Bonum Certa Men Certa

How Twitter (Quite Likely Both the Company and the Platform) Died in June/July 2023

Over a week ago: Twitter Has Just Been Unofficially Killed by Elon Musk (Date of Death: June 30 2023)

Twitter is walled garden
Akin to "paywalls" everywhere (some people called them paywalls, but they're walled gardens)



Summary: Nothing has been the same since Twitter put everything behind walled gardens; it gave people a strong nudge in another direction and they took the hint

THE pundits ask aloud if Facebook can swallow Twitter [1], seeing that Bluesky is barely talked about anymore [2] (it's where Jack Dorsey went, but they suffered a slow start with relatively disappointing adoption numbers). Remember Mastodon? It has problems of its own and some people wrongly believe Facebook can help. Facebook can actually do a lot of harm, in methods that are akin to "embrace and extend". The only thing we condone is abandoning all social control media.

"Facebook can actually do a lot of harm, in methods that are akin to "embrace and extend"."At the moment the media focuses on just two options [3-4], even in the spamfarm known as CNET [5-6]. There are already signs of censorship opportunism [7] and Engadget is trying to capitalise on the sudden interest [8-10]. A lot of the discussion focuses on the wrong things, e.g. boredom [11]. The latest Twitter scandals [12] are lost in the mist of deathmatch-like framings. Not many people paid attention to the privacy red flags [13]. When someone threatens to sue a company it grabs a lot more headlines. In many ways, Twitter shot its own foot [14] and we heralded its death over a week ago when walled gardens were erected (after they had allegedly found themlselves compelled to do this; it was likely a fat lie).

"Issues accessing the tweets (hence the ads), without prior warning, meant many people began marking Twitter as "dead". They felt anxious to move somewhere else."Instagram Threads sort of launched (maybe even rushed and released prematurely) at the almost perfect timing, stealing Bluesky's thunder [15-16] within only a few days. Advertisers (the main source of income) were talking away [17], trying to relocate where eyeballs were moving. Issues accessing the tweets (hence the ads), without prior warning [18], meant many people began marking Twitter as "dead". They felt anxious to move somewhere else.

To name some issues from a week ago, see "Twitter's API Keeps Breaking, Even for Developers Paying $42,000" [19] and TweetDeck problems [20-21]. Yaccarino is just some person on a sinking boat [22]. There's nothing she can do now to reverse course. One day we might look back at all this and recall the rapid death of Twitter. Cynicism has become common [23] as users moaned about access issues for about a week [24-28]. For Facebook it was a double-whammy because a lot of scandals and negative publicity (e.g. [29-35] were quickly buried by this barrage of shallow crap, X versus Y, false dichotomies, and even cheering for Mark Zuckerberg [36-63].

RIP, blue bird.

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. 2023-07-07 [Older] Is Threads a Threat to Twitter? | Future Tech
  2. 2023-07-07 [Older] Don’t Count Bluesky Out Yet
  3. 2023-07-07 [Older] For the moment, it's all Threads with Twitter now a pariah
  4. 2023-07-07 [Older] Threads: new Twitter rival looks like a shrewd move but Meta lacks credibility
  5. 2023-07-07 [Older] Threads Faces Legal Threat From Twitter, Report Says - CNET


  6. 2023-07-07 [Older] Twitter Reportedly Threatens to Sue Meta Over Threads App - CNET


  7. 2023-07-07 [Older] Meta restores Instagram and Threads account that tracked Elon Musk's private jet


  8. 2023-07-07 [Older] All the questions we still have about Threads, Meta’s Twitter killer


  9. 2023-07-07 [Older] Engadget Podcast: Diving into Threads and Twitter's latest mess
  10. 2023-07-07 [Older] The Morning After: Twitter says Meta stole trade secrets to build Threads


  11. 2023-07-07 [Older] Threads won’t kill Twitter if it’s boring


  12. 2023-07-06 [Older] Emergency office criticized for sending people to Twitter for Storm Poly updates


  13. 2023-07-05 [Older] Meta's Twitter rival Threads won't initially launch in the EU


  14. 2023-07-05 [Older] Twitter quietly backtracks on requiring users to log in to see tweets


  15. 2023-07-04 [Older] Bluesky experiences record-high traffic after Twitter implements reading limits
  16. 2023-07-04 [Older] Bluesky Sees "Record" Web Traffic After Elon's Latest Dumb Twitter Decision


