elon’s verified hellscape

...that'll be $8 please

Author

Matt Navarra
November 04, 2022

Hello, geeks

I want to start Geekout this week with a big 🫶 to all the Tweeps.

Many friends of mine work at Twitter and are caught up in Twitter layoff hell right now. If I can help you in any way, get in touch. ❤️

This week’s Geekout unsurprisingly is dominated by all the news coming out of Elon Musk’s Hellscape HQ. Twitter is going through some… changes… right now. 

We’re going to dig into the most important developments PLUS everything else new and noteworthy in social media land this week.

But first…

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Alrighty… Let’s get into it. Hellscape overlord Elon Musk has been busy. The tweeps have been busier:

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

  1. Twitter Locks Staff Out of Accounts As Mass Layoffs Begin [SO BRUTAL]

  2. New Twitter Blue With Verification For $8 Launching Soon [NEW BLUE]

  3. Twitter Plans To Shut Down Revue Newsletter Platform [RIP REVUE]

  4. Brands Pause Twitter Advertising Amind Elon Musk Mess [AD EXODUS]  

  5. Twitter Working On New Pay Per View Video Platform [FUTURE PLANS]

It’s not all just about Twitter this week. Here’s everything else new and noteworthy spotted in my feeds, emails, and DMs in the past seven days:

Meta launched a bunch of new monetisation tools for creators including a TikTok-style ‘Gifts’ feature for Reels (ctrl-c / ctrl-v)...  Facebook is switching back to using algorithms only for its news tab… Facebook is experimenting with a seamless main feed…Facebook is killing 360-degree cover images for profiles… And did you know… Facebook has a hidden tool to remove your personal details from the platform.

WhatsApp officially launched WhatsApp Communities, its spin on Discord/Slack channels. And it’s pretty good… You can also now host 32-person video calls on WhatsApp… 

Instagram is testing a doodle button in DMs?!... And some Instagram users spotted a new ‘Add Reel to profile grid’ feature… Instagram for the web has had (another) redesign. It’s got a snazzy new sidebar.

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Snapchat’s new Strava AR lens lets you share your workouts in Snaps and Stories. Snapchat is partnering with Amazon for a new virtual try-on shopping feature…Tumblr’s latest rule change now permits nudity (Tumblr is STILL alive?!)... TikTok users are losing their minds over this new AI voice effect.

Substack leaned on Twitter’s misery to launch its Substack Chat feature…Signal rolling out Signal Stories... The UK’s Online Safety Bill is finally making progress, but with one significant amendment to the ‘legal but harmful content’ rules…And finally… Kanye West is back tweeting again… Oh great. 🙄

DID YOU SEE… 👀

  • 🌟 INVITE-ONLY: Join The Official Geekout Group On Facebook[30k+ MEMBERS]

  • 🛠 TOOLS: 9 Twitter Tools To Tackle Trolls In The Hellscape [CHECK EM OUT]

  • 🔮 FUTURE: 32 Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2023 [VIEW PREDICTIONS]

  • 💣 PRO TIP I: How To Write Viral Twitter Thread Hooks [LOOK ‘N’ LEARN]

  • 💥 PRO TIP II: How Mr Beast Writes Amazing Social Hooks [LEARN MORE]

Keep scrolling… It’s time to dig a little deeper on the week’s biggest stories coming out of Hell HQ…aka Elon Musk’s Twitter. Geekout’s analysis coming up next. 👇

sas

– Matt

PS: Geekout's Friday Debrief is live on Twitter Spaces today at 4pm UK time / 12pm ET / 9am PT. We've got a LOT to talk about. LISTEN LIVE / PLAY BACK

🚨 Everyone's talking about... [Twitter special]

Imagine you're a Twitter addict who suddenly gets full control of the product you use constantly. What would you do? That's the situation Elon Musk found himself in late last week, and he's wasted no time reshaping the platform the way he wants it to look.

