Bluebird singing in the dead of night
Bluebird singing in the dead of night
For an easy 44 billion (!) US-Dollars, Elon Musk bought the social media platform ‘Twitter’, formerly known as a place for open discussions and freedom of speech (and a lot of weird posts from Trump). Now, as the glorious days of Twitter dawn upon us, Musk is changing things however he likes. Like a child, he is making Twitter his playground of absolutely whatever he wants – firing about half of the staff along the way.
People can now play dress-up with blue ticks, previously known to be a trustworthy verification for well-known people to mark the profile as the actual account. They can now be purchased for a slapping $8 a month – a subscription for realness, how enchanting. 'Elon, being completely unphased by the consequences of his actions, watched as an account parodying @ElliLillyandCo (a known pharmaceutical company firm in the U.S.) tweeted "Insulin is free" thus causing the stock price of the company to crumble.
These consequences lead multiple major brands to stop advertising on Twitter or completely delete their accounts. While the platform was an important asset for many big brands to communicate with customers and build their brand image, it is now considered “high risk”. With the missing possibility of verification, users can do whatever they like – some say it has become the “Wild West” of the Internet. No one knows if this is just a big game to him, but with causing actual harm and confusion not only online but in a sustaining way in real-life, maybe it is a good time to let the adults step in and send little Elon in the corner for a much needed time-out.
By unbanning very problematic people, he is ruining what Twitter has been trying to achieve in the last years – just like Trump with his presidency. Speaking of the former president, he has also been unbanned recently, alongside other great contemporaries like Alex Jones, a big conspiracy theorist to say the least. Previous (rightly) banned people are being welcomed back on the platform and are now again free to distribute their very much valuable nonsense. The world is scared for the little blue bird, as Elon Musk has not yet installed a proper CEO to lead the Twitter nightmare into another dusk. How the platform is going to evolve or if it will die will be decided over the course of the next months. However, times are dark in the once so bright and fun platform. Less and less people keep chirping around and many would rather turn to different platforms. Anticipation is big as the world awaits to see if Elon Musk manages to nurse the little bird back to health or if its voice will die forever.