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Twitter has been declared dead many times before.

 — the latest of a string of similar proclamations, which in turn 

 of response pieces, analysis pieces and think pieces.


 titled "Why Twitter's Dying (And What You Can Learn From It)" by author Umair Haque landed on Medium.com on Oct. 13. A week later, it's still one of the site's most popular posts.


Haque's key observation has certainly struck a chord: People are abusing the social Web and companies aren't doing enough to curb it. About Twitter in particular, he writes:


Indeed, the stories of Twitter shaming, pile-ons and trolling abound, and many have decided to 

. We've all witnessed the Internet's power at spreading misinformation (

) or people being continuously harassed for posting something stupid and offensive (

), something politically or socially touchy (

.)
Is Twitter to blame? The site didn't invent the trolls and mean spirits, who have long hidden behind the anonymity of forums and comment sections of the Web. Yet Kathy Sierra, the victim of one of the most famous online harassment cases, 


But let's start with the facts: Twitter is still growing. The company has hit a rough patch recently, flooded with the news of slipping shares, executive shake-up and layoffs. But its most recent 

 show not a decline in users, but a slowdown in growth: Its worldwide base of monthly active users grew to 304 million at the end of June, from 302 million at the end of March and 288 million at the end of 2014.


And here's a notable element: The vast majority of those, 239 million, are not in the United States.


One of the commenters on Haque's piece, in fact, 

 of writing from a Western or even U.S.-centric perspective, which do not reflect the value that the social network plays overseas. (Haque's piece begins with an anecdotal analysis of Twitter's thinning ranks from Dupont Circle in Washington, Madison Square in New York City and a cafe in London.)


That same signal-boosting power of Twitter that helps trolls pile up on a victim has helped people organize for political protests around the world, including in places where Internet access is restricted. (Some recent high-profile examples include the Arab Spring, Ukraine's Euromaidan demonstrations, the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and Iran's 2009 election protests.)


In the United States, too, Twitter serves a cross-cultural audience: A 

 this year found that 1 in 5 white Internet users are on Twitter, while 28 percent of black and Hispanic Internet users are on the site.
And the public nature of Twitter (in contrast to Facebook's largely "friend"-based networking) has often amplified diverse voices in transformative ways. (The 

 keeping a spotlight on police misconduct, 

 the Texas teenager who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school).
Social networks have also allowed people to rally against or in support of positions taken by celebrities and companies, and directly communicate with them or call them out on insensitivity. (See: Benedict Cumberbatch 

 "uproar in Cairo...new spring collection" and 

domestic violence & pizza improper hashtag responses.)
Haque defines abuse as broader than violent threats, to also include "endless bickering, the predictable snark, the general atmosphere of little violences that permeate the social web...and the fact that the average person can't do 

 about it."
The importance of retribution in cases of online harassment, beyond blocking or ignoring, is hard to overstate. But as with many cases of online speech, one man's bickering and snark is another man's freedom and dialogue:  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


Science

Alina Selyukh

Author

A lengthy essay titled "Why Twitter's Dying" landed on Medium.com on Oct. 13. A week later, it's still one of the site's most popular posts.

Twitter's ills put spotlight on abuse, Internet style

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