The headline change so far is verified checkmarks for everyone who pays. A $20 per month figure appeared in the media over the weekend, but after horror author Stephen King weighed in, Musk announced a lower $8 per month figure. I'm taking Stephen King with me next time I buy a car.

In reality, this is a price increase for Twitter Blue, with checkmarks as an added benefit. We'll find out the official word on how it will work on Monday, when the super-rushed move appears set to be launched in the countries where Blue is currently available. A European launch is apparently planned soon.

Existing verified users will reportedly get to keep their checkmark for free for now. But some celebrities are not keen on paying, and news publishers assessing whether it's worth the cost while they keep an eye on the situation (CNN has already said they won't pay).

But here's the wildest part: it seems actual verification won't be included - it's just an 'I paid for this' badge, which makes it a potential misinformation nightmare, especially with the midterm elections taking place on Tuesday. You don't need a great imagination to see how this could go very wrong, very quickly.

That said, an 'Official Account' badge has been spotted in development code. Is this the new 'verified' badge, with the old checkmark simply becoming the mark of a Blue subscriber? Watch this space and prepare to be confused.

Other swift changes ordered by Musk include: the home page changes and Super Follows renamed to 'Subscriptions'. Plus ad-free articles have been removed from Blue, it's also be reported that Notes and Revue are both on the way out (although Notes may return) - looks like Geekout made the shift to Beehiiv at exactly the right time.

Meanwhile, product development inside Twitter seems to be a whole lot of spaghetti against the wall. We've heard reports of the edit button going free for all; a plan to reboot Vine by the end of the year (challenging in a world where TikTok rules and Vine's code is years out of date); longer videos and tweets; the ability to pay to DM celebrities, and even pay-per-view video (including adult content).

On the third-party developer front, I've heard of companies pausing app launches amid all the uncertainty. And the Chirp conference–due to take place later this month–has been called off. What this means for the future of the third-party developer community is anyone's guess.

If there's one thread that holds most of the changes so far at Twitter together, it's the need to bring in a lot more revenue - fast. It could all fall apart for Musk quickly if the sums don't add up.

From his 'war room' filled with allies, as the sole director of the company after dissolving the previous board, one major question hanging over the future of the company has been 'how will he handle moderation?'

As a self-described 'free-speech absolutist', Musk was expected by many to reinstate the likes of Donald Trump almost immediately. But that hasn't happened. Instead we've seen a much more cautious approach.

And with good reason, if he wants the company to survive. Already we've seen advertisers like GM, General Mills, Audi, and Pfizer suspend their ads over brand safety concerns. 

A more cautious Musk has announced plans for a content moderation council (think Meta's Oversight Board), says Twitter will comply with EU speech rules, and he even met with civil rights leaders - a move which didn't prove popular with the kind of people who think the likes of Trump are 'political prisoners' for having their accounts suspended. Any reinstatements won't happen for weeks yet, Musk said.

Oh, and Musk reportedly told Twitter advertisers he plans to offer tiers of content moderation, similar to movie age ratings. It's an interesting idea, for sure.

In the midst of all this, Twitter has been fighting an uptick in slurs and trolling, the far-right testing the boundaries of current moderation rules, and pranksters getting 'TrumpIsDead' trending - so it's all going swimmingly. 

If that wasn't enough, Musk has to contend with celebrities leaving, a record number of downloads of Mastadon's app, and nearly a million accounts deactivated - perhaps by disgruntled users. Oh, and there's been a call for an investigation into Saudi ownership of part of the new Twitter.

As for Donald Trump, he's probably just enjoying the mayhem from afar. He seems more concerned with keeping users on Truth Social than returning to Twitter himself. 

We knew layoffs were coming, and today is the day around half of Twitter employees are expected to be let go. Tweeps around the world had their office, email, and Slack access revoked ahead of emails set to land in their personal inboxes around 1pm UK time (9am ET).

The similarity to 'The Snap' from the Marvel movies was apparently not lost among employees while they still had Slack access. 

