Oprah WinfreyAn American talk show host and media personality. has a problem. She is one of the biggest names on Twitter - but MetaThe new name of the company which owns Facebook and Instagram. wants her to defect to Threads. If she moves, she risks losing some of her 42.2 million followers. But a lot of people are unhappy with Twitter's owner, Elon MuskA South African-born entrepreneur whose companies have included the online payment service PayPal.. Should she stay or should she go?

Threads looks very similar to Twitter, with features such as liking and reposting. By linking it to Instagram, Meta hopes it will instantly attract millions of users.

Twitter has had many problems since Elon Musk bought it in October. His lift on bans for far-right users has been very controversial.

People are also unhappy about changes to the way Twitter works. Until last week, anyone could look at tweets; now users have to log in first.

There have also been technical glitches. People think this is because Musk is trying to save money by cutting down on staff.

All this has made Twitter less attractive to advertisers. It has also encouraged rivals such as Bluesky and Mastodon. But Threads will be the biggest challenger by far.

The stakes are enormous. There are thought to be 4.89 billion social-media users in the world. They spend an average of 147 minutes a day looking at their accounts.

The sites attract more than £180bn worth of advertising a year. On average, everyone in the world owns two mobile phones - over 16 billion in total.¹

Writing in Foreign Policy, Howard W French argues that the end of Twitter would be a disaster for democracy. Twitter has made information far easier to get hold of, in a way that terrifies dictators.

But in Unherd, Ed West says it has too many faults. He argues that Twitter lets users with a lot of followers get away with being rude and even racist, and encouraging violence. Social media and democracyA system of government based on the idea of rule by the people., he suggests, do not go together.

Yes: It fuels toxic debates by giving a platform to hateful and divisive views. It also eats up time that could be spent doing constructive or relaxing things and interacting with people in real life.

No: It gives a voice to people who are ignored by the mainstream media and is a force for democratic change. It allows you to communicate with others who share your interests right across the world.

Or... There are far greater threats to civilisation - global warming, artificial intelligence and the aggression of countries like Russia and China. Social media is the least of our problems.