It’s what everyone in tech will be talking about today. Not Argentina’s nail-biting World Cup win, but Twitter’s descent into chaos (again).
Yesterday, while folks were preoccupied and glued to their screens, Twitter dropped a bomb. It’s new policy would be to remove content linking to competitor platforms or sharing usernames from other platforms. The policy was inclusive of Facebook, Instagram, Mastadon, Post, Nostr, and Truth Social (TikTok notably missing) plus link-in-bio tools. Translation: It upset a majority of the whole Twitterverse, even many of Elon Musk’s supporters.
The policy was implemented immediately. It appears the first victim was reporter Taylor Lorenz, who was booted from Twitter for violating the policy, permanently at first. But following a tweet announcement from Twitter Support (now deleted), it appeared no one was safe. Not even popular YC founder, Paul Graham, who was booted too.
The reactionary policy was the last straw for many, and when the dissenting spiraled out of Musk’s control, he walked back. Way back. He retracted the policy, apologized, and published a Twitter poll asking the people if he should step down as Head of Twitter, noting “I will abide by the results of this poll.”
What now? As of writing this, who knows? Musk has kept his word on previous occasions when following poll results. If he does step down, the question is ”Who will take his place?” Speculation is high as interesting tech voices — including Tom Anderson (i.e. MySpace Tom), Edward Snowden, Nikita Bier, and Lex Fridman — chime in.
What should I do? At this point, there is no harm in:
- Checking out alternatives to Twitter…
- Including this new one, BeTweet. Everyday at a random time, everyone is notified simultaneously to post their thoughts in a max of 120 characters.
- Re-finding your followers. If you’re moving to Mastadon, this tool will help.
- Following us to keep up with the latest (yes, on Twitter for now! 🤞)
- Visualize Habits is a visual calculator to help you see the compounding effect of your tiny new habits. The launch video also made us lol.
- Hand Mirror lets you check your camera in one-click from the menu bar.
- CoolGiftIdeas.io and Gift Genie AI let you ask AI to generate gift ideas.
- With Chestr you can save items into wishlists from any online store.