  17. 2023-07-04 [Older] Dutch advertisers: Twitter "certainly not more attractive" after Musk's latest step


  18. 2023-07-04 [Older] Twitter says it couldn't tell people about rate limiting in advance


  19. 2023-07-03 [Older] Mashable: ‘Twitter’s API Keeps Breaking, Even for Developers Paying $42,000’


  20. 2023-07-03 [Older] TweetDeck Falters as Elon Musk Wrecks Twitter


  21. 2023-07-04 [Older] Twitter launches 'new' Tweetdeck as the old version breaks down
  22. 2023-07-03 [Older] CEO Linda Yaccarino’s Vision for Twitter 2.0: Sound-On Video Ads


  23. 2023-07-03 [Older] Everything Continues to Be Going Just Great at Twitter


  24. 2023-07-03 [Older] The Morning After: Twitter limits unverified users to seeing 600 posts a day
  25. 2023-07-03 [Older] Twitter's apps are breaking following Elon Musk's decision to cap tweet rates
  26. 2023-07-02 [Older] Viewing Twitter posts without a login is blocked under temporary restrictions
  27. 2023-07-01 [Older] Elon Musk claims Twitter’s new login requirement is a ‘temporary’ response to data scrapers
  28. 2023-07-01 [Older] Twitter puts strict cap on how many tweets users can read each day


  29. 2023-07-06 [Older] Biden Appeals Judge's Ban on Government Asking for Social Media Takedowns
  30. 2023-07-06 [Older] Top EU court invalidates Facebook basis for targeted advertising
  31. 2023-07-05 [Older] Quebecor to pull ads from Facebook, Instagram after news access halted
  32. 2023-07-05 [Older] Federal government has suspended its advertising on Facebook, Instagram
  33. 2023-07-04 [Older] CJEU declares Meta/Facebook's GDPR approach largely illegal
  34. 2023-07-04 [Older] Facebook will need permission to show personalized ads in the EU
  35. 2023-07-03 [Older] Why is Facebook Marketplace getting so much negative reviews?


  36. 2023-07-07 [Older] Twitter Is Threatening to Sue Meta Over Threads, Meta Executives Threaten to Piss Their Pants Laughing
  37. 2023-07-07 [Older] 'Clone' or Competitor? Users and Lawyers Compare Twitter and Threads
  38. 2023-07-07 [Older] Twitter May Face Difficulties Showing Meta Stole Trade Secrets


  39. 2023-07-06 [Older] Threads Hands-On: Instagram's New App Might Just Be Dull Enough to Beat Twitter
  40. 2023-07-06 [Older] Twitter Hits Meta With Lawsuit Threat Over Stolen 'Trade Secrets'
  41. 2023-07-06 [Older] Zuckerberg launches Threads to lock horns with ailing Twitter


  42. 2023-07-06 [Older] Meta's Twitter rival Threads is here. Can it survive the company's woes?
  43. 2023-07-06 [Older] Why You May Not Want to Sign Up for Threads, Meta's New Twitter Competitor - CNET
  44. 2023-07-06 [Older] Instagram Threads: Meta sets sights on Twitter supremacy
  45. 2023-07-06 [Older] Twitter to sue Meta over new Threads app
  46. 2023-07-06 [Older] Meta’s Threads app is here to challenge Twitter
  47. 2023-07-06 [Older] The Morning After: Meta’s Twitter rival, Threads, is finally here
  48. 2023-07-06 [Older] Twitter threatens to sue Meta over the new Threads app
  49. 2023-07-06 [Older] Meta Takes Aim at Twitter With the Launch of Rival App Threads
  50. 2023-07-06 [Older] Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Meta Over Threads: Report
  51. 2023-07-06 [Older] What you need to know about Threads, Instagram’s new Twitter killer app
  52. 2023-07-05 [Older] Everything We Know About Threads, Instagram's Twitter Killer App
  53. 2023-07-05 [Older] Threads, Meta's Twitter-Killer, Is Now Available
  54. 2023-07-05 [Older] Instagram Threads: Meta sets sights on Twitter supremacy