In the run up to today's utterly awful situation, work inside Twitter this week was compared to the Hunger Games as staff worked round the clock, with 84-hour weeks being reported as staff laboured to deliver on Musk's whims and perhaps earn his favour.

One senior manager even shared a photo of herself sleeping on the floor at work, something Musk himself has done at Tesla in particularly challenging times. More than one Twitter staff member has referred to the situation inside the company as like the Trump White House, with little top-down communication (there has been no communication at all from Musk himself) and most news reaching staff from the media and tweets from the man himself.

As for what happens next, Twitter is already being sued in California for violating employment law with such swift, mass-layoffs, and I expect employment tribunals and lawsuits are going to be a major headache for Musk in the coming weeks and months. 

Ahead of today, Musk had already cleared out most of the top executives, with rumours of execs being escorted from the building. He is even trying to dodge giving golden parachutes to former C-suite members. It is, quite frankly, a mess. 

Low morale is not necessarily a new thing at Twitter, but with the 'work anywhere' policy revoked and 'days of rest' removed, Musk's Twitter is going to be a starkly different place to what came before for those who avoid today's layoffs.

👉 On-point tweet

Not all currently verified Twitter users are keen on paying to keep their badge...

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Also:

  • Verified but don't want to pay for a checkmark? This tool proves to the world your were once one of the special ones.

🌎 Website of the week

Elon promises a lot of things... not all of them happen.

📈 Going viral

Perhaps a little mean for the people affected, but the Twitter layoffs became a meme in themselves this week.

People are using the same meme template to troll Elon Musk's Twitter

"Twitter laid me off today..."

🎥 Worth a watch

The story of how THAT Leonard DiCaprio meme came to be. You can thank Baz Luhrmann...

👀 Read of the week

If you want to see what Elon Musk could do next with Twitter Blue, you should read these great insights by Connie Chan from Andreessen Horowitz...

How to Build A Winning Paid Membership Program | Andreessen Horowitz

Online platforms are passionately hoping that paid membership models may be a new answer to existing advertising revenue ceilings.

Also:

📩 In my inbox

My emails have been dominated by talk of one company this week...

🤔 Did you know...?

With Twitter's checkmarks back in the news, the debate about whether they're a mark of authenticity or of social status has reignited. It's worth a read about the history of Twitter verification.

❓ Question of the week

Everyone's got an opinion about what Twitter should build next. Even Elon Musk was crowdsourcing ideas this week. I asked my followers what would get them to subscribe to Blue...

There are lots of good ideas for Elon (and you) to wade through but this one might be a nice little perk if (like me) he hasn't already blocked you...

🤦 Fail of the week

Oops - Instagram accidentally suspended thousands of accounts this week. I shared my thoughts on this with the Wall Street Journal. 

Among the impacts of this almighty mess-up it led to Ronaldo losing 3 million followers. The bug is now fixed, but I did wonder whether it was Mark Zuckerberg taking some inspiration from Elon 😆

    👀 Keep an eye on this...

    Yet another step in TikTok's ambitions to take on Google Search emerges...

    🧵 Top thread

    As a former Facebook security chief, Alex Stamos is a must-follow for social media policy insights. He has some pretty strong opinions about what's happening at Twitter...

    💡 New feature spotlight

    TikTok's got a new trick...

    📊 Stats of the week

    Maybe we should all relax a bit. The kids have got this...

    Also:

    📈 Charts of the week

    Also:

    💬 You can quote me on that

    When I'm mentioned in the news, you'll find it here...

    I was on the panel for Al Jazeera English's Inside Story show as we explored what the future holds for Twitter.

    What will Elon Musk do with Twitter?

    The world’s richest man has taken charge of one of the largest social media platforms.

    Also:

    😆 LOL tweets

    Meta News

    Zuckerberg to testify in U.S. case against Facebook's virtual reality deal

    Meta Platforms Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will testify in a case by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that argues the company's proposed deal to buy virtual reality (VR) content maker Within Unlimited should be blocked.

