Elon Musk’s recent streak of puzzling policy announcements regarding his company X, formerly known as Twitter, has been so inexplicably reckless that one has to ask if he secretly wants the company to fail.
Most recently, Musk said he intends to remove headlines and other text from news articles shared on X. That would dramatically shake up the way the platform looks — and mark a departure from the norm for article sharing across social media. For years, social media users on X, Facebook and other smaller platforms have decided to click through to news articles based on their headlines and subheadlines. It’s a user-friendly feature. But Musk thinks removing headlines will “greatly improve the esthetics.”
Musk claims blocking “makes no sense,” but blocking is the premier tool users have to protect themselves from harassment, doxxing and abuse on the platform.
Musk’s plan is reportedly based on his belief that removing headlines will make posts on X smaller, thereby allowing more posts to show up in a user’s feed at any given time. He also apparently believes removing headlines will reduce clickbait headlines that entice readers using inflammatory language. That reasoning isn’t compelling. There’s a significant chance that users will compensate for the absence of headlines by using more text when sharing an article. As for clickbait, that’s likely a lost cause; X’s algorithm and design incentivizes users to share articles using text (and screenshots) that are likely to maximize engagement. Meanwhile, the headline move would cause headaches in newsrooms and is likely to further spook advertisers, but that doesn’t appear to be fazing Musk.
Musk has also recently said he plans to disable the block function on X (but still allow users to block people from sending direct messages), which could be disastrous for user experience. Musk claims blocking “makes no sense,” but blocking is the premier tool users have to protect themselves from harassment, doxxing and abuse on the platform. It’s also a particularly effective tool because it’s decentralized, allowing users to curate their own experience without having to report every instance of harassment to the company and pray that eventually the company will take action. Musk’s anticipated move on blocking is particularly objectionable in light of reports showing that the use of bigoted slurs on the platform surged after Musk took over the company. The move would also apparently violate rules of the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, which require a block feature on apps that have user-generated content.
Those are changes Musk says are coming, but it also appears that Musk’s July decision to switch the name of the platform from Twitter to X is damaging the company’s growth prospects. Downloads of the app have decreased significantly. “My hypothesis is that, while the terminally online are entirely aware of Twitter’s rebrand to X, most consumers aren’t,” media strategist Eric Seufert posted on X. “And their searches for 'Twitter' on platform stores surface ads and genuine search results that are in no way redolent of Twitter.”
Musk changed the name of an iconic social media company that had built a globally recognizable brand name and look over nearly two decades. Pushing a host of major changes to the platform at the same time is an incredibly risky maneuver. It’s not surprising that advertising revenue has recently been plunging.
The New York Times reported last week that Musk had been sporadically slowing access to rival social media sites, and even some media outlets, in yet another demonstration of how he’s able to use his platform to selectively boost and punish content-makers based on his personal preferences. Musk’s declared devotion to free speech continues to be proved false.
Technically it’s Musk’s prerogative to change the company as he likes to, even in dramatically quirky ways. But X is not a conventional private company; it’s a vital part of the information infrastructure of the English-speaking world, and for that reason it’s maddening and tragic to watch the public be subjected to the whims of an undisciplined and thoughtless autocrat.
No social media platform has emerged as a substitute for the unique role X plays in the information ecosystem. But the constant stream of policy changes from Musk makes it increasingly likely that such an alternative will emerge — by necessity. Any one change might not be in and of itself intolerable to most users. But the cumulative effect of Musk’s bad decisions might be.
Musk’s most recent changes illustrate something that’s becoming increasingly clear: He does not respect the people who use his platform.
