Twitter, now known as X, has been an iconic platform known for sharing random thoughts, fighting random people online, and cancelling celebrities for old controversial tweets. Many times, the social media network seems to be an incubator for hateful speech and misinformation. On Jimmy Kimmel Live, there even used to be a segment called, “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets”, where celebrities would read tweets that insult them. What about Twitter’s platform makes it easy for users to spread negativity when comparing it to other social media networks like Instagram?
Twitter first launched as a “microblogging” platform in 2006, allowing users to make short messages or blogs with limited characters. The platform slowly grew by incorporating more features like the hashtag (#) in 2007, which allowed users to organize and explore topics, and retweeting, which let users repost other users’ tweets to share them. However, a surge in its popularity came from celebrities.
In 2009, Ashton Kutcher, known for his role in That 70’s Show, challenged CNN in a Twitter race to see who gained 1 million followers on the platform first and won. An article published when the viral moment occurred quotes, “Internet traffic analyst comScore reported that monthly unique visitors to the site reached 4 million in February, up more than 1,000 percent from a year ago”. In the following years, more celebrities and companies used the platform as a way to directly communicate and share thoughts with fans and audiences, and today there are an estimated 550+ million users on X.
Essentially, Twitter got its start in celebrity culture, maximizing the interactions that one might see in parasocial relationships, where anonymous people can one-sidedly project their opinions and feelings onto random people. The platform also allows users’ accounts to remain anonymous indefinitely, as there is no need for them to ever use their real names or publish any other information about themselves, making it easier than ever for them to broadcast their opinions into the algorithm with little accountability. Some users may even create extreme tweets just to go viral (aka. ragebaiting), but this can easily transition into cyberbullying and hate speech. I won’t venture into the issue of Grok in this issue, as that is a whole other controversy of its own…
“But you can create anonymous accounts on Instagram too,” some might argue. While this is true, the way Instagram’s platform makes it harder to circulate negative content, though it definitely still occurs. Although both Instagram and X require an email address or phone number to create an account, the two platforms differ in how those credentials are used. Instagram allows multiple accounts to be linked to a single email address, while X restricts each unique email address to one account. While this might suggest that Instagram makes anonymous account creation easier, many users are reluctant to link anonymous or potentially controversial accounts to the same email as their main personal account, out of concern for their digital footprint.
Meanwhile, those who use X tend to rely on a single account, as creating additional accounts requires registering new email addresses. As a result, these accounts are often more anonymous, with few to none followers or mutuals from users’ real social circles. This separation from real-life connections lowers social pressure and makes it easier for users to post more freely and with fewer self-imposed filters.
Instagram’s content also differs greatly from X’s. Instead of microblogging witty or “rage-baiting” tweets when it seems fit, Instagram users tend to curate a feed or aesthetic that fits their account. The content relies mainly on visuals through pictures or videos/reels to capture users’ attention, with most of the interactions occurring through likes and comments.
The Friends tab on Instagram shows reels that mutuals have liked or reposted.
Although some comment sections can portray a negative space similar to one that a user might see in a X thread, it is easier to ignore and oftentimes, users do not even look at comment sections.
Additionally, many users may monitor the content they like more closely, as Instagram has made it easier for mutuals to see what reels and posts their friends like (unless they turn the feature completely off).
So does hating not exist on Instagram? No, of course it does. However, its social network culture differs significantly from X. As X’s owner, Elon Musk, continues to promote features such as Grok, the platform appears to enable privacy violations and the circulation of hate speech. As a result, this cultural and behavioral gap between Instagram and X will likely continue to widen.