Sure, We Must Discuss About Twitter.

The opinions expressed inside this story are solely the writer’s and don’t mirror the opinions and beliefs of Search Engine Journal or its associates.

Greetings, website positioning execs, digital entrepreneurs, journalists, and curious minds amongst us. For I’ve the satisfaction, the privilege, nay, the pleasure of addressing my very first official “Letter From the Editor” to such an esteemed viewers.

And as a lot as I hate to kick issues off on this observe: Now we have to speak about Twitter.

I do know, I do know. You don’t need to speak about Twitter. I don’t need to speak about Twitter. No person desires to speak about Twitter. However would you slightly discuss in regards to the U.S. midterm elections? Yeah, me neither.

Let’s begin with a particularly broad timeline of occasions. You understand the outdated trope: Billionaire Boy meets social media, social media provides into Billionaire Boy’s usually nonsensical ramblings and, subsequent factor you recognize, Billionaire Boy is providing (threatening?) to buy one such social media platform, solely to desert it on the altar and are available working again for an precise buy.

Forgive me; I’ve a penchant for storytelling.

And since then, it’s been genuinely tough to maintain up – even for these of us who reside within the trenches of this {industry}’s information.

How a lot does Twitter Blue price (that’s, if it nonetheless exists)? Are lately laid-off staff truly being requested again? What’s “free speech,” anyway, whenever you’re not making jokes about Twitter’s new proprietor? And, truthfully – what the heck is Mastodon? (I lately joined that final one, truly – however that’s a narrative for an additional day.)

I do know we promised to not discuss in regards to the elections, however – hoo, boy. If not for them, we’d have little-to-no selection on this whiplash-inducing Tech Nerd Information Cycle™️(of which I’m a proud and prepared participant).

As I stated to a forlorn, non-industry good friend (as if she doesn’t have sufficient to take care of as a highschool science trainer) over brunch, “I’m loath to provide Billionaire Boy airtime in my private life, however it’s all I can speak about as a result of, apparently, I hate myself.”

However then, certainly one of my esteemed colleagues made a very good level: Why the uproar over Twitter’s large layoffs, and barely a peep (no less than, from a birds-eye view) about these at Meta?

It’s greater than a good level.

This transfer is simply the most recent in Meta’s modus operandi of airing its soiled laundry when it thinks nobody is watching. For example, on a major vacation weekend or throughout an already chaotic information cycle when, say, there’s a significant election cycle within the U.S. – or certainly one of its {industry} friends is already making limitless headlines.

And it’s not like Mark Zuckerberg is strictly the quintessential “good man” – hell, he’s not even a modicum of a tragic hero – and is, at finest, “the man who prices you to develop digital farmland,” as the identical colleague put it.

For my part, the nonstop chaos of the state of affairs at Twitter makes it exhausting to give up the drama of all of it. A lot about this takeover has been an entire mess for the reason that starting, beginning with Musk’s oopsie-just-kidding-I-don’t-actually-want-to-buy-Twitter, ranging to the legitimately harmful implications of the verification-for-hire characteristic (once more – if it nonetheless exists).

Suppose again to the spring of 2018, when the corporate then referred to as “Fb” confronted an limitless barrage of unhealthy information; specifically, when it appeared as if the U.S. information cycle couldn’t be bothered with something however the infamous CEO’s congressional hearings.

Certain, one other midterm election cycle was on the horizon. However it was too many months away to be a ample distraction, and it wouldn’t be for an additional few weeks that Musk emerged as Tech CEO Enemy #1 after a extremely publicized (and weird) Tesla earnings name.

Certainly, the writing has been on the wall with Musk’s volatility for a while now. However it’s solely a matter of time earlier than the sample repeats itself, and certainly one of his {industry} friends as soon as once more steals away the Tech Nerd Information Cycle™️ highlight – particularly since most of you, based on our personal ballot, aren’t prepared to go away Twitter simply but.

However I’m giving it time. And over that course of time, my looming questions revolve round what shall be left for Musk.

If sufficient customers and advertisers alike flee the platform (and, by the way in which, the place will they in the end take their time and cash?), and sufficient key executives resign – I ponder if Twitter will turn into a hole echo chamber of 1 man’s proclamations. In spite of everything, if an ultra-rich dude yells within the forest and nobody is round to listen to it, does it make a sound?

On that observe – I feel I’ve talked about Twitter sufficient for in the future. And shockingly, there have been different newsworthy gadgets that caught my eye this week: