Tough week for Twitter. After seeingmany executives leave the ship following the takeover of the company by Elon Musk, now it is adult users who are deactivating their accounts. Among these, nothing less than the very serious profile ofPhil Schiller, Head of App Storeand keynotes. In short, the one who can have the last word on the fate of a problematic application…
Except that as recalledMark Gurmanin its weekly newsletterPower Onpublished on Sunday, recent Twitter updates are worrying. The platform has just reactivated Donald Trump's account and could soon become the den offake newsand hate speech. Its new number one, also boss of Tesla, wishes to reduce the scale of the moderation implemented so far.
The sign too many?
Although in a recent interview,Tim Cookexplained that he believed in Twitter's ability to do what was necessary to not violate the rules of the App Store, it seems that the almost obvious reaction from Phil Schiller has just reignited the fire. Is this a subtle warning or just a personal initiative? At the moment, it is unfortunately impossible to know.
While I expect lots of leeway, there is a real scenario in which Apple/Google remove Twitter because of content moderation issues or because Twitter decides to bypass the 15%-30% cuts. Notably, we appear to now know how Apple’s App Store chief feels about the new Twitter.https://t.co/PCjOEsWA1L pic.twitter.com/LWjFCgxINA
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman)November 20, 2022
Before deactivating his profile, Phil Schiller still counted on more than two hundred thousand subscribers to follow him regularly. It is notably through this account that the former Macromediainformed the public of major changesplanned on the App Store. As a reminder, after deactivating a Twitter account, users have 30 days to reactivate it. After this period without connection, all content is deleted and the identifier is made accessible to future Internet users. Hopefully Schiller has a backup ready.
Our opinion
If Twitter actually ends up excluded from iPhones and iPads (there is also a Mac app)like the Fortnite game, then this will probably be the true beginning of the end of the second major generation of social networks. Also having Facebook or Snapchat under its belt, it has recently given way to the new big names in the sector, TikTok and Instagram. A guaranteed succession? Not so sure: the public, tired of privacy risks,would tend to turn towards decentralized alternatives.
Par : Twitter, Inc.
