Elon's the product now
When products suck, users leave, and that's what's happening at Twitter. A May survey by Pew Research found high-frequency users were still around but posting less. Part of the problem is that — like Truth Social — Musk has become the centerpiece of the website. Part of that is intentional. When Musk found out that his popularity was declining among users, he ordered his engineers to make his tweets more prominent. Another problem is that Musk attracts the very bots he complained about ad nauseam. Another Pew survey found that 60% of users had taken a break from Twitter over the past year. Call it what you want, but I'm going to go ahead and say they were suffering from "Elon exhaustion."There have been Twitter alternatives for months, Mastodon, Post, Bluesky (from the Twitter founder Jack Dorsey) — take your pick. Those sites have been picking off Twitter fanatics little by little, fragmenting users and denying any one site the critical mass to match Twitter's ceaseless chatter. They haven't attracted the celebrities, the brands, or all the other cultural kitsch that we love to hate. But the rocket launch of Meta's Threads appears to be the most serious threat to Musk's Twitter yet. The difference with Threads is that — because of its seamless connection to Instagram — it's not picking off Twitter users; it's scooping them away with a dump truck and hauling them over.
The Federal Trade Commission may have something to say about this. FTC Chair Lina Khan has tried to sue Meta for copying products from smaller companies to maintain market dominance in social media. But so far, her argument hasn't worked, and somehow I doubt helping Musk will give her heightened impetus to go back to the drawing board. For Musk's part, his lawyers have already written a cease-and-desist letter telling Meta that Twitter will sue if Threads is not taken down — thus offering Zuckerberg the opportunity to beat Musk in a courtroom as well as in a cage. Congratulations to all the lawyers involved.
Based on her résumé, Yaccarino seems a competent professional who probably doesn't need my advice, but I'm going to give it to her anyway: Run! Musk is known for micromanaging and penny pinching, which means your expertise will be subverted to his ego in all decision-making. And when you finally want to leave, he'll fight you for every penny you deserve all the way out the door. I've seen this happen at Tesla many times.
In the past, Musk has been able to fuse his brand with his products and turn them into a success. At Twitter, that fusion has turned the brand and the product into a toxic mess. And if Twitter is too toxic to be the global watercooler, it's diminished. The lights may be on — thanks to Musk's billions — but the only people home will be him, some misguided men who wish he were their dad, and porn bots.
It's unclear whether any app will be the "Twitter killer," but it's already clear Musk's manners and poor product are turning the "bird app" into a zombie. Twitter may not die, but it certainly won't be living. It will need to eat brains to sustain itself, but there won't be enough brains around to feed it. Maybe this is the site Musk wanted in the first place. At least he'll be popular there.
I told you Elon Musk was going to screw up Twitter — but I didn't realize he'd wreck it this fast
From rate limits to Threads, it's clear that Elon Musk's "new and improved" Twitter is losing the one thing that made it special.
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Linette Lopez is a senior correspondent at Insider.
Elon bout to get a ton of people audited for failing to report taxable income, I don't see any legal documentation on this shyt... probably a turd emoji anyway.
