Saying goodbye to Twitter
When we first set out to found a brand new Scrabble organization, way back in late 2019, one of the first things we did was get to work on a strategy for social media marketing. We knew that to successfully build a completely new brand, starting from scratch, we would need to use every digital tool at our disposal to get the word out. So we got our hands on our trademark @cocoscrabble username on every single platform we could think of. We hit up Facebook. Instagram. YouTube. Twitch. And so on.
And at that time, we figured, one of the most important platforms for us would be Twitter. It boasted hundreds of millions of users, including a whole lot of Scrabble players we wanted to attract and Scrabble organizations we wanted to partner with. It may not have been the place to be, necessarily, but it was most definitely a place to be. Anyone who was anyone on the internet at least had some sort of presence there.
Fast forward to 2026, and a lot has changed. Twitter used to be an incredible platform - enabling people to connect with one another in real time, share information, find information, engage in the marketplace of ideas. Nowadays... it just isn't that. As you may have heard, the place is under new management, and it's completely transformed as a result. Not in a good way. The site that exists today is darker, uglier, and frankly just not a good place to be anymore.
Studies show that the site's content has turned abusive and hateful. One found that homophobic tweets are up 30% from before, while racist tweets are up 42% and "some words, such as transphobic slurs, increased 260%." On top of that, the platform is so overrun with spammers and bots that your timeline is borderline unreadable on a typical day. If you're looking for genuine communication, with real human beings, that might actually benefit users or benefit the world at large? Nah. You'd best look elsewhere.
So, effective immediately: We are gone. We put it to a vote among our board members, and it was unanimous. Our group all agreed that there's just no positive value in us continuing to be there anymore. Not for us as an organization, not for you all as players, and not for humanity. Therefore, it's time to leave.
If we're being completely honest, really, the time to leave was a long time ago. It's a little bit embarrassing that we're only now pulling the plug. The problems with Twitter have been festering since late 2022 or thereabouts, and we're only now getting around to doing this. That's our bad.
I think maybe, speaking for myself anyway, part of the reason it took so long to get here was a sentimental attachment to the old Twitter. Speaking as a former journalist who joined the site way back in 2009 and fell in love with it at first sight, it was difficult to come to grips with what it's become. The idea of sharing facts and opinions and insights with the world, 140 characters at a time, was a beautiful one. It's a shame that it's turned into this. But in 2026, there's no denying reality anymore. The thing about the old days is they're the old days.
As for the overall CoCo social media strategy, we plan to keep on keeping on. We're going to stick with the aforementioned platforms that we've had for years - your Facebooks and Instagrams and YouTubes and whatnot - and continue putting out content that's relevant to you all, the players. We hope you'll all follow along and stay engaged with what we're doing.
We should also note, though - we don't have all the answers when it comes to this stuff. We know that. There are very few people on our team, if any, who consider social media their forte. (Keep in mind that we are all quite old! I'm the youngest of our board members and I'm about to turn 40. Sad times.) To that end, we would gladly accept help from anyone out there interested in giving it. If you have a knack for the social stuff and you'd like to be a part of the CoCo team, you should definitely hit us up.
In any event, we remain devoted to using all the digital media tools that we can (within reason, anyway) to promote the CoCo brand and to promote Scrabble at large. We still have plenty of work to do - but rest assured, we're ready to roll up our sleeves and do it.