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A few weeks ago, a story about the demise of Airbnb started circulating on TikTok.
The idea was that the short-term rental company was collapsing amid worsening economic conditions.
Inman reported on the story — which social media users dubbed the “Airbnbust” — and found that the truth was far more nuanced. But significantly, experts themselves also pushed back on the “bust” idea, and they did it in a specific venue: Twitter. That pushback ultimately helped drive news coverage of the topic.
The episode highlights the way that Twitter, at its best, functions as a kind of public forum. Users can certainly find themselves in a bubble on the social network. But the platform has fewer walled gardens than Facebook and isn’t curated via algorithms like TikTok’s For You Page. Over the years Twitter has consequently become a digital home for journalists, business leaders, analysts and other experts who want to speak directly to the public.
So why does this matter?
As anyone who has been watching the news will know, Elon Musk just bought Twitter for $44 billion. The purchase came after months of rigmarole in which Musk flip-flopped back and forth on the deal, and it ended Thursday when…
