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<\/div>Nothing to See<\/h2>
X owner Elon Musk appears to be spooked by the continuous flow of users<\/a> leaving the social media platform in favor of alternatives like BlueSky and Meta's Threads.<\/p> In a surprising move last week, Musk announced that the platform would start allowing users to hide likes, shares, and reposts — a suspicious decision that feels like a bid to conceal the platform's waning energy.<\/p> \"You can now hide engagement buttons and numbers below each post and interact with posts through custom swipe gestures!\" X app developer May Ly tweeted<\/a> last week.<\/p> Musk himself resorted to an odd excuse for the new feature.<\/p> \"It's much cleaner with engagement numbers turned off,\" he wrote<\/a>. \"You can still see view count if you care.\"<\/p> Why Musk would suddenly care about a \"cleaner\" user interface is a bit of a mystery. Ever since taking over the social media platform in 2022, the company has littered the network with a confusing array of colored checkmarks, unnecessary info, and a barrage of disruptive ads.<\/p> But it doesn't take much reading between the lines to wonder if X is paying attention to the astronomic rise of Twitter alternatives BlueSky and Threads. Over the past week alone, BlueSky's daily active users have soared to 3.5 million<\/a>, a massive 300 percent increase since Election Day, according to Similarweb.<\/p> As of earlier this month, Threads had a whopping 275 million monthly active users. But thanks to its breakneck momentum, Bluesky is starting to close the gap<\/a> where it matters.<\/p> Even Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is anxiously paying attention<\/a>, with many former Twitter power users choosing Bluesky instead of Threads in the wake of the election.<\/p> Meanwhile, Musk's X has implemented a number of user-hostile policy changes, from requiring users to opt out<\/a> of having their posts be used to train the platform's AI chatbot to dismantling the block function<\/a>, thereby opening the floodgates for even more harassment.<\/p> Hate speech<\/a> and even child sexual abuse material<\/a> have run rampant on X ever since Musk took over, turning the platform into a hellhole of disinformation and exploitation.<\/p> Last week, Musk also appeared to confirm<\/a> that X was actively throttling the visibility of posts that include external links, a sign that the platform could be looking for ways to shut out outside news.<\/p> In short, who could blame users for running away?<\/p> More on Bluesky:<\/strong> Zuckerberg Seems Genuinely Alarmed by the Explosive Growth of Bluesky<\/a><\/em><\/p> The post Change to Twitter Suggests Elon Musk Is Panicking Over Users Leaving for Bluesky<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> View original post here: Nothing to See X owner Elon Musk appears to be spooked by the continuous flow of users leaving the social media platform in favor of alternatives like BlueSky and Meta's Threads. In a surprising move last week, Musk announced that the platform would start allowing users to hide likes, shares, and reposts \u2014 a suspicious decision that feels like a bid to conceal the platform's waning energy. \"You can now hide engagement buttons and numbers below each post and interact with posts through custom swipe gestures!\" X app developer May Ly tweeted last week Continue reading Grass Greener<\/h2>
Change to Twitter Suggests Elon Musk Is Panicking Over Users Leaving for Bluesky<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"