Over the weekend, Elon Musk continued to make significant changes to Twitter, drawing criticism from users, while simultaneously facing competition from Mark Zuckerberg, who is set to launch a new rival app.
Zuckerberg’s parent company, Meta, has introduced an app listed as “Threads, an Instagram app,” which is currently available for pre-order in the United States. It is expected to be released on Thursday.
The rivalry between Musk and Zuckerberg has been ongoing, with a recent comment from a Meta executive about Twitter’s management sparking further tension. This led to both men playfully challenging each other to a cage match.
Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion last year, Musk has implemented several sweeping changes, including mass layoffs and introducing a monthly fee of $8 for a blue verification checkmark.
In the latest round of modifications, Musk limited the number of posts users can view and mandated that individuals be logged in to access tweets, disrupting the functionality of external links.
Musk claimed that he needed to enhance server capabilities to handle increased demand, as AI companies were allegedly scraping vast amounts of data. However, this rationale has been met with skepticism, with critics suggesting that he may be alienating both users and advertisers essential for the platform’s profitability.
In a surprising announcement on Monday, Twitter revealed that access to TweetDeck, a popular feature for managing multiple accounts, would soon be restricted to verified users.
John Wihbey, an associate professor at Northeastern University, noted that many users were already considering leaving Twitter for ethical reasons following Musk’s takeover, and the new restrictions provided a technical motivation to exit.
“Musk’s layoffs hinted at an impending decline in the platform’s technical functionality,” Wihbey remarked.
Significantly Troubling
Musk has expressed a desire to reduce Twitter’s dependency on advertising revenue, opting to increase income from subscriptions. Nonetheless, he recently appointed Linda Yaccarino, an advertising expert, as CEO, a move she claims is aimed at aggressively courting advertisers.
Justin Taylor, a former marketing executive at Twitter, questioned how advertisers could trust the platform when their most engaged free users might not even see their advertisements due to imposed data caps.
Market research professional Mike Proulx characterized the weekend chaos as “significantly troubling” for both users and advertisers, asserting that Twitter is currently undermining its reach and engagement.
He claimed that Twitter’s transition from a stable platform to one resembling a startup presents challenges for Yaccarino, who is now tasked with restoring credibility and could facilitate a migration of advertisers to rival platforms.
Open Concern
The technical justifications Musk provided for user restrictions faced immediate backlash from the social media community. Many users speculated that his limitations stemmed from unpaid server bills.
French data analyst Florent Lefebvre argued that AI firms typically rely on higher-quality sources, such as books and articles, instead of social media content, which is often replete with inaccuracies and lacking context.
Yoel Roth, who resigned from his position as Twitter’s head of security shortly after Musk’s acquisition, dismissed the notion that increased data scraping warranted such login restrictions, stating, “Scraping was an accepted practice for Twitter data access; it was common knowledge.”
