The Impossible Task of ‘Fixing’ Twitter

A video explainer from The Dispatch.

By
10

Elon Musk has been trying for months to make Twitter a profitable company, but he’s had a lot of ups and downs along the way. He’s made fundamental changes to the platform (hello $8 check marks), fired thousands of employees, proposed an ad revenue sharing program for Twitter users, and even restructured the algorithm to get more impressions on his tweets.

In interviews, Musk has been clear that his mission is to “save Twitter,” even if he’s broken things at the company along the way. Yet the chaos he’s created has been informative, both because it’s provided a window into how social media companies actually work and forced people to reflect on whether the business model of a company like Twitter is sustainable in the long term.

In his first month on the job, Musk endorsed the release of the Twitter Files, a series of tweet threads by reporters he brought in to demonstrate how Twitter operated before he took over. Musk’s aim in releasing the Twitter Files was to portray the company as deliberately biased against conservative points of view and willing to unfairly restrict certain stories in the name of “public safety.” Undoing this was Musk’s entire reasoning for becoming “Chief Twit” in the first place, even if he did spend months initially trying to back out of the deal.

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
10
By
Comments (10)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Ben Kissling

    "and even restructured the algorithm to get more impressions on his tweets."

    You know that Musk has denied this, right?

    "Several major media sources incorrectly reported that my Tweets were boosted above normal levels earlier this week.

    A review of my Tweet likes & views over the past 6 months, especially as a ratio of followers, shows this to be false.

    We did have a bug that briefly caused replies to have the same prominence as primary Tweets, but that has now been fixed."

    https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1626520156469092353?s=20

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Scarlette Tarte

    Musk has no answers because he is an ego driven blowhard in love with his own image.

    He can't believe that more people don't interact with his posts...he thinks "how could they not, I am the great and glorious Oz, er, Musk! There must be something nefarious going on!". So then reroutes everything so HIS tweets show up first in everyone's feed.

    He mouthed off, thinking that "you just open it up and it will be successful!". He got schooled.

    It's not the modern "public square". It's not a place where anyone can get out a soapbox and make a speech, and the government can't shut you down. It's a business that is trying to make money and it does that from advertisers who, guess what? Have rights.

    If they don't like the content, they don't advertise. So the business, THE BUSINESS has the right to moderate content, and guess what? They pick the content the advertisers like to get lots of exposure, and relegate the nasty to the backwaters, or they ban the account entirely.

    And as it's their BUSINESS and not the damn public square, they have that right.

    Musk is a dumb person's idea of a smart person. Just like some others in our billionaire class, they think because they hooked up with someone with a good idea or product (because a lot of them are not the actual creators) that they must be in possession of some super duper smarts that the rest of us don't have and they can't resist piping up about stuff they know ZERO about.

    Musk took a company that was in pretty good shape, in spite of last year's losses, and has just about destroyed it. It has not been "creative destruction" either...just destruction. He uses it as a vehicle for his ego.

    No one cares what you have to say Elon about much at all.

    These guys need to find one thing they are very good at, and do that. Bill Gates and getting everyone vaccinated in Africa. Bono on African debt.(not a billionaire, but same type of things apply to celebraties...and I have no problem listening to a celebrity speaking on something they do know well...but they don't know EVERYTHING well, so should watch out for speaking about things they don't know much on)Warren Buffett on how to give to charity so that your gift grows, and Elon? Stick to electric cars. You do that well. Help Americans make the transition, develop roads that charge cars as you drive on them, etc. Although, the dirty little secret about Elon is that others had more to do with Tesla's products than he did.

    No one can "fix" Twitter or any other social media company into being some totally fair public forum...because that is NOT what they are. You cannot make a silk purse from a sow's ear. You cannot make a "public square" from a private company that needs ad revenue to make profits.Show less

    Collapse
  3. Troydougall

    I like this new video explainer idea. I let it play while doing a quick chore.

    Obviously a danger in over-reliance on them & the style (i.e. Vox) but I am supportive of the occasional one.

    Collapse
  4. Andrew W.

