"We are witnessing the literal death spiral of X, formerly known as Twitter, in real time"

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 21, 2023

SO ACCORDING to some reports, e.g. [1-2], Elon Musk is now "considering removing the service [sic] formerly called Twitter" from Europe. Nothing surprises us anymore.

So what if Twitter says it might quit Europe? Who would suffer anyway? Twitter addicts and companies/politicians who outsourced everything to this company, foolishly, despite all the warnings?

Twitter is dead man walking [3-4] and "Twitter’s Traffic Is Falling," as we noted here many times before. There's no way to turn that around. It'll never be profitable either.

As someone at the Society for Scholarly Publishing put it: "We are witnessing the literal death spiral of X, formerly known as Twitter, in real time." █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Would Elon Pull ExTwitter Out Of The EU To Avoid The DSA Overreach?

   This course of events was all too predictable. In May of 2022, while Elon was still in the “trying to buy Twitter” stage, we pointed out the absolute ridiculousness of him meeting with the EU’s Thierry Breton and saying that he fully endorsed the EU’s DSA approach. As we noted at the time, the whole framework of the DSA was set up to enable the EU to force websites like Twitter to suppress speech, and Elon’s endorsement of it (while claiming to be a “free speech absolutist”) suggested that it would be ridiculously easy for politicians around the globe to play Musk for a fool on speech suppression (something that has since been proven true on multiple occasions).

2. Elon Musk considers removing X from Europe over EU law: report

   Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X, is considering removing the service formerly called Twitter from Europe in response to a new [Internet] platform regulation in the region, news site Insider reported on Wednesday.

   The billionaire has discussed removing the app's availability in the region, or blocking users in the European Union from accessing it, a person familiar with the company told the publication.

3. Can Twitter, uh, X, survive Elon Musk?

   What does it take to destroy a nexus -- a place, real or virtual, where people go because they expect to find other people with whom they want to interact? How much do you need to degrade their experience before they stop coming, initiating a sort of death spiral?

4. Twitter’s Traffic Is Falling Off Under Elon Musk’s Disastrous Leadership

   Comparing September of this year to last year, traffic worldwide dipped 14 percent, while X's ad portal for companies wanting to advertise on the website is also down 16.5 percent, Similarweb reports. The United States, which makes up around a quarter of X traffic, registered a decline of 19 percent over the same period. Other major markets, like Australia and France, have also experienced declines of 17.5 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively.

   The mobile version of X also suffered substantial declines in traffic, with a 17.8 percent dip compared to last year.

5. Worth the Time? A Critical Look at the Value of Twitter for Journals

   We are witnessing the literal death spiral of X, formerly known as Twitter, in real time. In the face of a politically charged crisis in Israel and Gaza, X has made it harder to find content from credible journalists and easier for misinformation and propaganda to make its way to the top of feeds via the unverified blue check system.

   Anyone who is still lingering on X, me included, saw a dramatic shift over the last week of people finally fleeing X. This is particularly true of media outlets and journalists. Threads, owned by Meta, seems to have been the beneficiary of the exodus, squeezing out Bluesky, which still insists on only allowing people to join with an invite link (an exception was made for journalists recently, though they will go where their audience goes).