2023-11-06 05:30:24
Twitter in crisis, Elon Musk tries everything for everything
Twitter, since the takeover by Elon Musk in 2022, is facing financial challenges. Advertisers have fled, the value of the social network has been halved… Nothing is going well. To try to redress the situation, X (formerly Twitter) opened an unconventional market: the sale of unused identifiers.
Revealed by internal emails obtained by Bloomberg, this project shows a dedicated team, called “@HandleTeam”, actively contacting potential buyers. The prices of these identifiers, sometimes associated with celebrities or brands, can reach dizzying heights, up to $50,000. But what is Twitter looking for through this approach? Is this a desperate way to replenish its coffers?
Who will recover the old identifiers of X (ex-Twitter) in disuse?
Twitter has implemented specific criteria for recovering identifiers. The social network has already taken back certain names, such as @X, without consulting the account holders. This recovery policy is part of a logic of cleaning inactive accounts or accounts controlled by bots. With 1.5 billion potentially “releasable” usernames, Twitter is opening a new front in the war once morest fake accounts, while creating a new source of revenue.
The method of sale is still unclear, but it appears that Twitter is considering auctions for these identifiers. Internal emails suggest a direct approach to potential buyers, with a fixed fee to initiate the purchase. This approach raises ethical and practical questions: how can we guarantee fairness in access to these identifiers? What will be the selection criteria for buyers?
Twitter: should you be worried regarding your account?
The current policy states that inactive accounts are not yet released (which would actually allow them to be sold), but users are asked to log in every 30 days to avoid being considered inactive.
Could this policy change? Nothing is improbable. Elon Musk is known for his hasty decisions regarding Twitter, and his promises that are not necessarily kept. But, above all, the South African billionaire does not want to admit defeat and still does not believe that his $44 billion purchase was a total failure.
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