Over the weekend, Elon Musk did a poll on whether President Trump should be allowed to return to Twitter. 51.8% which translated to 15 million users voted yes, and as a result, Trump’s account was reinstated. However, Trump has not tweeted anything because he created his own platform called Truth Social. During an interview on Sunday, Trump was asked whether he was going to return to Twitter and he said “I don’t see any reason for it.”
Elon Musk has announced new measures to combat hate speech on Twitter. Under the new rules, tweets with hateful or derogatory content will have their reach reduced. This will apply to individual tweets, not accounts as a whole. Musk said the concept is “freedom of speech, not reach.” Many people are finding these changes disheartening and are actually mourning the loss of Twitter as a platform for free expression.
Twitter was started in 2006, it has been around for 16 years. In 2021, Twitter generated $5 billion in revenue, a significant increase of 35% from the previous year. Advertising made up the vast majority of 92% of total revenue. Although still posting a net loss, this figure was reduced by 80% to $221 million compared to 2020’s $1.1 billion. As of 2021, there are 206 million daily active users on the site with 38 million originating from the United States.
Twitter is a popular social media platform that allows users to share updates and connect with others but the numbers don’t lie and they tell a story. The company relies heavily on advertising for its revenue, which could be bad for its long-term forecast. The fact we are in an inflationary period now & heading towards a recession puts in perspective that if advertisers stop advertising; Twitter would be done. Only 8% of its revenue comes from other sources, such as companies and individuals who want to target specific demographics.
As a business, profit is essential for reinvestment and growth. Features are necessary to attract and maintain users. For example, the edit feature is something that many people have requested for years. While the check mark process is more accessible to some than others, it may be seen as an elitist system by some users. If proper reinvestment was done, it would have been possible to address this issue to make it fair and easy for all.
In the coming months, Twitter will be testing new features and updating user policy. The reason they have to do this is because Twitter unfortunately cannot shut down and go into a beta phase. This is because they averages 200 plus million users a day and shutting down would be a form of product suicide.
User concerns are understandable, but those who truly love Twitter should prioritize seeing it improve – even though that will take a lot of time and effort.