  55. 2023-07-05 [Older] Musk has more to worry about than cage fight with Zuckerberg
  56. 2023-07-06 [Older] Meta Takes Aim at Twitter With the Launch of Rival App Threads
  57. 2023-07-04 [Older] Meta Introduces ‘Threads’ Because It Wants In on the Twitter Exodus
  58. 2023-07-04 [Older] Meta set to launch Twitter rival Threads this week


  59. 2023-07-04 [Older] Instagram’s Threads App Was Briefly Listed on Google Play Over the Weekend
  60. 2023-07-04 [Older] Meta appears poised to compete with Twitter with new app Threads
  61. 2023-07-04 [Older] Meta's Instagram-linked Twitter rival 'Threads' could arrive on July 6th
  62. 2023-07-04 [Older] The Morning After: Meta's Instagram-linked Twitter rival could arrive this week
  63. 2023-07-03 [Older] Where the Hell Is Instagram’s Twitter Clone?




Recent Techrights' Posts

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Proud to Host Free Software Talk by Richard Stallman
ahead of Monday's talk
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Machine-Generated FUD (LLM Slop) From GBHackers, CybersecurityNews, and Guardian Digital, Inc (Google News Promotes Slop Plagiarism, Misinformation)
Companies that lie try to drown out the signal with falsehoods
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 21, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 21, 2025
The Streisand Effect is Real
So don't be evil. Also, don't strangle women.
Links 21/02/2025: Linux Foundation Openwashing, Microsoft Copilot Goes Down
Links for the day
Links 21/02/2025: Doomscrolling and European Ham Radio Show
Links for the day
Links 21/02/2025: TikTok Layoffs, WebOS Software Patents in Bad Hands
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/02/2025: Web Browsers, Mechanical Shortcuts, and Internet Hygiene
Links for the day
Richard Stallman 'Only' Founded the FSF
there's no reason to be upset at the FSF for keeping their founder in the Board
Techrights Disconnected From the United States Two Years Ago
Did people really need to wait for the US government to become this hostile towards the media before recognising the threat?
Before Trying Censorship by Extortion the Serial Strangler From Microsoft Literally Begged Us to Delete Pages
This is very clearly just a broad campaign of intimidation
Hype Watch: Weeks After Microsoft Disappointed Investors With "Hey Hi" It's Trying Some "Quantum" Hype (Adding Impractical Vapourware to Accompany This Hype and Even LLM Slop in 'News' Clothing)
Remember "metaverse"? What happened to media hype about "blockchain" and "IoT"?
Report About February Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in 2025) Comes Back From the Dead
Yesterday we wrote about an article in CRN (reporting Microsoft layoffs) being removed without any reasons specified
Links 21/02/2025: Myanmar Scam Centre and Disruptions at USPTO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 20, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 20, 2025
gbhackers.com is Not Hackers, It's LLM Slop Outputs (Fake 'Articles') That Attack 'True Hackers'
A site called linuxsecurity.com keeps doing this and now we see the slopfarm gbhackers.com doing the same
Gemini Links 20/02/2025: Law of Warming and Cooling, Health, and Devlog
Links for the day
linuxsecurity.com Continues to Spread Lies or Machine-Generated FUD (Microsoft LLMs Likely the Source) About OpenSSH and Linux
this LLM problem is global
Links 20/02/2025: Microsoft Infosys Layoffs and IRS Layoffs (Good News for Rich Tax Evaders)
Links for the day
IBM Layoffs in Europe Already Happening or Underway (UK and Spain). They Try Not to Call These "Layoffs".
"CIO" in particular was repeatedly mentioned lately, as was Consulting
People Who Came From Microsoft Demanding Removal of Articles About Them, About Microsoft, and About Microsoft GitHub is "Generous" (According to Them)
Imagine choosing a law firm that borrows money in the same year just to avoid overdraft in the bank!
Possibly a Third Round of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in 2025 ("Cloud Solution Architects, Customer Roles"), Report Removed or Censored
This is literally the top story for "microsoft layoffs" right now
Instead of 'DoS Protection' Cloudflare is Allegedly Conducting 'DoS Attacks' on Users of Browsers Other Than Firefox and GAFAM's DRM Sandboxes (Chrome, Safari and Others)
If you value the Web, you will avoid Cloudflare
Mixing Real With Fake in One 'Article' (by "Director of Content, Help Net Security")
From what we can gather, he got machines to generate some slop for him
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 19, 2025