Twitter users are disgruntled at the new changes made on the social network by CEO Elon Musk, voicing their unhappiness.
Numerous users of Twitter have complained that the tweets they see on their timeline have shifted dramatically recently. Some users said they are now seeing tweets from accounts that they do not follow, including ones from Musk, the billionaire who acquired Twitter last October for $44 billion.
DON'T MISS: Elon Musk Posts a Graphic And Provocative Message
Anastasiia Lapatina, a journalist with Kyiv Independent, wrote "I don’t know what’s happening with this platform, but virtually every. single. tweet. on my “For you” feed is @elonmusk’s tweet or his response to someone. I don’t often read him, if ever. Why is this happening?"
One user, Mark, said the tweets he views have changed 100% to topics he does not follow.
"I overwhelmingly don’t follow or tweet sports or political topics," he tweeted. "I mostly tweet and follow video game and book topics and users And yet my for you section is almost 100% political/news topics that have zero relevance to anything I’m doing here It’s utterly useless."
Another user, Pamela, said that tweets have changed to "Too many Ads and too much of Elon Musk."
One user, Sheel Mohnot, showed a video of how the tweets appeared.
"Yoooo someone overrode the “For You” page to REALLY favor @elonmusk. I smell a promotion for the “for you” PM," he tweeted.
Frustrated users said they were fed up and either muted or blocked Musk's account.
One user, Jeff Brown, tweeted, "Mute feature is a godsend. My whole timeline was about Elon as well. Now I hear nothing…"
Twitter Lost Ad Revenue, Users
Twitter has lost advertisers, users and ad revenue since Musk took the company private.
Advertisers backed away from Twitter after Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla (TSLA), allowed accounts that were previously banned and tweeted problematic or racist comments.
Musk's latest focus has been on his view counts, which is how many people can see the tweets he posts.
Musk on Feb. 7 pushed for answers and asked the engineering team why his engagement numbers had declined.
He said that he should have more than "tens of thousands of impressions" since he has over 100 million followers, Platformer reported, citing several sources.
Out of the two remaining principal engineers that had not been fired in 2022 by Musk, one said that the likely culprit was that the public had started to lose interest in his incessant, late night tweets.
Musk was shown data that detailed the amount of engagement on his Twitter account. Data from a Google Trends chart was also provided, according to Platformer's article.
The billionaire, who was once the richest man in the world and now ranks second, had a score of "100" in terms of popularity last April.
But Musk fell from the peak popularity ranking and now has a score of only nine.
A Twitter engineer said he was the employee that was fired by CEO Elon Musk after refusing to "artificially inflate his view counts."
The engineer, who goes by the name "jordan," said he turned down the request from Musk, to increase the number of view counts for his personal account.
"This was me, my 6.5-year stint at Twitter comes to an end today," he tweeted. "Proud of the work we did and have full confidence the three or four people left will be able to honor Elon’s requests to artificially inflate his view counts (and view counts for advertisers). Not me though."
Twitter users said the platform has changed since Musk took over the company.
One user, "Cfrog," said "I don't recall the previous owner doing this. Probably has more to do with him being a narcissistic man baby."
Musk's Provocative Response
The serial entrepreneur likes to provoke and shock and Musk enjoys pushing the limits of what is commonly considered acceptable by those he calls the "woke mind virus."
Musk also seems to be suggesting that you have to deal with his posts on the platform like it or not. The image he tweeted also shows that the billionaire is now aware of his influence and power. He doesn't seem to fear backlash unlike his CEO peers.
But what is problematic is the image used to convey these different messages. The image could definitely be part of a sadomasochistic movie scene or from a porn movie. It could raise the ire of defenders of consent.
The message is clearly a response to Twitter users who now complain of receiving the billionaire's posts in their feed, aka "For You", when they do not follow him.
Musk posted a message that will make progressives jump. The message is an image. In the image there are two women: a blonde who is standing. She holds in her right hand a bottle containing milk and in her left hand she holds the hair of the other woman, a brunette of whom we do not know if she is seated or squatting or kneeling. The standing blonde woman forces the brunette to drink the milk. We see in the look of the brunette that she obviously does not want it. Both women are dressed in black.
The blonde represents "Elon's tweets,' while the brunette is "Twitter."
The literal message is that the billionaire's tweets feed the platform, not only because they are numerous but also because they provoke a lot of interactions and make users react.
