I suspended my Twitter account

Photograph of a rainbow stretching across a valley in Japan

Quick update if you’ve been looking for me on Twitter. I decided to protect my account and log out with no intention of returning anytime soon.

The trigger was on Friday, when I logged into find anti-Roma, anti-vax and various other unpleasantness in my “Following” timeline. I don’t know who was sharing it, if it was part of Twitter’s plan, or if it was a bug. The same issue also seemed to affect Tweetdeck.

With third party apps also being removed, and increasingly hostile material finding its way through the barriers I’d carefully erected, I decided to bail out.

For the time being you’ll find me sharing my photography and design work on Tumblr, and my business oriented material on LinkedIn.

I have tried Mastodon and was unimpressed.

Whether you’ll find me back on Twitter is down to the future direction of the company. It needs to make money, only I’m not convinced the way it’s going will achieve that.

And what does the header photo have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing, other than I took it a few days before I dropped Twitter, and I think it’s the first rainbow I’ve seen since moving to Japan.

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Work: writing, research and design
#digital culture #social media

My name is Ross Hori

I'm a freelance writer, designer and photographer. By day I create articles, features and reports. At night I take photos and write fiction. Find out more.

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