Since the month of October, when Elon Musk assumed the position of CEO at Twitter, some of its most noticeable users have declared that there has been unrest as a result of modifications carried out by new CEO, Elon Musk.
According to some popular Twitter users, all of whom had between one hundred thousand and numerous millions of followers, they have gone through novel technical snags since Musk let go of approximately half the employees at Twitter. Other troubles they recognized after Musk’s debatable actions include a feeling of increased anti-transgender talk and an inconsistent decrease of followers.
Folks with a great deal of followers, Twitter has been a platform to network with experts in their preferred fields, establish popular businesses, and post up-to-date news. Under Elon, many of them have expressed discouragement.
Jenn Takahashi is the founder of the popular account on Twitter “Best of Nextdoor. In October, the account gained 550,000 followers, Takahashi reported. However, after Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform, there was a major decrease of more than 10,000 followers, which is unusual for the typically consistent growth of the account. Musk declared that he wanted to fight against bots, which can explain the loss of followers, but Takahashi believes that a lot of people have closed their accounts because of the chaotic takeover.
When Elon Musk made his grand entrance to Twitter’s HQ with a sink, Takahashi observed that she lost up to 400 followers in an hour. Furthermore, Takahashi noticed people departing Twitter in great numbers when Musk blocked certain journalists and reinstated Donald Trump’s account. Sensor Tower, a data analytics firm, reported that there was a 16% increase of Twitter app downloads in Musk’s initial month as compared to the earlier one, yet a 3% decline in comparison to the last year.
The proprietor of the popular Twitter account “We Rate Dogs,” Matt Nelson, which has more than 9 million followers, noted a decline in his followers after Elon Musk asked his followers if he ought to resign as CEO (the poll showed that people wanted him to step down) and when he declared that connecting to other platforms on Twitter was no longer allowed (which he overturned this).
According to Nelson and Takahashi, their profiles are often met with the error notification “Rate limit exceeded” when they attempt to refresh their notifications, which was not something they experienced prior to Musk’s leadership. This error message only appears with their accounts that have a lot of followers.
The two people mentioned that the tab which was used to show notifications from the older authenticated accounts (accounts which were verified prior to Musk’s regulations when authentication was based on Twitter) and the blue tick marks (a feature Musk implemented for a monthly fee) has become less beneficial under the pay-to-play system.
According to Nelson, their account size requires them to pay attention to all references, but they need to prioritize those with a large following since they could be shared by both groups. Before Musk assumed his position, Nelson had conversations with Twitter representatives who worked with famous influencers to demonstrate new functions and gain an understanding. Since Musk took over, teams that used to work with creators and advertisers have had personnel and management departures, and Nelson has not been able to make contact with Twitter since then. Even conservative influencers that Musk collaborates with have spoken out about the platform under his management – “catturd2”, a right-wing account with 1.2 million followers, tweeted on Tuesday that Twitter was “restricting conservatives again”, although they declined to respond to a request for comment.
Noteworthy Twitter users indicated that the standard of discourse on the platform has been decreasing, including more derogatory messages in private messages and responses.
Being recognized by her username “Keffals,” Clara Sorrenti observed that accounts replying to her with transphobic speech are being suspended at a slower rate. At present, Sorrenti has 150,000 Twitter followers and is a transgender individual. She reported that earlier users who would misgender her or use her pre-transition name would be reprimanded for breaching Twitter’s regulations on abusive language. During the preceding month, Sorrenti observed fewer of those accounts being sanctioned.
Sorrenti pointed out that transphobia is becoming a lot more serious on the platform, citing that Elon Musk himself has tweeted that people should not be compelled to use pronouns they prefer and has interacted with “Libs of TikTok” and other anti-LGBTQ figures. Musk has employed his Twitter profile, which has 124 million subscribers, to promulgate his views but also to set up new Twitter regulations, for instance when he tweeted that sharing an individual’s exact location would be regarded as “doxxing” and should not be done.
“I find it perplexing to understand what his individual opinion is and what is the Twitter policy, because he broadcasts all his statements on his personal profile,” Sorrenti said.
People active on Queer Twitter have said that mistreatment based on gender, sexuality, and ethnicity has been present for a long time, but they have also noticed that, since Musk has become the CEO, there has been a rise in bigoted comments and offensive messages. Consequently, Takahashi created a new account named “Best of Dying Twitter”, which has attained 65,000 followers in two months. This account accumulates posts connected to Musk, including reports on the harm to Twitter staff, accounts that Musk reinstated, and considerable occurrences on Musk’s Twitter. Takahashi stated that people who are still present on Twitter “want to watch the show” that occurs in the course of Musk’s leadership. But, her cataloging of the past two months has also led to an increase in abuse, she said.
Takahashi exhibited a screenshot of a message where she and other people who have criticized Musk were linked to pedophilia. In the last several months, social media websites like Twitter and Reddit have seen a rise in fictitious claims which connect the LGBTQ+ community to pedophilia and ‘grooming’.
“I have never come across such a large number of trolls on my tweets and direct messages,” Takahashi commented. “I have been addressed with names that I have never heard of before.”
Twitter is one of the channels employed by well-known accounts including Nelson and Sorrenti. Sorrenti remarked that she typically tweets, responds to her contacts, and signs off quickly due to the fact that she finds the platform disagreeable right now. Nevertheless, she still uses it since it helps her to direct individuals to her Twitch account.
Nelson, being the creator of the “We Rate Dogs” company, claimed that their material is most successful on Twitter through memes, but they can also reach people on other sites. As an illustration, he created a TikTok collection that featured the five main dogs of the week, which resulted in a rising number of followers.
“I think our content has become a major part of online culture, so when people find our content elsewhere, they are ready to become involved and follow us,” Nelson stated. “We do not only rely on Twitter, yet it is the place where our content works best and we have to make modifications as needed.”
