The social network Twitterone of the favorites for content creators, especially for those who work in other areas beyond entertainment, such as politicians, activists, journalists, scientists and science communicators, has seen a number of changes happen since businessman Elon Musk took over.
First, there was a mass layoffand more than 3,000 employees learned of their new status through a e-mail or when they couldn’t log in to their work accounts.
Immediately afterwards, certain celebrities began jumping ship, arguing that they felt Twitter was becoming an unsafe space, more loaded with hate speech than usual. It wasn’t surprising to see Musk’s ex-girlfriend Amber Heard come out, but so did model Gigi Hadid and actress Whoopi Goldberg; while personalities such as actor Ken Olin and singers Toni Braxton and Sarah Bareilles announced that they will stop publishing for a while.
At the same time, a lot of drama unfolded around the plan to keep the checkmark—the coveted blue checkmark—for subscribers, for a price that gradually decreased to as low as $8. it was decided to withdraw that benefit to Twitter Blue users, due to a number of phishing issues, something many saw coming.
The most notable incident was that of the pharmaceutical Eli Lilly and Company, which was overwhelmed when a verified account under its name announced that it was offering free insulin.
https://www.eluniverso.com/entretenimiento/redes-sociales/twitter-if-he charged-for-maintaining-the-verification-of-the-account-keep-complaining-it will cost-8-says-elon-musk- note/
Next, Musk announced to the employees who remained after the reduction that for them remote work was over, and he wanted everyone back in the office full time. It must be remembered that the company had said in 2020 that its employees could adopt teleworking indefinitely, if they wanted to, due to their performance in the months of confinement.
Twitter: what happened during the first 10 days of “chaos” under the new mandate of Elon Musk
On November 10, Twitter Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner resigns and chose to send messages of positivity, declaring her pride in the teams she had worked with and ensuring that no matter what, she knew she had been lucky. She was not the only one to say goodbye: Yoel Roth, the head of Integrity and Security, also left, despite the fact that until this week he had been one of the defenders of the changes implemented by Musk; and Damien Kieran, the Executive Director of Privacy.
But Musk has not remained silent, and has assured that certain employees had been selling the blue badge or blue check for thousands of dollars (up to $15.0000)in unauthorized transactions, and who rejected legitimate verification applications to then privately contact users and ask for money.
Far too many legacy “verified” checkmarks were handed out, often arbitrarily, so in reality they are *not* verified. You can buy as many as you want right now with a Google search.
Piggybacking off payment system plus Apple/Android is a much better way to ensure verification.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022
Meanwhile, the Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorseyexecutive director until November 2021 and member of the board of directors until May 2022, is preparing a place for those who want to follow him: the Bluesky social network (again the attractive blue), and opened a waiting list for the beta version, to which it is possible to join with an email address as the only requirement.
As for Twitter, Dorsey has said that he takes responsibility for employees and former employees going through the current situation. “I grew the size of the company too soon. I apologize for that”, he wrote, adding that he understands that many at this time are angry with him, the person they used to work for.
What is Bluesky and how is it different from Twitter?
“Dorsey’s proposal is a next-generation social network, that is, decentralized and supported by blockchain (service of exploration, purchase and exchange of cryptocurrencies)”, indicates Eduardo Palacios, who specializes in marketing digital.
“On paper, (Bluesky) looks good, but it depends a lot on how much traction he gets, especially with younger audiences. Right now, a large volume of people are on Instagram and TikTok, due to the rise of video content and the algorithm. Taking them to another network is complicated; We have already seen cases such as Twitch or Snapchat, innovative proposals but that did not reach momentum”, continues Palacios.
What about Mastodon? “I have seen it and it still has a long way to go to replace any social network. I think Twitter will become more attractive to the microblogging with the changes that Elon proposes, and then it will be difficult to keep up with him”, he says. “Twitter is a good product, because it is basic.”
What would those advantages be? “The scheme that would allow content creators to monetize content within the platform”.
People will go where the people they want to follow or who generate content that is just as good or superior to what they used to consume are. “And very few people generate quality content, on any network. Most create an account to consume, but not to create”.
Twitter and Instagram, he explains, took off when celebrities and politicians arrived. TikTok is a case apart. “This apps itself is a tool to generate content, which allows you to publish directly. That’s where his success comes from, since it was Musical.ly.”
Will there be an exodus from Twitter? Palacios says that he does not see it that way. Users will return “due to the lack of traction in the other spaces. Remember when YouTube was going negative every month and Google was losing money maintaining that platform? That changed when they started pay content creators”. And that will cause other networks, such as Instagram, which have not yet incorporated the dynamics of TikTok or YouTube monetization, to have a hard time.
What is a decentralized social network and why should I join?
“The thing with all these Twitter alternatives is who controls the platform and the content that can be published on them; in other words, censorship and portability”, says Rafael Bonilla Armijos, a Master in Computer Science and an expert in cybersecurity.
“At the moment, the content is created in a decentralized way for the users of a social network; but, after that, that content (the post) is controlled by the platform. The platform decides whether to publish it (or unpublish it), to whom it is recommended, qualifies it as ‘good’ or ‘bad’”, and applies sanctions according to its regulations. “Finally, If I want to leave that social network, all my generated content stays with them”.
The idea with Bluesky is to reverse the roles. “The best analogy is to think about how the web works today. Anyone can create their own website and decide which service host use (so that others can access it). If I want tomorrow, I change hostbut the site and all your content stays the same (it’s still with its creator, it’s not lost)”.
Then, users will be able to find the website by recommendation of a friend or acquaintance; or, most commonly, using a search engine, such as Google. “That way, if I’m interested in learning to play the guitar, I put it in the search bar and I find a lot of sites that teach guitar.”
Now, says Bonilla, imagine that scenario but for tweets (or any other form of microblogging or social media content). “I generate, publish and control it, and those who have the same interests will look for me and find me, and we will be happy living in our bubble”. The irony of this last comment, admits the expert, is the problem with this type of scheme. “I can get trapped in a reality that I create for myself. If I only look for places that teach guitar, I will never know that the piano, the violin or the trumpet exist. (AND)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
