Home ›› 13 Nov 2022 ›› Biztech
The social media giant Twitter facing uncertain future after tumultuous start to Elon Musk’s ownership. The brief reign of billionaire Elon Musk at Twitter has unleashed a wave of turmoil throughout the company. Firings, resignations and policy reversals leave twitter an uncertain future and many are worried about growing risks of misinformation.
Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter descended deeper into chaos as key security executives resigned from the platform, drawing a sharp warning from US regulators.
The walkouts came after a turbulent launch of new Twitter features following the Tesla and SpaceX owner’s $44 billion buyout of the influential messaging app.
Musk warned employees that the site was burning through cash dangerously fast, raising the specter of bankruptcy if the situation was not turned around.
“I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter,” tweeted chief security officer Lea Kissner, who reportedly stepped down with other key privacy or security executives.
In the most extraordinary exit, US media reported that Yoel Roth -- the site’s head of trust and safety -- stepped down just a day after staunchly defending Musk’s content moderation policy to advertisers.
Media reports had said Robin Wheeler, who held a key role linking Twitter with advertisers and was considered a key Musk ally inside the company, was leaving but she tweeted on November, 10: “I’m still here.”
The site’s update included a launch of the long-awaited Twitter Blue subscription service, which allowed users to pay $7.99 per month for a coveted blue tick, as well as a separate gray “official” badge for some high-profile accounts.
Musk scrapped the new gray label almost immediately, overshadowing the launch of the paid service, which is only available on the mobile app on iPhones and in the United States.
The launch also saw the emergence of a flurry of fake accounts as users used the opportunity to impersonate celebrities and politicians such as NBA star LeBron James or former British prime minister Tony Blair.
The chaos drew a rare warning from the Federal Trade Commission, the US authority overseeing consumer safety that had put Twitter under watch for past security and privacy breaches.
“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” an FTC spokesperson said in a statement.
“No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees,” the spokesperson added, referring to past commitments by Twitter to obey US privacy rules.
Violating FTC decisions could cost Twitter millions of dollars in fines.
Musk fired half of the 7,500 employees of the California company 10 days after buying the site and becoming its sole owner.
For the first time since the layoffs, the 51-year-old entrepreneur on Thursday addressed his remaining employees and urged them to help the site reach one billion users.
Musk also warned that the company was bleeding cash and expressed fear about the effects of the poor economy on his newly bought business.
“You may have noticed I sold a bunch of Tesla stock. The reason I did that is to save Twitter,” he is reported to have said.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives warned that the Twitter episode could have serious repercussions for electric car manufacturer Tesla.
“Brand destruction is our biggest worry with this Twitter circus show. It’s that simple and I can’t ignore it for Tesla stock,” Ives wrote on the site.
Twitter is also crippled by the decision of advertisers to stay away from the platform, concerned about Musk’s plans.
The tycoon announced he was ending work-from-home policies at Twitter, which had been a widespread practice at the San Francisco-based company.
“If you don’t show up at the office, resignation accepted,” he told employees.
Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of shares in the electric car company, SEC filings showed more than a week after he closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
Musk has been pushing for ways to pay for the massive deal, for which he took on billions of dollars in debt and earlier sold $15.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla.
Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives in late October, after a drawn-out back-and-forth between the world’s richest person and the influential social media company.
The billionaire initially tried to step back from the deal after his unsolicited offer was accepted in April.
He said in July that he was canceling the contract because he had been misled by Twitter over the number of fake “bot” accounts, allegations rejected by the company.
After Musk sought to terminate the sale, Twitter filed a lawsuit to hold the entrepreneur to the agreement. With a trial looming, he revived his takeover plan.
Twitter sacked half of its 7,500-strong staff as its new owner launched an overhaul of the company.
Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter in 2006 and stepped down as CEO last year, tweeted to apologize for growing the site too quickly, following news of the firings.
Musk has been searching for ways for the social media platform to make money after the buyout, including an idea to charge users $8 a month for verified accounts.
The move would help overcome a potential loss of advertisers, Twitter’s main source of revenue, after many top brands put their ad buys on hold, uneasy about Musk’s well-known disdain for content controls.
Musk’s actions and statements since taking over the reins of Twitter have prompted concern, including warnings from the United Nations.
UN rights chief Volker Turk has urged Musk to make respect for human rights a priority for the social network.
Musk has insisted that content moderation remains a priority for Twitter and that he would create a council dedicated to the task.
Musk’s decision to pull Twitter off the stock market has allowed him to make major changes quickly, but it also took the company more heavily into debt, a risky choice for a money-losing business.
Climate deniers looking to block action and “greenwashing” companies could have free rein on Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover, analysts warned as leaders pursued anti-warming efforts at the COP27 summit.
The Tesla billionaire and self-declared free-speech absolutist has fired thousands of staff -– with sustainability executives Sean Boyle and Casey Junod among those signing off from the platform last week.
Musk has promised to reduce Twitter’s content restrictions and after the takeover announced plans to create a “content moderation council” to review policies.
“It’s not clear what Mr Musk really plans to do. However... if he removes all attempts at content moderation, we can expect a surge of disinformation, as well as increases in misleading and greenwashing advertisements,” said Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the history of science at Harvard University who has authored leading studies on climate misinformation.
“Greenwashing” means companies misleading the public about their impact on the planet through messages and token gestures.
