Social media has been the driver of an enormous level of democratic empowerment, an unprecedented new degree of bottom-up communication. I think society hasn't experienced such a structural shift to political power distribution since the printing press's arrival in the West. Unlike China, the West had no central authority, so what was printed and distributed could not be properly suppressed.
The counter-reaction to this, I believe, is the increased concentration of wealth and push toward monopoly and control.
If democracy prevails, I believe social media, like Youtube, Reddit etc will drive a level of cultural, scientific and technological enlightenment to equal the Renaissance.
If autocracy prevails, if the whole world falls under the dominion of a single authority, we will all end up in one single shithole country.
Elon has always slashed customer service and PR in the companies he runs.
Twitter for all it's warts, was still a haven for public accountability when traditional customer service avenues fell short.
Not surprising that following an unprecedented consolidation of wealth (2020), we see someone take that opportunity to dismantle that.