Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono recently sent a letter to Elon Musk, the CEO of X (previously known as Twitter), expressing his concerns about explicit content on the social media platform. Chin’ono believes that the platform has turned into a platform for pornography since Musk took over, and he feels that Musk himself is promoting this kind of content. He requested the South African-born businessman to take action and make the platform more suitable for families again. We present Chin’ono’s open letter below:
Dear @elonmusk
This platform has literally become a pornography site since you bought it. It is unfortunate that instead of putting a halt to pornography on @X, which is formerly known as Twitter, you are fuelling it with images like the one in your post. Your @X account has a disproportionately wide reach with 169 million followers, you are an opinion maker and as such, you should use such power responsibly.
Twitter was a space where serious issues across the spectrum were discussed, and where family members regardless of age would be comfortable to navigate around in the comfort of our homes, and pornography was not widespread as it is now.
But now many people are worried to open @X in the presence of people they respect because a pornographic picture or video can pop up. There is also a disproportionate unsolicited pornographic material on many people’s timelines.
Please can you address this new but sad reality, please make the platform enjoyable again as it once was.
There are sites meant for pornography, and those that partake in that sad habit of watching pornography know where to find them.
This is a genuine concern about the rampant explicit content on @X which I hope you will seriously look into and deal with.
I know that you talk a lot about free speech, but surely pornography can’t be part of that free speech, this is now abusive to @X account holders who are here for decent engagement. Please return the platform to a more family-friendly environment it used to be.
Thank you.