    • ...and Meta's defence will involve emails Snap CEO Evan Spiegel must turn over. [Bloomberg $$$]

    • Meta is the worst performer in the S&P 500 this year. [CNBC]

    • Facebook News is switching to A.I. curation in the UK, and could close completely in 2024. [PressGazette]

    • Instagram has a six-figure deal with ATTN to create content designed to combat Spanish-language misinformation ahead of US midterm elections. [Axios]

    • Meta's Nick Clegg says reports about the company's business struggles are overblown. [Wall Street Journal $$$]

    • Meta has obtained MRC accreditation for brand safety in ad placement. [Social Media Today]

    • The Wire has filed a police complaint about the researcher who supplied much of the evidence used in its recent, discredited accusations against Meta. [Scroll.in]

    • Meta has launched a business messaging accelerator in partnership with Plug & Play. [Social Media Today]

    • Meta says it will match up to $7m in charitable donations across its apps this month. [Social Media Today]

    • Meta has blocked Rec Room for users aged under 12. [Upload VR]

    • Meta has unveiled 25 up-and-coming 'Creators of Tomorrow'. [Variety]

    Insights to give you an edge at work:

    New features and tests:

    Facebook:

    • Facebook has launched Professional Mode globally. [Social Media Today]

    • Facebook is expanding access to its Stars feature. [TechCrunch]

    • Facebook now lets you set text to appear at specific time in Reels and Stories. [@oncescuradu]

    • Facebook is killing its 360-degree cover photos feature tomorrow. [@MattNavarra]

    • Meta is testing a tweaked News Feed design on iOS. [@MattNavarra]

    Instagram:

    • Instagram will soon let some users make and sell NFTs in-app. [TechCrunch]

    • Instagram is expanding subscriptions across the US and launching TikTok-style GIFs in Reels. [Social Media Today]

    • Instagram has started using video selfies for user verification. [@salman_memon_7]

    • Instagram is testing a redesign for desktop. [The Verge]

    • ...and some users see Stories as a sidebar on desktop. [@josmi]

    • Instagram is testing an 'Add to Profile Grid' button for Reels. [@ec_wife]

    • Instagram has been spotted offering an 'avatar as profile pic' option. [@jonah_manzano]

    • Instagram is testing doodle button in story message box. [@ec_wife]

    • Instagram has added a music sticker with an emoji slider. [@jonah_manzano]

    • Instagram has launched a product tagging API for Reels. [AdWeek $$$]

    WhatsApp:

    • WhatsApp has officially launched its Communities feature. [TechCrunch]

    • WhatsApp now supports 32-person video chats. [MacRumors]

    • WhatsApp is testing avatar creation tools on iOS. [WABetaInfo]

    The rest: Creator Studio/adtech/Quest and more:

    • Meta has developed an A.I.-powered audio codec that promises 10x compression over MP3. [Ars Technica]

    • Meta has introduced access levels for game developers. [AdWeek $$$]

    Twitter News

    Jack Dorsey just saved Elon Musk about $1 billion by rolling over his shares of Twitter into a stake in the new private company

    Dorsey left his second stint as CEO of Twitter last year and has supported Musk's $44 billion takeover.

    Insights to give you an edge at work:

    New features and tests:

    • Twitter's new verification system is already showing up in Blue code. [@nima_owji]

    TikTok News

    TikTok tells European users its staff in China get access to their data

    Privacy policy update confirms data of continent’s users available to range of TikTok bases including in Brazil, Israel and US

    • Next week's US midterms will be a major misinformation test for TikTok. [Protocol]

    • TikTok should be banned in the USA, an FCC commissioner has said. [Axios]

    • ...the news saw Meta and Snap's share prices rise. [CNBC]

    • TikTok has denied reports it is developing a dedicated gaming tab. [Digiday $$$]

