Elon Musk’s decision to limit how many tweets a user reads has been profoundly confusing for many people. It almost seems that Twitter’s new CEO might be hellbent on gutting Twitter and obliterating it.
In his tweet, Musk stated that Twitter was limiting how many tweets a user could read because AI startups were scrapping Twitter data and not paying for it. In the past, Musk had blamed OpenAI using Twitter’s data to train its GPT large language models.
Musk complaining about a tech startup or company not paying its dues is a bit rich, especially given that Twitter is facing many lawsuits over unpaid rent and bills for services that Twitter has been using for a long time. In a more recent incident, Twitter’s Google Cloud bill went unpaid for months until very recently, as part of a “Deep Cuts Plan,” in which Twitter aims to cut infrastructural costs by millions per day. This includes rent, utilities, depreciation of computers and servers, and various other expenses.
Who’s running Twitter?
Even though Musk has justified the limitation set on Twitter users on technical grounds, and he is the CTO or chief technical officer of Twitter, one has to wonder what Linda Yaccarino’s role was in all of this. Yaccarino, the new CEO of Twitter, is primarily tasked with bringing advertisers back to the platform.
A decision like this, plus news of Twitter facing increasing lawsuits over unpaid bills and rent, indicates to all stakeholders that Twitter is as unstable as it was when Musk fired some of its core engineers.
Moreover, a change in policy as drastic as this one has to have the CEO’s approval. Given how this affects her bottom line and how much more this makes cajoling advertisers return to the platform, one has to assume that Yaccarino wasn’t very keen on it. If that is true, it would be safe to think that Yaccarino is a placeholder figure as Twitter’s CEO. In that case, Musk isn’t only guiding Twitter’s vision under Twitter 2.0 but is calling the shots on policy, tech, and management.
Making it difficult for advertisers
Twitter has to rely on advertisers if it wants to generate any meaningful revenue. As much as he tries, Musk cannot browbeat companies and brands into advertising on the platform for several reasons.
While Musk and many American right-wing handles maintain that Twitter has become more neutral now under Musk’s ownership, the reality is the content on the platform has become more vitriolic; transphobic and homophobic slurs have become more common, hate speech often goes unpunished, and the social media platform has become the hotbed for misinformation and false narratives, all of which of Twitter has actively decided not to limit.
The only uptick to all of this is that engagement on Twitter is higher than ever. However, limiting the number of tweets a user can read will surely affect employment.
Musk wants Twitter to be funded in large parts by Twitter Blue subscribers. However, not even Musk’s most ardent supporters are signing up for Twitter Blue as much as he had hoped. As of April 2023, Twitter had just over 640,000 Twitter Blue subscribers.
Musk had hoped that legacy blue tick holders would sign up by the dozens, but that hasn’t happened. Experts estimate that as of June 1, 2023, there can’t be more than 1 million Twitter Blue subscribers. With a user base of roughly 450 million, Twitter Blue subscribers constitute about 0.22 percent of all Twitter users, at best.
Unfair to Twitter Blue subscribers
One of the key features of Twitter Blue subscriptions was that it ensured users of an increased reach and a preference in replies and searches. However, if non-Twitter blue subscribers can only read 600 tweets daily, that will drastically limit the number of impressions tweets get. We have already shown that Twitter Blue subscribers constitute just 0.22 percent of all Twitter users.
While people might assume that reading 600 tweets daily is more than enough, it is not, especially if you encounter an interesting and highly engaging thread. Users can blow through 600 tweets in about 15-20 minutes, even when browsing leisurely.
In such a case, it doesn’t make much sense for businesses and content creators, the accounts that pay for Twitter Blue, to pay for the subscription service.
