Elon Musk's Twitter regime remains a mystery. While prominent active users and advertisers turn their backs on the social network, Musk takes care of dead people. Musk tweeted on Friday that Twitter will soon start declassifying the names of 1.5 billion accounts. It's about deleting accounts "without tweets and without logging in for years".
The background is probably that some Twitter users are bothered by the fact that certain handles are blocked from accounts that they no longer use. Musk therefore promised weeks ago to delete inactive users. Exactly how to determine which account is cleared for kill is still unclear - and it wouldn't be too surprising if this step also unleashes new chaos.
Musk has sacked more than half the workforce since taking over Twitter while trying to get functional changes live quickly. The switch from the blue verification tick to a subscription model, in which anyone can buy the tick, caused a lot of trouble. Since everyone could now "verify" their account, it soon swarmed with accounts impersonating celebrities or spreading supposed company news that triggered price falls on the stock exchange. The chaos meant that blue hooks were temporarily no longer issued.
On the one hand, it is understandable that Musk wants to get rid of dead files that are worthless to him because they cannot be advertised. On the other hand, one wonders whether he doesn't have larger construction sites. Many prominent users have turned their backs on Twitter in recent weeks because they don't like Musk's course. Sir Elton John also joined the ranks of renegades on Friday. The music legend tweeted, "All my life I've tried to bring people together through music. It saddens me how misinformation is now being used to divide our world." Elton John continued: "I have decided to stop using Twitter as the recent change in policy allows misinformation to thrive unchecked."
Musk also fired much of the team tasked with removing fake news from the platform. He believes that Twitter has suppressed freedom of expression. Musk personally responded to Elton John's farewell post: "I love your music. I hope you come back. Is there any specific misinformation that you're concerned about?" There was no reply from Elton John. But the fact is that Musk has unlocked all accounts that had been blocked in the past for hate mail or fake news. Donald Trump's tale of the stolen presidential election or outrageous untruths about vaccinations can now be spread again without consequences.
Musk announced another content change on Friday. He explained that "in a few weeks" everyone should be able to see how often their individual tweets are viewed. This "view count" is intended to increase transparency and make so-called "shadow banning" more difficult. This means the ability of a site operator to block content from users without them noticing that their messages have been made invisible.
This all still sounds a lot like Musk's micro-management at Twitter. Tesla shareholders in particular, whose share price has fallen by 40 percent within a year, are wondering when the boss will find time for his electric car company again. Musk even had to appear in court in mid-November to defend the billions in bonuses he receives at Tesla, even though he is only a part-time boss there. The fundamental reorganization of Twitter, he promised at the time, was as good as done and he would soon be reducing his time there again.
