Under the command of Elon Musk, Twitter works miracles.
If it is already more than known that God is everywhere, his presence is ethereal, undetectable, except on the platform of the chirping bird, where Jesus Christ has managed to have a "verified" user account. And the son of the Lord became man.
It is just one of the achievements that, by the work and grace of the richest tycoon in the world and the chaos he has sown, the social network has signed up for. The global square, as it is described, has become the scene of the comedy club due to the irruption of identity fraudsters with the payment system introduced, the blue label, to certify the veracity of subscribers in exchange for eight monthly dollars.
Musk ordered on Thursday to suspend that source of income, which he considers vital to the company's survival. He had no choice after the spread of parodies and the usurpation of personalities or companies.
The “socialist” senator Bernie Sanders, the real one, congratulated himself because the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly – in a false but verified account – announced that insulin would be free, which led to him having to issue an official denial.
It is not the first setback for Musk's management, plagued by shortcomings after mass layoffs and the defection of executives who were in charge of key areas such as security and content moderation.
Is this the beginning of the end for Twitter? It may seem like a rhetorical question, but not a few experts ask it. It is something that is running. The brand new owner himself, who paid 44,000 million for his new toy, stressed to his employees that there is no cash, that this is a bottomless pit and that the recourse of suspension of payments is not ruled out.
Although some brands have already defected, most have put their advertising investments on hold, awaiting developments. The disaster of paid subscriptions may be the thrust of the diaspora. Advertising today represents 90% of revenue.
And it could be even worse because, despite the fact that Musk assured that in the first days of his seizure of power the circulation of hate speech had fallen, the first data shows the opposite.
That statement by the "Tweeter in Chief," as he calls himself, does not stand up to scrutiny, says the Center for Counering Digital Hate, an organization dedicated to analyzing messages and serving as a benchmark for many potential advertisers.
This may be the last straw for advertisers to flee. A single racial slur (referring to African-Americans) was used 26,228 times in tweets during Musk's first week on the platform. This means triple the average recorded in 2022, according to the report from that center.
Another word used to attack transgender people was used in 33,926 tweets and retweets, 53% more than the average for the year. Hate language intended to describe homosexuals, Jews and Hispanics also increased.
“The figures show that, despite claims by Twitter officials that they have been successful in reducing insults, the current volume of hateful tweets has grown,” he remarks.
All these circumstances have not gone unnoticed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has already issued a notice that it could intervene in the face of "deep concern" about the development of events on the social network.
One of the owner's attorneys responded. "Elon puts rockets in space (Space X), he is not afraid of the FTC."
Musk landed at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco with advisers who worked with him in other businesses, such as the digital payments company PayPal or Tesla, his electric car company.
Therein lies for analysts one of the problems of his new landing. He applies the same manual and that is seen as a serious mistake. They argue that employees at Space X or Tesla have been able to put up with Musk's whims because they believed they were doing a great job.
But this is not the case online, where there is no inspiring mission and many think that all they are doing is degrading the product. They are only asked to cut expenses and increase income. "Those who play to win, Twitter is a good place, those who don't, Twitter is not for you," Musk told the staff.
The door is open for workers to leave, it is also open for pranksters and fanatics to enter.
