Elon Musk has hollowed out the social network just as a vital election cycle approaches
  • mo_ztt ✅@lemmy.worldEnglish
    72·
    1 year ago

    This is an absolutely brutal and spot on analysis. This dude is great.

    The overwhelming majority of this revenue was from advertising, but according to Musk’s thesis that revenue stream was garbage. He would deprioritise ads, reduce moderation, and boost the posts of people who would pay $8 a month for a blue tick.

    … So if someone is posting regularly enough to be willing to pay $8 a month for a blue tick, but has not built up a sizeable following organically, this is a very strong signal that the posts they are producing are no good.

    It is exactly that content that Twitter’s new model relies on promoting – and those newly-minted blue ticks are quickly learning that there is no magic behind the checkmarks. New followers are not magically heading their way. The problem wasn’t a biased liberal algorithm, it was that their tweets are no good.

    • Drunemeton@lemmy.worldEnglish
      131·
      1 year ago

      His ending was spot on as well:

      There are major elections in the UK, EU and USA next year. There are no adults left at Twitter to safeguard their integrity.

      Twitter’s chaos has consequences – but it’s not Elon Musk who’ll feel them. It is, alas, all of us.