As a disclaimer, I am a passive hater of Twitter/X ie I don’t like it as a toxic social media platform and haven’t used it but I am not asking the users to move to Threads or some other fediverse alternative as a paid promoter. Also I don’t really intend to keep a strict tab on its status since I get any related major developments from other news outlets and Lemmy.
Seeing how it would be almost a year since the acquisition and all the decisions he took, people were speculating how it would only take a few weeks or months for it to shut down under the leadership of Elon Musk. Even I believed so after I saw the introduction of extremely high fees for API access, verification mark etc, thinking it may be under a financial crisis. But even now I am seeing no signs of it actually coming close to shutting down, as seen by the uninterrupted flux of screenshots/memes/posts of tweets in other social media platforms and its continued use for marketing by other brands and announcements by authorities. I did see some posts by Musk stating his issues with Twitter/X, news of his companies’ stocks going down, and some reputable figures announcing their departure from the platform among some other minor related events, however I feel these aren’t concrete evidences for me to come to a conclusion.
Could anyone clarify what the actual status of Twitter/X is, and if it is actually going to collapse anytime soon as rumored? Am I missing out on something crucial, like some secret funding to keep it alive or all of the rumors of it collapsing being just a huge overreaction by the internet in the end?
It’s probably going to go the way of tumblr tbh
Long answer is no.
No one actually knows the actual status beside Musk and/or his investors .
When was the last time you heard of MySpace? Guess what, it’s still around.
I just had a look, and it appears to just be sort of music-based clickbait now.
There are vested interests who could probably keep it afloat on their own dime alone, and it would be worth every penny if they were forced to do so. It’s a ready made propaganda platform with a built in audience and sympathetic leadership. The only reason they’re trying to make profit with it is because it’s less money out of donor and investor pockets.
It’s probably some sensational headline. Twitter is too big to fail. And Elon wants to convert it into his idea of an everything-app. So he will probably not kill it tomorrow either. And there currently isn’t a competitor that is enticing customers away at any alarming rate. So no reason to think it is collapsing.
Think about it like Craigslist. It will still be around in 5 years but it won’t be culturally relevant like it was. Just like Craigslist is still technically around, but no one talks about it and I don’t know anyone who uses it.
Twitter is too big to fail completely in the near future, just like Craigslist was.
That would be fine if my favorite users leave Twitter when it becomes irrelevant. I don’t mind if Twitter stays up as a containment zone for people stupid enough to pay for a blue check mark.