One single word will determine your businesses's success. That word is: reputation. Reptuation is your first impression for most people and this is why every ad, every webpage, every corner of your business's storefront must demand attention detail for your brand to reach it's potential. One very important medium not mentioned is social media. Although social media platforms are far from perfect, one stands out as an attrocious, reptuation-destroying platform full of scammers and bots. That platform is X/Twitter and here's why you should avoid it.

A Breeding Ground for Fake News

According to an article published by the Associated Press, X has been identified as the largest source of fake news by a top European Union official. This situation is alarming, especially considering the platform's worldwide reach and influence. The platform's owner, Elon Musk, has been urged to comply with the bloc’s laws aimed at combating disinformation.

This issue is not to be taken lightly. Fake news is not merely a nuisance; it is, as European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova puts it, a "multimillion-euro weapon of mass manipulation." It's aimed not just at Europeans, but at people all around the world, including your potential customers. Misinformation can be damaging to any business associated with it, tarnishing its reputation and undermining the trust of its customers.

Moreover, the report released by the European Commission reveals that X has the highest prevalence of disinformation and the largest ratio of disinformation actors among online platforms in Poland, Slovakia, and Spain. This revelation should serve as a warning for businesses considering using X as a platform for their brand. The risk of being associated with disinformation is simply too high.

Even though X dropped out of the EU’s 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation after Musk bought the platform, Jourova warns that the company is still not "off the hook." The code has been incorporated into the Digital Services Act, a stringent new set of mandatory European regulations that subjects the biggest online platforms, including X, to the highest level of scrutiny.

Negative Brand Placement

According to Fortune, X has changed its terms of service to officially allow users to post adult content. While this move may be seen as promoting freedom of expression, it also opens the door for inappropriate content that could be associated with your brand. As a business owner, you might not want your brand to be related to explicit content, which could damage your reputation and alienate potential customers who might find such content offensive.

Moreover, X has been plagued by a worsening user experience as bots, many of which promote sexual content, have become more prevalent on the site. These automated accounts often leave the same sexually suggestive replies on posts all across X. The bots have become so common on the site they’ve become a defining feature of the platform. This could lead to negative brand placement and potentially harm your business's reputation.

Supersharers: A Threat to Balanced Conversations

A recent study published in Science has shed light on a group of individuals referred to as 'supersharers'. These individuals are responsible for spreading a significant amount of fake news on Twitter. The study found that these supersharers were predominantly middle-aged, white, and Republican women from conservative states such as Arizona, Florida, and Texas. This demographic is not representative of the overall user base, yet they have a disproportionately large influence on the platform. They manually retweet misinformation persistently, distorting the political reality for many users on the platform. For businesses, this means that the content they share could easily be drowned out by the flood of misinformation, causing damage to their reputation.

Increasing Protests

The reputation of Twitter, now known as X, has taken a further hit recently due to the increasing number of organizations leaving the platform in protest. As stated on Bye Bye, Elon, 51 organizations from various sectors including environment, human rights, social, health, and agriculture have collectively left the platform. This mass exodus was triggered by the increasing amount of hate speech, discrimination, and disinformation on the platform. Since Elon Musk took over the platform in October 2022, moderation has been significantly reduced, leading to a resurgence of extremist content. This environment is not conducive to respectful and democratic exchange, which these organizations stand for.

The End is Near

The Twitter we once knew is no more. The platform, X, is not the world you want your business to be a part of. The end will come, maybe one, maybe 10 years. But you want to be able to say you were aware of the issues ahead of time and got out with your identity while it was still possible.