This article is part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.
The reports of Twitter’s death are maybe greatly exaggerated but there's been a definite whiff of the end in recent days.
Elon Musk, the social media giant’s madcap billionaire owner, has introduced a limit on how many posts users can see. He says it’s to try and stop what he described as "extreme levels" of data scraping and system manipulation.
That means that most users will only be able to read up to 1,000 posts, while the blue-tickers, those who pay for the premium service, can read 10,000.
Shortly after the announcement users who breached the cap were seeing “rate limit exceeded” messages.
Though the curb is supposedly temporary, many on Twitter are already starting to come to terms with the end of the site, including some of our MSPs.
“Been travelling home so not really checked Twitter today. But now can’t seem to read tweets and find this is some great new initiative from Mr Musk. Unless there’s another volte-face, this feels like the day he finally killed Twitter,” tweeted Tory Jamie Halcro Johnston.
SNP MSP Gillian Martin said Musk was “wrecking Twitter.”
“I think I’ve been on Twitter about 11 years. Never seen as many technical problems in all that time than I have in the year (?) or so Elon Musk took over. Maybe all those people he sacked actually knew what they were doing…?” she tweeted.
I think I’ve been on Twitter about 11 years. Never seen as many technical problems in all that time than I have in the year (?) or so the Elon Musk took over. Maybe all those people he sacked actually knew what they were doing…? 🤷♀️ #Twitter
— Gillian Martin (@GillianMSP) July 1, 2023
If Twitter is dead, what does that mean for Scottish politics?
There’s probably a doctorate to be done on the role of 140-character long messages in the run-up to the independence referendum. There are probably several done already.
By my reckoning, only about five of our 129 MSPs are not on Twitter. And though it may seem the others only use it to bash their opponents and share press office supplied memes and graphics, there’s little arguing that it has become a vital tool in how our politics works.
Dr Michael Higgins from the University of Strathclyde’s Journalism, Media and Communication department, is an expert in political communications and political engagement on social media.
“Politicians do indeed seem to rely on social media,” he told me. “But for most, it is through obligation rather than choice.”
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He said that while Twitter doesn’t encourage “a blasé, shallow and antagonistic politics”, it does “give the political grifter and opportunist an advantage.”
“Twitter made it possible for a purposefully-ignorant Donald Trump to be US President.
“As a political platform, Twitter favours those politicians whose ideas can be expressed as attention-grabbing, context-free outbursts.
“In Scotland too, both sides of the on-going constitutional debate are characterised by as much heat as light.
“In this, Twitter might simply have accelerated longer-term shifts towards an inflammatory soundbite culture we were seeing in news anyway, but these soundbites are now on handheld devices and available 24/7.”
Dr Higgins said that Twitter had “gathered associations with antagonism and trolling”, which had come to influence the way we do politics in Scotland.
“But the appetite for responding to our political leaders, often critically, will not disappear if Twitter goes,” he added. “Any replacement platform that is more community and support oriented from the outset might do something to reverse the damage to our political culture.”
I was on annual leave the other week, and in a bid to fully concentrate on losing to my kid at Uno as the rain lashed against our B&B’s single glazing, I deleted the Twitter app from my phone.
Somehow, when I re-installed it ahead of my return to the coal face I ended up locking myself out of my account.
I’m still waiting to get back in. It’s been hard going, and I have a real fear that I’m missing out by not getting to gawk at our 124 tweeting MSPs.
After this weekend, maybe I’m just getting an early taste of what the next few months could look like.
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