Musk is making Twitter worse, say top influencers on the platform
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, some of the platform’s most active and popular users say they’ve witnessed turmoil as a result of changes.
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October, some of its most active and popular users say they’ve witnessed turmoil as a result of changes introduced by the new CEO.
Six Twitter users with follower counts from over 100,000 to several millions said they had experienced new kinds of technical glitches since Musk laid off about half of the company’s staff. Other issues they identified after Musk’s controversial moves include a perceived uptick in anti-transgender speech and sporadic loss of followers.
For users with a lot of followers, Twitter has been a place to network with professionals in their chosen fields, build successful businesses and share breaking news. Under Musk, many of them have been frustrated.
Jenn Takahashi created and runs the viral “Best of Nextdoor” account, which is known for posting funny submissions from the neighborhood watch app. In October the account hit 550,000 Twitter followers, she said. Since Musk’s acquisition and his resulting policy changes and layoffs, the account has lost more than 13,000 followers — an unusual drop for the typically steadily growing account. Musk had announced he wanted to “defeat bots” on the platform, which could explain some follower loss, but Takahashi suspects that thousands of people have deactivated their accounts since the tumultuous takeover.
“As soon as Elon walked into Twitter HQ with that sink, I think I lost 400 followers within the hour,” Takahashi said, referring to Musk’s pompous entrance to the company. Similarly, after Musk suspended journalists and reinstated Donald Trump’s account, Takahashi said, she “noticed users leaving in droves.” Data provided by the analytics firm Sensor Tower showed that installations of the app increased by 16% in Musk’s first month compared to the previous month but fell by 3% year over year.
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