Second, Twitter functions as a wire service, newspaper and magazine all in one, except you get to choose the content you want, based on who you follow. I’m more interested in what the people I follow think is the most important news of the moment than what the TV news producers or newspaper editors do. You might say I’m creating an information bubble. Maybe, but if you follow a variety of people, you get a variety of content. And most of the people I know offline are in a different kind of information bubble anyway — the mainstream media, which often covers a small set of stories from a fairly narrow perspective.

Third, Twitter has created an alternative power structure — one where historically marginalized people, groups and ideas have outsize influence and “the establishment” gets truly challenged. For example, in a nation where no Black woman is currently a U.S. senator or has ever been a governor, Twitter is one place in American society where Black women are often very influential voices, particularly on political issues.

And just as significant, on Twitter, the powerful can’t, via their aides, security staff or other means, block others from holding them to account.