Twitter is improving fast under the direction of Elon Musk.  In this article, I’ll highlight this week’s updates and give you a heads-up on what’s to come!  

THE WEEK’S TWITTER UPDATES

Elon Musk emphasizes free speech

Elon Musk shared a meme depicting a medieval man warning “Martin” not to post his note in the public square because “You know that it’s just going to be taken down and you’ll be blocked from posting for the next 30 days.”

“All things in moderation, especially content moderation” Elon Musk

Two-Factor Authentification Update 

Twitter sent out messages to all users that non-Blue subscribers would be transitioning to app-based 2FA authentication.  This is a small change and users are being conveniently notified directly in the app. Twitter’s official message: “Effective March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method. Other accounts can use an authentication app or security key for 2FA.” Elon Musk added, “Use of free authentication apps for 2FA will remain free and are much more secure than SMS.”

Twitter Blue

Twitter improved readability on long tweets for Twitter Blue subscribers with smaller font/better spacing. I created my first longform tweet, and it came out nicely!

Community Notes helps people gain better context

Elon Musk’s message about Community Notes may inspire more people to sign up to use it. Elon tweeted, “Community Notes is a game changer for combating wrong information.”  

Beginning February 21, Twitter users started getting a heads-up if a Community Note starts showing on a Tweet they replied to, liked or retweeted. This feature helps give people extra context that they might otherwise miss. For more details see here. 

Elon Musk explains Community Notes,

“I think there’s something that we’re putting a lot of effort into called Community Notes. It’s currently just in English, but we will be expanding it to all languages. 
That is I think quite a good way to assess the truth of things where it’s the community itself, basically, the people of Earth who are basically, not exactly voting but competing to provide the most accurate information. 
So it’s sort of a competition for truth. I think it’s a compelling concept to have a competition for truth, because you also said, like what is truth, it’s because what may be true to self, may not be viewed as true to others, but you want to have the closest approximation of that so I think the Community Notes thing is very powerful.” – Elon Musk at WGS Feb 15, 2023

Twitter Files #16

Twitter Files #16 was released on February 18 by Matt Taibbi.  Comic Interlude: A Media Experiment highlights how mainstream media was silent on what the Twitter files published because it does not fit their narrative.  You can read how elected officials (both democrat and republican) demanded censorship from Twitter.  Many examples are cited.  

Matt Taibbi says, “The real story emerging in the #TwitterFiles is about a ballooning federal censorship bureaucracy that’s not aimed at either the left or the right per se, but at the whole population of outsiders, who are being systematically defined as threats.”

“Beginning in March, we’ll start using the Twitter Files to tell this larger story about how Americans turned their counterterrorism machinery against themselves, to disastrous effect, through little-known federal agencies like the Global Engagement Center (GEC).”

WHAT’S TO COME

Advertisements for products you may really want

Twitter advertisements were the topic of a thread on February 17 between former ads lead at Twitter and Sirine (a friend of mine from Twitter).  

Elon starts with an optimistic tweet, “Sorry for showing you so many irrelevant & annoying ads on Twitter! We’re taking the (obvious) corrective action of tying ads to keywords & topics in tweets, like Google does with search. This will improve contextual relevance dramatically.”  The former Twitter employee quips back in a rude tone, “As the former lead for Ads at Twitter, I can confidently say this man has no idea wtf he’s talking about.”  Not missing a beat, Elon replies with, “My apologies, you must be a genius, which is why Twitter has the worst ad relevance on Earth. Almost nobody buys anything on Twitter, but almost everyone on Instagram does. That is being fixed.”  Next Sirine comments, “Speaking of personal experience, I’ve never seen *Any* relevant ad on Twitter since I made my account!” Elon replies to Sirine “You are not alone. When I ask people if they use Twitter, almost all have for many years. When I ask if they’ve ever bought something from an ad after using the site for a decade, the answer is almost always no. That’s insane! The biggest problem is that Twitter optimized for impressions over clicks, with the perverse result that it *maximized* ad irrelevance, because clicking on an ad takes you away from Twitter, thus reducing impressions generated per user-minute.  The sheer madness of this takes a moment to appreciate.”

