this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024

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Fewer people are using Elon Musk’s X as the platform struggles to attract and keep users, according to analysts (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 7 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Data from two research firms and figures published by Musk and X suggest a deteriorating situation for X by some metrics. Musk has marketed it as the world’s “town square,” but in number of users it continues to lag far behind social media rivals that focus on video, such as Instagram and TikTok.

In February, X had 27 million daily active users of its mobile app in the U.S., down 18% from a year earlier, according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm based in San Francisco. The U.S. user base has been flat or down every month since November 2022, the first full month of Musk’s owning the app, and in total it’s down 23% since then, Sensor Tower said.

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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 287 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Musk has marketed it as the world’s “town square"

He says it so clearly here which makes me wonder how people don't realize it:

How fucked up would it be if your actual town square was owned by a private company?

A private company that is in control of who is allowed to talk and what they are allowed to say. A private company that even decides what you hear and see while walking the square. Meanwhile also shovelling ads in front of you while you try to find the people you actually want to engage with.

"Social" media owned by private corporations is not social. Such media is anti-social, corporate control of public spaces that ought to belong to the people, just like they mostly do in real life.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 95 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Ah in this town square metaphor, don't forget the private company's CEO has a megaphone and talks over people, and outright kicks them out of the square if you hurt his feelings.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 24 points 7 months ago

Maybe his idea of a town square is more like a place for Nuremberg rally events.

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[–] charles@lemmy.world 38 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Totally on your page, but what you're describing sounds kinda like times square.

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 29 points 7 months ago

I've never been there so don't know really. But it does seem full of ads and not very social either.

[–] OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml 36 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

How fucked up would it be if your actual town square was owned by a private company?

You have just invented malls. Hugely damaging to society, but they come with convenient parking and air con.

I quite like the tag line X, the abandoned shopping mall of the internet.

I think it describes it well.

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago

And to top it all off, it's run by this guy in particular.

[–] cygon@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Considering the teams tasked with containing political opinion manipulation campaigns were the first to go, I think that is exactly what the acquisition boils down to. A license to manipulate and meddle in public discussion for anyone rich or powerful enough (and of a political disposition agreeable to Musk's increasingly GOP/Russia-indoctrinated mind).

It's a "public town square" where the major approvingly smiles as groups of paid shills and remote-controlled opinion pushers insert themselves into discussions and roughen up people they notice going against the opinions they push.

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[–] S_204@lemm.ee 174 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Whenever I get linked to twitter, it tries to get me to login when I just want to scan the thread..... I back out everytime now.

[–] teejay@lemmy.world 90 points 7 months ago

Same. It loads the page where the tweet would be, then it seems like 2 popups cover it up, both about logging in. I immediately no longer care about viewing what I wanted to see, and close the window.

[–] BallsInTheShredder@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Honestly I feel like that killed Twitter more than many other changes.

People tell me "there's no way he (musk) would intentionally crash his own company - it makes no sense - "he's just terribly bad at business!"

But is he really THAT bad? In what world could these changes be made in which he's actively trying to improve the company? If nothing else, seeing the negative backlash, bad publicity and dropping number of users wouldn't any sound minded business owner at least temporarily undo some of these changes?

With any business, if you make a change that causes you to lose customers and get bad publicity.. don't you try to mitigate the damage done? Who goes balls to the wall on obviously bad decisions?

[–] SoyTDI@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago (9 children)

He's that bad at business. On Twitter, Musk has no workers to contain his bullshit or create a good public image for him. Nor does he have enough workers to keep Twitter running smoothly as it used to.

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[–] Anafabula@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

You can view threads without logging in? I haven't been able see replies/parent posts in months.

Except with Nitter, but that had to shut down too.

[–] S_204@lemm.ee 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No, that's the issue. I can see the post but not the thread so I bail.

[–] NewNewAccount@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago

Many times I can’t even see the post.

[–] DrunkDragon@lemmy.world 101 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I used to be really active on Twitter. Everyone was there: my friends, people in my industry, people involved in my hobbies. When Musk bought it out everyone left. I tried to follow them to Bluesky and Mastodon but they mostly just quit posting. Between that and Reddit falling apart I don’t often use social media anymore.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 43 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Yeah. Same. I moved to Mastodon, and then ended up getting my invite to Bluesky (two weeks before it opened to everyone...thanks Jack Dorsey...real helpful...). But no one is there. Mastodon has mostly tech and open source. Bluesky is...well...nothing that I can tell.

Unquestionably the winner of Twitter's fall was TikTok, when suddenly everyone including politicians started making accounts/posts. Which is likely a large part of the push to get it banned in the US. Because it's taking away users/advertisers from good ol' 'murican tech businesses owned by south african diamond mine nepo babies.

