Now that Twitter has banned its loudest voice, has the platform lost its status as a political tool? Not really, at least in the short run, I argue in my latest column for Campaigns & Elections. For one thing, DJT wasn’t the only one relying on it:
Some critics deride “hashtag activism,” but movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter depended on the fact that Twitter provided a public space for people to come together around issues that directly affected or reflected their own lives. QAnon may have accompanied Trump into the social media wilderness, but most other political movements are still free to reach supporters 280 characters at a time.
Likewise, political reporters still embed tweets in their stories as a matter of course, and tweets have come to rival press statements and press conferences in their effects on news coverage. Few campaigns, commentators and activists are likely to benefit from following into Twitter oblivion. For more on how political Twitter is and isn’t evolving, check out the full article. Tell ’em I sent you.
– cpd