Based on a new report from Platformer, Elon Musk’s Twitter 2.0 team has established a list of around 35 celebrity accounts that are essentially being granted extra reach on the platform to ensure that these users are seeing high engagement with every Tweet, thus incentivizing them to keep sharing their thoughts in the app.

The Amp

The list was reportedly kicked off in February after new Chief Twit Elon Musk noticed that engagement on his Tweets was in decline. In response, Musk tasked his engineers with ensuring his Tweets, specifically, were seen by as many people as possible. From there, Musk and Co. have reportedly expanded that approach to ensure that a range of VIPs get the same treatment, with Musk’s view being that they’d be as upset as he was if their visibility were to drop.

Twitter’s VIP list now includes:

  • Politicians Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden.

  • NBA star LeBron James, and ESPN NBA journalist Adrian Wojnarowski.

  • Conservative commentators Ben Shapiro and catturd2.

  • YouTube star Mr. Beast.

  • Investor Marc Andreesen.

  • A range of journalists, including Matt Yglesias, Glenn Greenwald, and Noah Smith.

Given Musk’s general dislike of journalists, you’d assume that these users have been hand-picked, which also likely means that they probably align, at least for the most part, with his own ideological stances.

As noted, the VIP list isn’t really a surprise, but it does seem to go against the very thing that Musk has taken a very specific, very public stand against in regards to social platform management manually interfering with their systems to amplify or restrict certain content over time. The recent ‘Twitter Files’ expose, which Musk himself oversaw, has criticized the past actions of Twitter managers for making pretty much the same calls, in deciding what should and shouldn’t get more exposure in the app. Welp, Musk and his boys are now doing the same.

If you’ve noticed a strong presence of US politicians on the list, don’t worry; that’s likely intended. Twitter has more US users than any other single region, so it makes a bit of sense that American issues and celebrities would be a focus. Overall, of Twitter’s 253 million daily actives, US users  make up only 17.5% of its overall audience. The emphasis on US politics, in particular, makes little sense for the majority of users, so it seems a little alienating that Twitter’s pushing so much political content to non-American audiences. Of particular note here, Twitter has seen virtually no growth in its US user base since 2020, with the majority of its audience expansion since coming from emerging markets such as India and Indonesia.

The Wrap

Obviously, Elon and Co. are continuing this US-centric push, which could have impacts in these regions, potentially hurting Twitter’s overall viability as a platform and restricting growth opportunities. As most of us know, Musk has a certain way of doing things, and he’ll take the path he sees fit, regardless of past experiences and impacts.

Cool outlook, bro, but despite anyone’s opinion, all changes have their corresponding effects, because that’s just what causality is. So far, Musk claims that his impact at Twitter has been overwhelmingly positive, but whether or not that holds through this next wave of major tweaks, we’ll have to wait and see. Anyway, if you’re wondering why you’re seeing more Tweets from certain users, here’s why.

Sources

http://bit.ly/3LWvypb