, and my community. I deeply {respect, appreciate, enjoy} what you do, and want to keep supporting and being a part of it as best as I can. Choosing a social media platform that doesn't target me for violence and discrimination can help make your audience and your community more welcoming and safe for people like me. For more information about what's gone wrong with 𝕏, and why it's important to find what comes next, check out https://y-after.social. Thanks for reading, and for considering why this is so important to me.

Sincerely,
{your name}

How can I let others know it's important to move on from 𝕏?

Much like the logo for Musk’s social network, 𝕐 is just a Unicode character (U+1D550 Mathematical Double-Struck Capital Y, if you're curious). Double-struck letters of like 𝕏 and 𝕐 have been used by mathematicians for far longer than the Internet itself has been a thing, so most browsers and operating systems can render 𝕐 with no hassle at all. Try adding a 𝕐 to your profile name on 𝕏, or editing your avatar to include a 𝕐 somewhere! After all, the best way to let people know how important it is to move on from 𝕏 is to keep asking 𝕐.