“We may also see an increase in hateful comments directed towards climate scientists and advocates, particularly women,” Oreskes said.
Following the buyout, one climate journalist tweeted that he had received death threats on the platform. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Researchers and campaigners say that despite measures announced by social platforms, climate misinformation is thriving, undermining belief in climate change and the action needed to tackle it.
Twitter and other tech giants such as Facebook and Google have said they are acting to make false claims less visible.
But the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think tank said in a detailed study this year that messages aiming to “deny, deceive and delay” regarding climate action were prevalent across social media.
Under Twitter’s policy before the takeover, it said “misleading advertisements on Twitter that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change are prohibited”.
“We believe that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetised on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis,” Boyle and Junod wrote in an Earth Day post on Twitter’s blog.
Both posted messages on November 4 with the hashtag “LoveWhereYouWorked”, indicating they were among those laid off after Musk’s $44-million takeover. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Beyond false information, some specialists warned that climate scientists themselves face threats if moderation falters.
A surge in hate speech drove Twitter’s head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth to respond, trying to calm concerns. He tweeted that the platform’s “core moderation capabilities remain in place”.
Musk wrote on November 4 that “Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.”
“I worry that scientific falsehoods will find a bigger platform on Twitter under Musk’s leadership,” said Genevieve Guenther, founder of the media activism group End Climate Silence.
“But I worry even more that the website will start deplatforming climate scientists and advocates who criticise right-wing views, preventing them from connecting to each other and to decision-makers in media and government.”
Among Musk’s plans is an $8 monthly charge for users to have a blue tick by their name -- currently a mark of authenticity for officials, celebrities, journalists and others.
“To me, this is opening the door to highly coordinated disinformation and manipulation,” said Melissa Aronczyk, an associate professor in communication and information at Rutgers University.
Musk said the move aims to reduce hate speech by making it too expensive for trolls to have multiple accounts.
Aronczyk argued the system would give a mark of authenticity to those willing to pay for a blue tick to push an agenda.
She pointed to the controversy around Hill+Knowlton Strategies -- a PR company working for big fossil fuel companies -– reportedly hired by host Egypt to handle public relations for the COP27 summit.
“Picture every Hill+Knowlton staffer working for COP27 creating a network of blue-check accounts to promote the business-led initiatives at the summit. Or downplaying the conflicts. Or ignoring protests,” Aronczyk said.
“It’s basically letting corporate greenwashing become the default communication style around climate change.”
Defectors seek alternatives to Musk-owned Twitter
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, users irked by the platform’s new regime have vowed to move their online presence elsewhere, with German-owned Mastodon attracting the most attention.
Musk’s first moves have been a shock to some. Just a week after taking over the reins of Twitter, the owner of SpaceX and Tesla launched radical changes by firing thousands of staff, promising the return of banned users and ramping up a plan to make people pay for privileged access to the site.
This has left many users looking to defect to new platforms, though with few obvious alternatives available for now.
Unknown to the general public until recently, Mastodon has seen its popularity explode among Internet users concerned about the direction Musk is taking Twitter.
Created in 2016 by the German developer Eugen Rochko, the site presents itself as a “decentralized” social network without advertising where preserving privacy is sacrosanct.
“Your ability to communicate online should not be at the whims of a single commercial company!” Mastodon tweeted when the Musk deal with Twitter was announced in April.
In practice, Mastodon like Twitter is based on postings of small messages, but each new user must sign up to an independently run server and there are thousands of them. In theory, users can interact freely across the Mastodon servers, but this can be complicated and unreliable.
On his personal account, Rochko said Mastodon reached more than 1 million monthly active users on Monday with the addition of 1,124 servers and nearly 490,000 new users since Oct. 27, when Musk took over Twitter.
This is still tiny compared to Twitter, which had nearly 238 million daily active users at the end of June.
The publicity has not been easy for Mastodon and many new users complain about the platform’s unintuitive interface, underlining the difficulty of creating an account and the poor response times unlike sites run by the tech giants.
Content moderation is also a big question mark as it is left to the sole discretion of server administrators, with some refusing access to others, disrupting the experience.
Other sites eager to welcome Twitter’s defectors are still very much in a development phase.
This is the case of BlueSky, the new project of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey that in late October claimed to have 30,000 people on its waiting list after only 48 hours, or Cohost, which promises that its users’ personal data will never be sold.
In online discussions, established platforms, such as the microblogging site Tumblr or the audio chat app Clubhouse, have seen a resurgence in popularity.
A few other start-ups are also attracting attention, including Counter Social and Tribel Social.
Then there are the right-wing sites such as Gab, Parler or Truth Social, the platform launched by former US president Donald Trump, which positioned themselves as conservative alternatives to Twitter long before the takeover by Musk.
Trump is largely expected to be reinstated on Twitter shortly after the US midterm elections on Tuesday, leaving the fate of the financially challenged Truth Social in limbo.
For the moment, there is no indication that these alternatives to Twitter will be able to compete with, let alone surpass, Musk’s new company.
In a tweet published on Monday, he even assured that “Twitter user numbers have increased significantly around the world since the deal was announced,” without providing any figures.
“And these are very early days,” the billionaire entrepreneur continued. “As Twitter becomes by far the most reliable source of truth, it’s going to be indispensable.”
But it remains to be seen whether the most prominent Twitter personalities (celebrities, athletes and politicians) will stay on the site or whether they will fall back on platforms with an even larger audience such as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.