    • TikTok glorifies weight loss among teens and young adults, according to a new study. [Axios]

    • The USA's issues with TikTok's Chinese ownership are still largely unresolved after years of wavering. [Washington Post $$$]

    • ...but an outright ban seems unlikely. [TechCrunch]

    • TikTok and DoubleVerify have expanded partnership to post-campaign brand safety. [AdWeek $$$]

    • TikTok's Creator Marketplace is suffering teething issues. [Marketing Brew]

    • Teens are turning to TikTok for a mental health diagnosis. [New York Times $$$]

    • The Washington Post failed in an attempt to get suppressed on TikTok. [Washington Post $$$]

    Insights to give you an edge at work:

    New features and tests:

    • TIkTok plans to add the ability to add location tags to videos. [@TikTokComms]

    • TikTok has brought dark mode to desktop. [@jonah_manzano]

    💥 More social media news and updates

    We Finally Know Who Funded Trump's Truth Social

    Former President Donald Trump's struggling platform, unsurprisingly, has friends in high places.

    • ... and Truth Social's influence in conservative circles is growing. [New York Times $$$]

    • India is revamping its internet rules, adding an appeals panel for social media disputes. [Bloomberg $$$]

    • Telegram's CEO accused Apple of destroying dreams and crushing entrepreneurs after the app company was forced to remove a feature that sidestepped Apple's 30% cut. [MacRumors]

    • YouTubers are anticipating big payouts from Shorts, but industry insiders warn they should cool their expectations. [Insider $$$]

    • Tumblr will now allow nudity, but not explicit sex. [The Verge]

    • The UK Online Safety Bill looks set to drop the controversial rules around 'legal but harmful' content in many cases. [i]

    • Discord banned 68,000 servers and 55 million accounts in the first half of this year as it fought spam on the platform. [The Gamer]

    • Kanye West has continued his antisemitism, this time on Parler. [Rolling Stone]

    • Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says he's reworking his social media app as a Twitter rival. [Slashgear]

    • Nearly $2 billion has been spent on virtual land in 'the metaverse' over the past 12 months. [BBC News]

    New features and tests:

    • YouTube has launched Primetime Channels, bringing streaming services like Paramount Plus to its app. [The Verge]

    • YouTube has added Super Thanks push notifications and search insights in more languages. [Social Media Today]

    • YouTube has been spotted offering a 'Subscriptions' button for Shorts. [@oncescuradu]

    • Snapchat is partnering with Amazon on a virtual try-on AR feature. [Social Media Today]

    • Snapchat and Strava have launched a new AR lens to share workouts. [TechCrunch]

    • Snapchat has added a BigCommerce integration. [Social Media Today]

    • Snapchat is working on a theme editor for Snapchat+ subscribers. [@alex193a]

    • LinkedIn's new 'About this profile' feature is now live. [@MattNavarra]

    • Twitch has opened its Guest Star feature up to all, so anyone can run their own talk show. [TechCrunch]

    • Clubhouse is still working on a sound effects feature. [@alex193a]

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    You should advertise in Geekout! Get in touch: [email protected]

    📖 Weekend reading

    To some, LinkedIn's try-hard nature has become a perfect example of the worst of corporate culture. But the site's influencers say the joke's on everyone else, as they pull in big money with ease. "The only opinion that matters is the market," one said.

    😳 And finally...

    If you're ready to upgrade your phone but don't want a separate Apple Watch, how about this appalling monstrosity...? 

    📅 Back next week...

    …And BOOM! You. Are. Done. ✅

    You've reached the end of Geekout for another week.

    I won’t even pester you to Geekout on your socials if you enjoyed reading it. 

    But i’d love it if you did 🙂🫶

    Right… Time to get the hell outta here. 

    Final thought… Given Twitter has become the Elon Musk show, i’m starting to wonder whether this might be the best thing that ever happened to me on Twitter 

    Goodbye geeks!

    – Matt

    _______

    This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant

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