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[–] Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 93 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (16 children)

Good. Come to mastodon.

Edit: wtf is bluesky?

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[–] rsuri@lemmy.world 85 points 7 months ago (7 children)

I'm actually glad to see what's been happening to Twitter because as much as it was started with good intentions and used to be a positive force for tech, it was also fundamentally flawed social media model. The basic problem was that only positive reactions were allowed - like, retweet, follow. This is NOT the town square, where you can get any reaction. It's more akin to a dictator's rally, where you're only allowed to clap and booing is not allowed. So it's no surprise that over time, it led to filter bubbles and the spread of mass delusions. Because you could say the craziest or most depraved thing, and all you'd hear is applause.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 35 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The basic problem was that only positive reactions were allowed - like, retweet, follow

Idk if I would call retweeting positive reaction, especially when that retweet is 'look at this fucking moron'.

[–] WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago (11 children)

Yeah I think if anything twitter is a lesson in how even if you try to give users only positive ways to interact they will find ways to use them to interact negatively. Whether that be quote retweeting or ratioing.

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[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.social 22 points 7 months ago

I would say that the "positive vibes only" trait is part of it, but the far bigger problem was the character limit. Even when it was double from 140 to 280, that still doesn't not leave room for nuanced opinions. And then, the least nuanced opinions also become the most easily spreadable. Both traits really reward our worst instincts.

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[–] rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works 70 points 7 months ago

X marks the Nazi

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 64 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Weird. I've never seen Twitter more hostile to visitors and potential new users. And if you happen to register to a new account you will be welcomed by even more hostility from trolls and seasoned users. It's just a terrible experience.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 24 points 7 months ago

I noticed that as well. Every once in a while there will be a link to something interesting om Twitter, but you only get basically a screenshot. If you try and do any other viewing you immediately get pushed for sign in.

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[–] DrSleepless@lemmy.world 45 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That's what happens when you cater to Nazis

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

That you lose only 18% of your users?

[–] Cheems@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I mean that's millions of people, that's not nothing

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[–] kilorat@lemmy.world 40 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Elon was right when he said history will remember who killed Twitter, but we disagree on who

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[–] megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 36 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What I find most interesting, is not that twitter is failing in active users faster than the others, but that all the other listed in the article are also all seeing a decline in user ship. Even the new “up and comer” TikTok is losing users.

To some extent I suspect that it’s just a result of people breaking their social medias built during the pandemic. But is there something else? Are they just going to new platforms? Is there a modal shift on how people congregate online driven by the issues with platforms? Or are people just spending less time online with the pandemic mostly over.

[–] AAA@feddit.de 27 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Social media fatigue is slowly getting traction. I don't have an article or study at hand to back it up, but I read about it the other day. Especially in younger generations it's a trend already.

Also, but that's only my personal theorie, i think it's a trend only among the less-hateful people. Hateful people nonstop spewing their vile messages everywhere is making "normal" people leave, which then turns off even more "normal" people.

The enraged slowly turning (unmoderated) social media into one big echo chamber.

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[–] r3df0x@7.62x54r.ru 35 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Right wing "free speech" spaces tend to crash and burn hard. If they don't moderate blatant racism and shitty behavior, the white supremacists drive out all the sane people, but if they do moderate, then shit stains like Tim Pool will start casting massive amounts of FUD onto the platform and claim that it has "gone woke" and isn't a true free speech platform.

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[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 32 points 7 months ago

"The platform struggles to attract and keep users": why should I give up my data to an alt-right platform owned by a billionaire?

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 27 points 7 months ago

Can we get musk to buy russia?

[–] turkishdelight@lemmy.ml 25 points 7 months ago

Twitter is even more cringe than LinkedIn, which is saying something.

[–] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago

For Twitter I'm apparently also a turbo user, as I get loading errors every day, after opening a few tabs quickly. Then it takes a while before I'm unblocked. Before Elon bought Twitter this never happened.

[–] books@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Eh I've been reading this headline forever.

Call me when it's Myspace.

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[–] SpeedLimit55@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Of course engagement is down, nobody wants to post anymore when most replies are spambot nonsense and cheech and chong gummies ads. It is still the best place for breaking sports news and my feed is highly curated to only see what I want.

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[–] dynamojoe@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I need someone to tell me why Musk won't be a huge buyer of DWAC when it opens. How much of Truth Social would he need to get it merged with Twitter, which would get Trump back on the platform. Musk gets to help out the psycho conservative right and he gets to help himself.

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[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 13 points 7 months ago

LOOOOOOL

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