Twitter is a private company and its owner, who is Elon Musk, can do whatever he wants with it. If you want to squander the $44 billion you paid in one semester, that's within your rights. If you want to fire half the staff overnight, that's within your rights. If you want to turn the social network into a restricted place and distort its essence, it is within your right. But users are also in our right to start looking for alternatives to the attitude of a tycoon who has entered the digital agora like an elephant in a pottery.
The Twitter part of El Pati Digital is beginning to observe worrying signs and the atmosphere that is being breathed is increasingly rare. That the social network has been valued by the same founder of Tesla and SpaceX for less than half of what he paid just six months ago is no coincidence. He explained to us that it would be a revolution, that freedom would finally return. And it is true that, at first, there was some hope with the operation. But, nowadays that horizon is not there nor is it expected. On the contrary, this half a year Musk has devoted himself to modifying the algorithm so that his comments appear prominently on our walls and has filled the timeline with tweets that do not interest us. And little else.
And everything can get worse. In less than half a month Twitter could take another step towards the abyss. On the 15th, as Musk announced, the new verified, payment, account system goes live. It will cost eight euros a month and will cause only validated profiles to have visibility in the "for you" section. In other words, either we pay the eight euros or we disappear from the main walls. Real democracy, yes, but it depends on the cash register and for those who can afford it.
These are not very encouraging decisions for the future of the online agora. Twitter is a meeting place, sometimes for debauchery, which should only evolve to implement improvements, but always maintaining its essence.
If Musk ends up hitting the wrong keys, many already believe that he will have to find another place to socialize. It is clear that the situation also worries companies and, of course, politicians. But the tycoon rules.
And of course there are other places in the Digital Playground. Here we have Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon or even TikTok. But nothing would be the same without Twitter.
