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

Microsoft's "AI CEO" (Slop Propagandist) is Projecting, Many Microsoft "Jobs to be Replaced With All-Indian Low-Paid Staff in 12 Months"
Windows is perishing
"How Many Friends Do You Have?"
"Do bots count?" "Friends in Facebook?" "Does a girlfriend chatbot count as a friend?"
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Responds to Crises Only After It's Way Too Late
The SRA does not do its job. The new chief's job is face-saving PR in the media.
The Techrights Team Makes the Platform Faster
The infrastructure is already fast
 
Slides Shown a Week Ago by the EPO's Staff Committee Ahead of the Second Very Large Strike
This coming weekend we'll drop a 'bombshell' of sorts
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part II - Illegal Drug Addicts Mobbing the Wrong People, This Will Definitely Backfire
This year may well be the last year of Team Campinos. Nobody will hire them after that.
Mass Layoffs (But Silent Layoffs) Still Happening in IBM, You Need Only Look Closely (There Are NDAs, PIPs, 'Early Retirement' Sweeteners and IBM - Like Microsoft - Skirts the WARN Act)
the layoffs are definitely happening
Very Little Slop
We are not finding much slop anymore
Links 19/02/2026: Illegal Kangaroo Court for Patents Attracts Aggressive Firms, Public Domain Review Grows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/02/2026: Taxing the Rich, Raspberry Pi 4 Tinkering
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Links 18/02/2026: DMCA Weakened, Anna’s Archive Still Thriving
Links for the day
Links 18/02/2026: Gig 'Economy' Condemned, Microsoft Insulting/Stressing People With False Slop Predictions
Links for the day
Twitter Falling to 1% in Africa's Largest Nation (Algeria)
About 15 years ago the regime in Egypt got toppled (and others had been too) partly because of social control media such as Twitter
Mozilla Firefox Died in Afghanistan
Mozilla has been a complete disaster
Gemini Links 18/02/2026: Astronomy and Texinfo
Links for the day
Are IBM CEO and IBM CFO Ready for Financial Audit That Topples the Shares by 50% in One Day?
The same "chefs" that cooked up Kyndryl Holdings Inc are still in charge of the IBM kitchen
France Does Not Need Digital Weapons Disguised as Social and as Media
French people lost interest in Social Control 'Media' (or Networks)
"Senior AI Reporter" at Slop Technica/Ars Sloppica Has Written Nothing in Nearly a Week, Did Conde Nast Suspend Him for Fake Articles With Fake Quotes?
Slop Technica/Ars Sloppica is having a serious credibility issue right now
Linux Foundation Puts Slop Images, Not Just Slop Text, in Linux.com
More of the same then
The Register MS Paid-for 'Articles' (Ads) Seem to be LLM Slop Again
If it's true that The Register MS is resorting to these marketing tactics, will they later delete the evidence (as they did months ago)?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 17, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Microsoft Had Mass Layoffs Every Month Last Year, This Year It's Delaying a Lot to "Prove" Rumours That Crashed Its Stock... 'Wrong'
Building a bigger snowball for later
Red Hat Is Not a Company Anymore, Amid Bluewashing and Mass Layoffs It's Merely IBM "Division" or "Brand" or "Product"
systemd at this point is sort of like IBM/Microsoft thing
IBM suffers "worst weekly drop in six years", Microsoft's MSN calls it "buying opportunity"
Ask Cramer what to do
Still Some Slopfarms in View, Sometimes Targetting "Linux"
That's a total of at least 4 in Google News today, coming from 3 sources
Gemini Links 17/02/2026: 3D-Printed Stainless Steel Smartwatch and Gopher Bay Offline
Links for the day
Links 17/02/2026: Machine Rage and Microsoft Kills XBox Social Clubs
Links for the day
EPO "Productivity" Will Fall Off a Cliff If Examiners Stick to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and Follow the Real Rules
The EPO's "Cocaine Communication Manager" would hate to see the next "productivity" metrics
The Problem is Not Technology, the Problem is Really Bad Things Sold or Imposed as "Tech" (Like a Religion Built Around Technology)
Don't hate technology, hate the corporations that abuse it to promote coercion, exploitation etc.
Resisting IBM and EPO Corruption
Rise up against EPO dictatorship next week
Where Slop Meets Ghostwriting: It's a False Analogy
It's a false analogy
Links 17/02/2026: Why OpenClaw is Very Sleazy and Ars Technica Exposed as Hub of LLM Slop (Credibility Destroyed Overnight)
Links for the day
Benj Edwards (Ars Technica) Used Fake Articles to Promote Ponzi Scheme for Conde Nast and Its Client (Marketing)
What Ars Technica and Conde Nast do here helps defraud the general public
Slop Technica: Ars Technica Seems Like Repeat Offender, a Part-Time Slopfarm
The culprits are repeat offenders, but the publisher will never admit this in public
Only One in 50 Saudis Would Use Microsoft for Search, Almost Same as Would Use Russia's Yandex
If statCounter is to be trusted
Microsoft's "AI" Concerns Are All Indian (or Low-Paid Workers Who Work Extra Hours Unpaid)
portraying charlatans and frauds like they're some kind of visionaries and luminaries
Microsoft Turned Bing Into Censorship Machine of China, But Bing Is Pegged at a Mere 2% in Asia, Yandex is Bigger
Expect many Bing layoffs some time soon (like in past years)
Just Like The Register MS, Conde Nast's Ars Technica Has Just Publicly Admitted That It Published Fake Articles (Slop) Made by LLMs About Serious Subjects
Conde Nast might shut Ars Technica down to escape the bad publicity/association
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Way Too Slow to Respond to Financial Fraud at Law Firms, in Effect Helping Those Law Firms Defraud Many More People (Fleecing Clients)
Who will hold the SRA accountable for this?
Techrights Became a Hub for News That IBM/Red Hat Doesn't Want You to See (and Pays Mainstream Media to Distract From)
the more viciously the notorious organisation attacks the reporter, the greater the interest in what the reporter has to say
EPO's Central Staff Committee on Fourth Technical Meeting, Two Days Before First of (At Least) 4 Winter Strikes at the Second-Largest European Institution
“future orientations on the salary adjustment procedure”
IBM's Collapse Continues, Half of EU Countries to Have Mass Layoffs, "IBM Clearly Disinvests From Europe" Says IBM European Works Council
Recent publication
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 16, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, February 16, 2026
Gemini Links 17/02/2026: Alpenglow Industries' Closure and Gemini Server Issues
Links for the day