Bach Seat

The world’s richest man has control of Twitter (TWTR). Sure, all social media platforms are outlets for doomscrolling, bullying and misinformation. But in the short time Elon Musk has been the “Chief Twit,” some events have take place on the platform that raise concerns about the “hellscape” the new Twitter could become. Some examples include:

• Mr. Musk tweeted a link to an unfounded rumor about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. This seems to fuel a spike in in new followers for supporters of the Big Lie according to data from digital investigations company Memetica.
• Musk has publicly said that he would let former President Donald Trump back on the site.
•   Bloomberg reports Twitter has cut off hundreds of employees from accessing its content-moderation system just ahead of the midterm elections as fears of disinformation loom.
• Politicians that question Mr. Musk, have their Twitter accounts mysteriously shutdown.
• Musk tweets meme with soldier of Nazi Germany, mocks fleeing users.
• Elon Musk Says the Quiet Part Out Loud, Tells His Minions to Vote GOP.
• In the week following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the most popular untrustworthy accounts enjoyed a 57.04% increase in activity, according to sources.

Mr. Musk has grand ambitions to morph Twitter into some vaguely defined metaverse hole that could collect more personal info. He tweeted in October, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” It is a good time to review your Twitter account. USA Today published a handy guide to getting as much control as possible over your account.

How to secure your Twitter account

You should have already secured you Twitter account. Make sure you are using a unique and complex password. Set up two-factor authentication. Both steps make it harder to get hacked. It’s also a good time to back up your tweets. You should backup the photos, DMs, and other 280 character snippets of life you might want to remember later. It’s easy to do, although time-consuming, to download your Twitter data.

Don’t feed the trolls

There are plenty of people on Twitter who want nothing more than to spew hate and make everyone else’s day miserable. Blocking people might seem like the best way to get those trolls to disappear, but the author says there’s a wrinkle.

When you block someone – they won’t be able to send you tweets or tag you in posts, and you’ll never see them again unless you decide to unblock them in the future. The wrinkle is that they’ll immediately know that you’ve blocked them, and if they’re bent on harassing you, they can easily make a new account and start the cycle over again.

The article suggests that muting a user is sometimes even more effective. By selecting “Mute @User” in the menu on their tweet  you’ll never see their messages again. They won’t know that you’ve muted them. They can keep on being jerks, and you can move on with your day.

Spammers, scammers, and bots, oh my!

Many accounts on Twitter aren’t real. Bot accounts seek out people to harass, advertise to, or scam through sketchy tweets and messages. To combat bots, go to Twitter’s Settings > Notifications > Filters and make sure “Quality Filter” is turned on.

It’s also a good idea to block direct messages from anyone who doesn’t follow you. Do this by heading into Settings > Privacy and Safety > Direct Messages and ensuring that the “Allow message requests from everyone” is turned off. Also, enable “Filter low-quality messages” to protect against spam.

You can also lock down your tweets to make sure only people who follow you see them. To do this, go into your Settings > Privacy and Safety> Audience and Tagging, then select Protect Your Tweets.

Filter your feed

If you plan to continue using Twitter as you always have but don’t want to hear about certain topics, it’s easy to filter those topics by blocking words and phrases. Go to Settings > Privacy and Safety > Mute and Block and then click “Muted Words” to begin adding words to your mute list. If someone you follow tweets or retweets a message that includes that word, the entire tweet will be blocked from your timeline.

So, for example, if you’re tired of hearing about Donald Trump add “Donald Trump,” “Donald,” and “Trump” to the list. That will cover all the uses of his name and dramatically cut down the number of tweets you see about the big lie. You can do this with any news story, topic, or event you’re just fed up with.

If you are going to stay on Elon Musk’s $44 Billion dollar play thing, you should periodically clean up your tweets. USA Today recommends Semiphemeral to automatically purge you tweets.

How to delete Twitter on Android

If Mr. Musk’s antics are too much and you are going to quit Twitter, there a several steps to take before you delete the app from your phone. First, make sure you’ve downloaded a copy of your data first. You must request a copy of your files before deactivating your account.

Be sure to revoke any third-party access to Twitter you have granted. Otherwise your account count could magically gets reactivated by a third-arty app.

In order to delete your Twitter account, you have to deactivate it first. To deactivate you Twitter account, login to your account from Twitter App and go to Settings and Privacy.

1. Click Account.
2. Now, click Deactivate your account.
3. Click Deactivate.
4. Enter your password to confirm your identity.

Now you can delete the account. To delete your Twitter account:

1. Tap on the menu icon or profile photo in the upper left-hand corner and select Settings and Privacy from the dropdown.
2. Tap on the Your account tab.
3. Scroll down until you find the Deactivate Account tab and tap on it.
4. Read the information provided and then scroll down and tap on Deactivate.
5. You will have to confirm your password to complete the process.
6. The app will once again ask you to confirm that you want to deactivate your account. Twitter will then confirm your decision.

If you don’t access your account for 30 days it will be permanently deleted from Twitter.

Some things to remember

Your Twitter information might still appear on search engines. You have to follow up with them to have that data removed. Also, once your account is deleted, someone else can sign up using your name.

How you can help Ukraine!

Related article

• Twitter’s algorithm favours the political right, a recent study finds  (The Conversation)

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.