Thread by @Aaron_Derfel

1) For nearly 2 weeks, one of Canada's preeminent public health researchers has been hacked out of his Twitter account. He's contacted #TwitterSupport repeatedly, to no avail. In this thread, I write about the plight of Timothy Caulfield and other scientists on this platform.

2) Caulfield, author of several bestsellers with more than 83,000 Twitter followers at one point, has served as a guiding light during the #pandemic, fighting misinformation about vaccines, among other topics. But since @elonmusk took over Twitter, things have gone south for him.

3) His Twitter account (@CaulfieldTim) was hacked Dec. 7. The next day, I received a message from a phisher purporting to be a Timothy Caulfield of Twitter's "trust and safety team" — when my account got hacked. But I regained my account Monday. Caulfield is still locked out.

4) Caulfield emailed me today in the hope this Twitter thread will shake up #TwitterSupport to act on his case. "What a massive hassle," Caulfield wrote me, adding his usurped account is "now being used to phish others and STILL Twitter Support does nothing. It is incredible."

5) Although Caulfield's predicament involves hacking, it also highlights the many problems scientists now face on Twitter under the chaotic stewardship of Mars visionary @elonmusk. Read the grave concerns expressed below by Dr. @EricTopol.

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1602482714409504768

6) As @elonmusk tilts Twitter toward QAnon and 4chan conspiracy theorists, this social media platform is at risk of being swamped even more by misinformation. Perhaps that is what Elton John was alluding to when he decided to quit Twitter on Dec. 9.

https://twitter.com/eltonofficial/status/1601200277276659712

7) At the same time, amid the flourishing of hate speech on Twitter, much less attention is being paid to the fact that this platform is becoming less and less secure following the mass layoffs of Twitter staff by @elonmusk. I wrote about this recently.👇

https://twitter.com/Aaron_Derfel/status/1602328773491408898

8) Although Twitter is now a privately-run company under @elonmusk, it's viewed as a public trust by many. Scientists like Caulfield and journalists have devoted countless volunteer hours to inform the public about the #pandemic, which Musk seems to have dismissed.

9) With the #COVID pandemic still far from over (contrary to the wishful thinking of politicians Musk has endorsed like Florida governor Ron DeSantis), it appears that scientists and journalists (many of whom Musk holds in contempt) are becoming targets more than ever on Twitter.

10) Despite my Twitter account being hacked, I will remain on this platform, writing updates on the #pandemic. And I urge my followers to tag and contact #TwitterSupport to take up Caulfield's cause so he may continue the fight against scientific misinformation. End of thread.

ADDENDUM: I will post this thread on my other Twitter account that I created as a backup while I was hacked. It will be interesting to see if this thread gets more retweets on that account. If so, it would suggest this account may now be "shadowbanned" by Twitter.

ADDENDUM 2: Tweet #1 should be corrected to "nearly one week" rather than "nearly two weeks." My apologies.

ADDENDUM 3: Tim Caulfield finally regained his Twitter account. Hurray! Thanks to all those who pressed #TwitterSupport to act. Nevertheless, many of the concerns I raised in the thread above are still valid. But for now at least, let's celebrate.

https://twitter.com/CaulfieldTim/status/1602880468307050496