John Oliver breaks down how Twitter got "worse than useless"

As Oliver argues, the site hasn’t been useful for following breaking news—one of the site’s primary pre-Musk uses—for quite some time. But not only is it difficult to get accurate information, the site will likely feed its users inaccurate, incendiary information that has caused multiple instances of real-world violence. Oliver cites the anti-Muslim riots in the United Kingdom in 2024, which followed the stabbing deaths of three children at a dance class in Southport. Social media disinformation claimed that the attacker was a Muslim immigrant, when in fact he was a UK-born Christian. Likewise, Oliver argues that the recent ICE crackdown in Minnesota could be pinned in large part on disinformation shared by Nick Shirley. 

Not much of this information is exactly new, but it is useful to see it assembled in a straightforward way. Oliver even seems at a bit of a loss about what to do about it. “I know people have their own reasons for staying on Twitter, though for what it’s worth, a lot of what it does can be replicated elsewhere. If you want to stay in touch with friends or contacts, maybe try to connect with them somewhere else,” he says. “If you spend most of your time sending your significant other memes and funny posts, there are other sites where you can find those, but also, maybe put your phone down and take your wife out to dinner. It’s been a long time since you went out without the kids. And if you just want to watch arguments, may I recommend the Real Housewives franchises, the Shakespeare of the modern age.” Check out the whole segment below.