A few years ago, shortly after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, I published an article arguing that the platform had the potential to provide Trust as a Service (TaaS). The basic idea was twofold:
Legacy Media had squandered the trust Americans had in their ability to provide accurate information.
Twitter had the potential to fill that void and act as the new trust broker by helping determine what information people can and cannot trust.
Since then, a lot has happened, and Twitter has been rebranded as 𝕏. This article will serve as a checkpoint to assess what 𝕏 has done to broker trust and what work remains.
Are the Institutions Okay?
To start things off, we will revisit the original premise and determine whether there is still a need for a new entity to replace old institutions in Trust Brokering. Legacy Media has continued to see low levels of trust:
Legacy Media had squandered the trust Americans had in their ability to provide accurate information.
Twitter had the potential to fill that void and act as the new trust broker by helping determine what information people can and cannot trust.
Since then, a lot has happened, and Twitter has been rebranded as 𝕏. This article will serve as a checkpoint to assess what 𝕏 has done to broker trust and what work remains.
Are the Institutions Okay?
To start things off, we will revisit the original premise and determine whether there is still a need for a new entity to replace old institutions in Trust Brokering. Legacy Media has continued to see low levels of trust: