(Image source: Reuters) [이미지출처=로이터연합뉴스]
[아시아경제 조유진 기자] ‘What will we lose in a world without Twitter?’
A short post of 140 characters. Founded in 2006, long before the dawn of the mobile age, Twitter became popular as a social media service based on ‘common interests’. It became the first place to publicize natural disasters such as earthquakes and established itself as a place for distributing real-time information, and quickly grew into a place for forming public opinion by introducing the functions ‘follow up’ and ‘ share’ for the first time.
Although it originally formed a unique user base suitable for its role, it suffered from the theory of a lack of growth engines for several years as it could not find an appropriate profit model amidst the flood of similar services. Domestic and foreign exchanges deepened due to declining performance and disputes over management rights between the founders. Eventually, rumors about the sale of Twitter surfaced in 2016, and the news that Elon Musk had acquired Twitter for $44 billion (about 62 trillion won at the exchange rate at the time) was known to the world in October, six years later.
Foreign media questioned whether Twitter could continue its past status as ‘a place to form public opinion’ even in Musk’s era. On the 23rd (local time), US diplomatic magazine Foreign Policy called Musk’s acquisition of Twitter “potential demise” in an editorial entitled “What We Lose if We Lose Twitter”.
so”Musk’s acquisition of Twitter not only in the United States, but globally democracyIt will be a geopolitical disaster.” It was a concern that Twitter, which had played a role as a powerful agent of democratization of information over the past generation, would not be found in Musk’s era.
Worries became reality. After reviving the account of former US President Donald Trump, who had been permanently banned for driving his supporters into a congressional crowd, Musk announced that he would bring back accounts that had been suspended for similar reasons .
Musk made the assumption ‘as long as he didn’t break the law or engage in massive spam’, but experts agreed that Musk’s action would lead to a flood of violence, harassment and fake news on Twitter. The Washington Post (WP) pointed out that there are “questions about how to deal with suspended accounts, given users who break the law that Musk said, the massive spam standard is vague, and compliance issues in every country.”
As trust in Twitter diminishes, the move away from Twitter continues. Famous black American actor Whoopi Goldberg, movie star Tea Leoni and Grammy Award winning pop star Toni Braxton recently announced that they are suspending their Twitter activities. In addition, the former captain Chesley Sullenberger, who is famous for the film ‘Miracle on the Hudson’, and the famous producer Shonda Rhimes, who produced the American television drama ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, announced that they would leave Twitter.
There is considerable concern about the future of Twitter, which will be led by Musk, who has been a vocal critic of Twitter’s content regulation policy. Musk is Concerns that fake news and hate speech will flood in overturning existing ‘freedom of expression’ content policies There is a hope that people will not go to Twitter anymore.
Regulators are also watching. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) pointed out that as Musk went through mass layoffs, there was a wave of breakouts among employees responsible for managing harmful content, raising questions from all regulatory authorities about content management’s ongoing compliance efforts. .
Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University, added concern in an interview with US media, saying, “There are many reasons to mourn what is happening on Twitter.” Foreign Policy noted that “Musk must fire himself to save Twitter,” and “Musk’s conflicts of interest are too dangerous to operate Twitter publicly.”
Correspondent Cho Yoo-jin tint@asiae.co.kr
