I’ve noticed over the last year that X is slowly morphing into a new type of news medium, perhaps best suited to a global internet. Now Elon Musk says the quiet part out loud: The internet has crashed the cost of being a news provider, provided you have something to report that seems like news to others.

Be a citizen journalist! https://t.co/28Km1999ZG

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2024

He added, “Citizen journalism is vital to the future of civilization. Any one can be a citizen journalist on X. The cumulative voice of the people should decide what is newsworthy.”

One can have reservations about the proposed news landscape but still think Musk is on the right track. This is implicit in the internet’s beginning and is its natural destination. That is why so many mainstream news media outlets were famously slow to “get” the online world and still hate and fear it.

What the “blocking” issue shows

It’s no secret that many tech writers loathe Musk — possibly because he does techie things that the government no longer can. One outcome is that the tech writers fail to even understand some of his media decisions.

Take, for example, a change he is making to the “blocking” mechanism at X: Blocking used to mean that people not only couldn’t comment on your posts or contact you on X but they also couldn’t see the posts. The new system means that they still can’t comment or contact you — but they can see what you write. At Futurism, Frank Landymore complains,

In a long list of questionable stuff Musk has done with the platform, the change to the block function is definitely up there. The feature will now only prevent blocked accounts from liking, replying, and reposting your tweets. But if your account is public, they can still see anything you post.

“Half a Million Users Flooded to Twitter Competitor After Elon Musk Handed Creeps the Keys,” October 17, 2024

Actually, the move makes complete sense. If you want to “become the media” on X, you must accept media roles. The editors of the New York Times can refuse letters to the editor or private correspondence with detractors. But they cannot prevent anyone from reading a copy. Nor do they try. Nor do they feel they need to.

A person who wants a much more private situation might be better off with a closed Facebook group, along with the Meta oversight that comes with it.

Indeed, many X users have defected to a competitor, Bluesky, on account of such changes. But X still has more users than ever, which mainly shows that more and more of the world is getting its news online.

Of course, a bigger issue for Musk himself is that the U.S. government likely won’t forgive him for releasing the Twitter files, showing the extent of government censorship at X before he took over. Government is finding various ways of making him pay. So it may be that his recent foray into presidential politics is a tactical move. If his side wins, the looming threats from the government are on hold.