Elon Musk has announced plans to make Twitter into an even more insufferable platform for users who refuse to pay for it—this time, by limiting who can have their voices heard.
Musk has announced that the following changes will be enacted on April 15:
- Only people who are subscribed to Twitter Blue will be eligible to appear as recommended tweets in users’ For You feeds.
- Only people who are subscribed to Twitter Blue will be able to vote in polls.
It’s Musk’s platform, so he’s free to run it how he likes, but it’s hard to see how these pay-to-play changes aren’t going to annoy the majority of Twitter users and represent just another reason why they may want to jump ship to alternative social media platforms.
Many suers have already been annoyed with the For You feed under Musk, with some complaining that the recommended tweets shown in For You are not relevant to their interests. Well after April 15, it sure sounds as if all recommended tweets in that feed will be from Twitter Blue subscribers, since users who were verified under the old system are expected to lose their checkmarks beginning April 1.
Meanwhile, the new poll changes will likely make any Twitter polls almost meaningless, as only a small subset of users will now be able to vote. Commercial and small businesses especially should be concerned about the poll changes. Many small businesses run polls on Twitter to get feedback from customers, but now that only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to vote in polls, their results are essentially useless for businesses as the majority of their customers will not be able to vote to make their voices heard.
The changes certainly seem a like an attempt by Musk to boost Twitter Blue subscriptions. However, the reason Musk gave for the changes is that they are “the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over” the platform.
Yet some Twitter users pointed out that the poll changes, specifically, could benefit Musk for other reasons than increasing Blue subscriptions.
Elon wants to turn twitter polls into elections. He wants people to be so inundated and confused they just accept these things are real and representative cause they no longer can tell the difference between reality and social media and truth and propaganda anymore—Then he’s king
— Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) March 28, 2023
And of course, many on Twitter have voiced their opposition to the upcoming changes, pointing out that they are likely to drive users away and harm the Twitter user experience.
I don't get behind this decision. You need to invest money into talent and AI tech to detect bots on the platform. This isn't the way to go. It could tarnish the platform
— Ben (@videotech_) March 28, 2023
For anyone who wants to stay on Twitter, this is a good time to make a list of your favorite users and use it as your primary feed now that For You will be all Twitter Blue junk! Otherwise you'll never be shown tweets you actually want to see.
— ella dawson (@brosandprose) March 28, 2023
So people who aren't "verified" can't even get their voices and content out there now? This is literally gonna make twitter obsolete, why be here when we can share content ANYWHERE else for free without a pay to win fyp, I don't understand this decision at all
— Sam Yang (@samdoesarts) March 28, 2023
YOU CANT VOTE IN POLLS?!?!?Elon please listen to me.I’m a small artist. I’ve worked my butt of for a year and a half to get my small but mighty following. You have no idea how much these changes hurts the hundreds of thousands of people like me. Do you not care about us??
— Eevee ???????? (@eeveestrations) March 28, 2023
These latest changes come just days before Twitter will begin stripping legacy blue checkmarks from users who were previously deemed notable.
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