In summary, contextual relevance is needed for Twitter ads just as they are for ads on Instagram or TikToc.  If you have never made a purchase based on a Twitter ad, you are the majority.  It is possible that will change in the future. 

Better ease of use to help communicate on Twitter

Elon Musk looks for ways to improve Twitter directly from people who use Twitter.  A feature similar to what you can do in a smartphone direct message will come to Twitter.  Soon you’ll `have the ability to hold down and reply to a specific message in a group chat.  Also, you may be able to @ mention someone in groups. This idea came from a survey run by Prof. TroonyToons and the vote in favor of these changes won at 83.9% FOR the features.  Elon Musk often replies to Twitter accounts both large and small, unverified and verified.  Prof. TroonyToons ran a great and useful survey.

Twitter algorithm to be open source soon

Elon Musk plans for Twitter to open source their algorithm next week.  On Feb 21 he tweeted, “Prepare to be disappointed at first when our algorithm is made open source next week, but it will improve rapidly!” 

Elon Musk explained how Twitter’s For You tab works,  “Note: if many people who you follow or like also follow me, it is highly probable that the algorithm will recommend my tweets. It’s not super sophisticated. In coming months, we will offer the ability to adjust the algorithm to closer match what is most compelling to you.”

This is great news, as it gives Twitter users the option (if they want it) to have more control over what they do or don’t see.  

Twitter to be a place for all people

Elon Musk elaborated on Feb 7 that, “Going forward, Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values, rather than trying to impose its own specific values on the world.” 

This was shared at the WGS 2023 as well with these words,

“I mean, I was a little worried about the direction that, and the effect of social media on the world and especially Twitter. I thought it was very important for there to be a maximally trusted sort of Digital Public Square where people within countries and internationally can communicate with the least amount of censorship allowed by law, and obviously that varies a lot by jurisdiction. 
I think in general, social media companies should adhere to the laws of countries and not try to put a *thumb on the scale beyond the laws of the countries. I think this is something that is probably agreeable to the legislators and to the people of most countries. 

So that’s the general idea, it’s just to reflect the values of the people as opposed to imposing the values of essentially San Francisco and Berkeley, which are somewhat of a niche ideology, as compared to the rest of the world. 

I think Twitter was doing a little too much to impose a niche 'San Francisco-Berkeley' ideology on the world.  You know, I thought it was important for the future of civilization to try to correct that *thumb on the scale if you will and just have Twitter more accurately reflect like I said, the values of the people of Earth. That's the intention and hopefully, we succeed in doing that.”
Elon Musk at WGS 2023 

Elon Musk’s talk at the World Government Summit 2023 (Dubai) was on February 15 about his vision for Twitter and X.com. The full text of his talk about Twitter is here,

https://whatsuptwitter.wordpress.com/2023/02/16/kindness/

Rumors

There are rumors floating around (on Twitter) that soon various fonts will be available for Twitter users.  Another rumor is that Twitter may begin testing its own “coin.”  

CONCLUSION

Here’s my quick summary from this week,

• Content on Twitter will reflect a multitude of outlooks and not be excessively moderated
• Users who opt for secure 2FA with Twitter will need to use free authentication apps. Exception: Blue subscribers
• Longform tweets (Blue feature) will have smaller font/better spacing
• Community Notes will notify you if a tweet you interacted with has a public note appear, providing you added context
• Community Notes is expanding to other countries/languages
• Twitter Files #16 gave examples that should have been covered by journalists but never were. Global Engagement Center (GEC) is one obscure federal agency that we will learn more about in upcoming files
• No one wants useless ads and Elon Musk’s Twitter ads will soon have contextual relevance
• Twitter DMs will rival Smartphone DMs in reply capabilities, allowing you to hold-reply to messages
• Twitter algorithm will be open-sourced soon, expect it to improve over time
• “Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values” – Elon Musk

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^{Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – February 23, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.}