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

IBM Firings (or Silent Layoffs) After Bluewashing; "IBM’s Employment History is More Troubling Than its Patriotic Marketing Suggests"
"It has zip to do with race but everything to do with the greed of the 1% who have been doing all they can to destroy the middle class..."
“Week van de Werkstress” and Work-Related Stress at the EPO, Where Staff is Bullied Into Granting Illegal Patents for Foreign Monopolists
"poor working environments, including discrimination and inequality, excessive workloads, low job control and job insecurity pose a risk to mental health"
Czech Republic: GNU/Linux Rises Above 5% in Desktops and Laptops
A year ago it was somewhere around 4%
 
GNU/Linux Measured at 7.4% in the UK This Weekend: Clownflare Radar
I hope that one day GNU/Linux will be everywhere here
Never a One-Person Project
Just because I'm the main "public face" of the site (who takes all the insults and SLAPPs) doesn't mean I deserve all the credit
Digitalisation Is Not Inevitable or Unavoidable
Nor inescapable
“I Always Expect to Lose. I Fight Anyway, and Sometimes I Win.” — Richard Stallman
To change the world meaningfully people must think big
Stop Looking for News About "Layoffs", Layoffs Are Over (They've Been Rebranded)
To properly assess the status quo we need other yardsticks
Links 08/11/2026: Bosses Who Were Forcing Their Workers to Use Slop Change Mind, "Rapper RBX Files Ninth Circuit Appeal in Fraud-Focused Class Action Lawsuit Against Spotify"
Links for the day
Links 08/11/2026: Why Vikings Stayed in Iceland and "TikTok Accused Of Promoting Sex Industry To Young Girls"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/11/2026: "Before Sunrise" and LLM Scrapers Versus Self-Hosting (or Web in General)
Links for the day
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXXIII - Weaponising Cops in Another Continent (Europe), Knowing They Cannot Come to Your Home in America, While Threatening Women
This year it culminated in death threats
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 07, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, November 07, 2026
The Decade Ahead, a Decade of Suppressed Stories
Our stories aren't discouraged or considered taboo because of racism or "toxic politics" or anything like that; they just hurt powerful people and corporations
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part V - "Reports Closed Without the Evidence Being Examined."
Totally what the SRA did regarding Brett Wilson LLP
Gemini Links 07/11/2026: Illusion Garden and Lagrange 2
Links for the day
Complexity is the Tyrant's Friend
Slop is for feeble minds and cheaters
EPO's Local Staff Committee The Hague Says Almost or About a Third of Staff Assembled to Organise at "a Time of Continued Social Unrest"
They speak of "circa 850 staff members in attendance" (in The Netherlands there are about a couple thousand)
Suggestions That XBox Will be Offloaded by Microsoft, Rather Than Shut Down, Make the False Assumption XBox is Profitable (It's Not, It's a Liability)
Microsoft has serious financial troubles
Which "Smart" "Phone", Which "Social" "Media", and Which "Cloud" "Storage"?
Let's take back control of the language
State of the (Linux) Slop, Late 2026 Edition
Google News (Gulag Noise) is a plagiarism booster
Year 21
It's 5PM here
Links 07/11/2026: "Flock Cameras Got Eviscerated by the Midterms" and Joshua Wong Shows China is Highly Repressive and Fully Controls Hong Kong
Links for the day
At The Register MS the Net Liabilities Doubled in One Year, Tangible Assets Down About 35% in One Year
signed off in 2026
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXXII - Running One's Mouth
British Police told me "making a false complaint to police is a crime" in relation to Lozza
Another 20 Years of Exposing Corruption
We'll focus on carrying on what we do
EPO Budget and Finance Committee (in Very Recent Meeting) Increases Bribes to People Who Vote on Campinos Reappointment ("Cooperation Activities")
Buying 'elections' to protect the cocaine-stained regime in Europe's second-largest institution
Links 07/11/2026: London's SLAPP Industry Now Targets Kirkenes (Northern Norway) at the Behest of Corrupt Thieves in Russia and Microsoft’s 'Buyout' Offer Crashes Microsoft Systems
Links for the day
Links 07/11/2026: "The Moon is Waning Crescent", Homeworlds, and "Can't Handle The AVIF!"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 06, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, November 06, 2026
IBM Compels Workers - Even at Red Hat - to Become "Retired-ish"
Who needs RAs (layoffs, which have been rebranded as "buyouts" like pink slips are generous "gifts") when workers can have their butts kicked every day and WARN Act reporting thresholds are never approached?
Links 06/11/2026: "XBox Is Closer Than Ever to Being Sold Off" and "BuzzFeed Stock in Free Fall"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/11/2026: Dao and Dreams
Links for the day
20 Years of Techrights
Celebrating 2 decades of abuses of power being watched (and looking back at key changes)
Linux (and Linus Torvalds) Sleepwalking Into a Binance-Level Catastrophe With Slop 'Code'
Someone should ask Linus Torvalds or his boss (Linux Foundation) if they deem slop, which nobody audits, trustworthy enough to add to every computer out there running the Linux kernel
Vitaly Orlov Weaponises Deep Pockets to Leverage High Court of Justice in London for Censorship and Punishment of Critics
reproduced in full for more exposure and to make censorship harder
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXXI - What I Told British Police About Lozza the Same Month Garrett Was Preparing His First Nastygram From 'Hired Guns' Brett Wilson LLP
Lozza and Garrett
Outsourcing at IBM
Cheapening of the workforce is hardly a new problem
The Register MS: Turnover Fell by Over a Million Pounds (About 20%) in One Year, Administrative Expenses Rose by Almost Half a Million Pounds, The Register MS Operates at a Loss
This is not a (commercially) healthy publisher
Links 06/11/2026: Slop "Companies Race to Lock Down Oil Clients" and Salon Shuts Down
Links for the day
Our Third Decade
Our anniversary is tonight at midnight
Freedom Is Not Free of Charge, Freedom Can be Very Expensive
Being someone's "slave" is the "default" when no resistance exists
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXX - Swatting by Proxy
Using imbeciles who lie to cops and then dox cops (and already have arrest record and court documents wherein they admit being stoned in front of the cops)
Intel Craters at Taxpayers' Expense (Bailouts for Failing Companies Simple Don't Work)
GOP, which did this, has lost many seats
Mass Layoffs at IBM, Also Outsourcing to India
What IBM does to itself it is doing to other entities as well
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 05, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, November 05, 2026
During Strikes and Industrial Actions Lots of EPO Staff Organised Yesterday and Will Do the Same Next Week
There really needs to be a genuine election, not a reappointment
Gemini Links 06/11/2026: Hadestown and "Where Has the Electronics Shop Gone?"
Links for the day