By now it should be evident that Twitter Inc. is a shadow of its former self. What’s not clear is which alternatives might replace it or how the market will look a few years from now. This chaos offers an opportunity to rethink the entire structure of the social media landscape.
There’s a lot of problems to solve. Disinformation, offensive content, harassment and doxxing are among issues that platform operators, regulators and users have struggled with. Each existed before MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were born, but digitally connecting friends and strangers has exacerbated them to the point that even the largest companies and most-powerful governments can’t rein it in.
The answer is simple: Break them up.