Ever since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter Inc after a prolonged legal scuffle, the company has been in a disarray. Some of the controversial changes announced after the takeover was the firing of about 7,500 staff, including the top executives, monthly $8 charges for a verified Twitter account, and the formation of a new content moderation group. Against this backdrop, influencer discussions around the Twitter have spiked more than 100% in the last month with #TwitterMigration emerging as the top trend, reveals the Social Media Analytics Platform of GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
In response to content moderation, a bunch of corporate advertisers paused their ads on Twitter. In addition, Twitter users who do not support the plan of a chargeable verified account are discussing about alternatives, such as Mastodon, Koo, or Reddit.
Smitarani Tripathy, Social Media Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “#TwitterMigration has emerged as a top trend among influencer conversations in the last couple of weeks, as most of the influencers started discussing other preferred social media platforms that might not have stringent rules for user accounts.”
Below are a few of the most popular influencer opinions captured by the GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics Platform:
- Gurubaksh Singh Chahal, CEO at Procurenet, opines brand safety is the reason behind ads off from Twitter platform:
“As @Twitter becomes more accustomed to “free speech”, advertisers have highlighted concerns being associated with “brand safety” as their primary concern.”
- Alexander Stubb, Director & Professor at STGEUI, says how changes in Twitter developments heated the debate
“Public discourse being examined from all sorts of angles at the moment. @elonmusk purchase of @Twitter brings to the fore inherent tensions between: 1. Traditional and social media. 2. Free speech and responsibility. 3. Free content and need for revenue.Thus, heated debate.”
- Gerald Kutney, Managing Director at Sixth Element Sustainable Management raised the concern of users quitting over potential fees for a verified account on Twitter:
“Is the grand #TwitterMigration underway … hundreds of accounts are vanishing daily … are @verified quitting over potential fees … ⁉️“
- Sheril R. Kirshenbaum, an Academic Specialist at Michigan State University says that her perspective of social media platforms has been changed after Twitter Migration to Mastodon:
“After 1 week on #Mastodon, the biggest diff I notice is the way each network makes me feel. Twitter: “Why are ppl so horrible to each other?” Mastodon: “There are so many interesting & cool ppl in the world!” It’s changing my perspective of social media. #TwitterMigration”
- Leonidas Platanias, Director of Lurie Cancer Center, says though Mastadon has less users it does not have the toxicity of Elon Musk:
“Mastodon has very similar functions with Twitter and does not have the toxicity of elon. The only major difference is that it has much less users, but is building real fast.”