    The bottom line with Twitter is that the math doesn't work. It's already a dead man walking, and the only question is how long Musk will continue to feed it cash to keep it alive and/or how long lenders will agree to forbear. A Twitter bankruptcy can't be anything other than a bloodbath, but it likely won't result in shutting down the company. Someone will come along and offer a couple of billion for it once Musk's equity and all the lenders are blown up.

    Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    Mattjabour

    You frame this like Elon was ever going to be some kind of impartial judge for the content on his site, like the goblet of fire. Really, this move was only ever going to get the bullhorn out of Blue Team's hands. Now people on Blue Team are furious and Red Team are ecstatic, because of course they are. If you want to know if Elon really is some champion of free speech, ask the guy legally tracking his jet.

    Collapse
  6. Avatar photo
    Cthocas

    A video explainer?

    To quote a line from Nope: NOPE.

    Collapse
  7. Avatar photo
    Matt Hannon

    The problem with Twitter is that members of Congress, for example Jim Jordan on the floor, describe it as "the public square" when the reality is Twitter is an anger-tainment echo chamber generator that Kevin accurately relates to a high school cafeteria. It's a gossip forum for immature people that is exploited by supposedly mature people, oh and bots.

    Collapse
  8. CatoTheElder

    There is no need to save Twitter. If the world, the U. S., California, or Okmulgee, Oklahoma decide they “need” Twitter or a workable facsimile thereof, some enterprising soul can put that entity together in a weekend.

    But there’s no real need for Twitter, and thus no need to save it. There’s a very strong argument that Twitter, in aggregate effect, was/is a forum and force for negativity, wastefulness, isolation, and more. Did some positive things come out of Twitter? Yeah, sure. And some positive things occurred when Al Capone had a birthday party. Next argument, please.

    Let Twitter die, or let Musk “save” it, or whatever. But let’s not pretend that the salvage of Twitter will mean much, except to those who happen to be employed there (using skills they could parlay into jobs elsewhere, so it’s not as if they had to work at Twitter or not work at all), and to those who are harmed by Twitter’s excesses, abuses, etc.—and at least these, should Twitter pass away in the near future, will be lessened in number.

    Musk is probably correct in saying that “having widely trusted and broadly inclusive social media companies is ‘important to the future of civilization’”—at least as we’ve evolved of late. But that does not lead to the conclusion that Twitter itself should or must be saved. Given that Musk has (still) pretty impressive financial resources upon which to draw, it might be a good thing that he’s trying to learn how to reassemble from broken parts a social media company that could be widely trusted and broadly inclusive, if only to better and further guide Musk in his philanthropic endeavors. But, should Musk decide to give up on Twitter and take up salmon fishing in the Yemen, the world will not, over even a fairly short run of time, notice. There’d be a flop, a flutter, and some feathers scattered about, with a bit of sadness over the inevitable hurt that accompanies even the smallest death or bit of destruction, but we’d get along just fine.

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    Rajeev

    I still don’t understand why free speech only seems to apply to Republicans. Every time some article was censored through algorithm or intentionally or an account was suspended, Jack Dorsey had to face the wrath of government and get called to Congress to testify. But Jack Phillips the baker who refuses to bake cakes is a free speech hero.

    Why doesn’t Donald Trump testify about censorship on Truth Social? I didn’t make Twitter or Facebook so I have no right to tell them what they can censor and what they can’t. There used to be bipartisan support for the first amendment. Now virtually 100% of congressional Republicans believe it is their duty to become anti-capitalist, anti-free market censors that force private companies to espouse beliefs contrary to the company but in agreement with the Republican Party orthodoxy.

    I don’t care much for how Elon Musk runs Twitter but it should be his right. He’s exposed the Republican Party as full of lies when he blanket endorsed Republicans in the 2022 midterms after complaining about left wing political activity before he bought the company.

    Sad to say our amendments seem only to apply to speech that you agree with. Don’t cross the Government. And the Democrats on this issue are terrible on opposite side where they think they need to tell Twitter back years ago to do more censorship.

    Collapse
    1. Endofunctor

      You're right that there is lot of hypocrisy on the right regarding free speech. Only government can violate the 1st Ammendment. However, one can criticize Twitter for suppessing conservative voices while still recognizing their legal right to do so. I find ideological censorship distasteful when it comes from an organization that presents itself as a platform for speech open to everyone.

      Collapse