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As of this morning, it appears Musk has implemented a hard sign-in wall on Twitter. This is substantially more extreme even than Facebook and Instagram’s sign-in walls, given both of those still allow users to view profiles and some posts before being forced to sign in (though they restrict scrolling). I think it might be the most stringent sign-in wall of any social media platform (even Pinterest!). (Maybe Discord counts?)
Clicking on any Twitter link now forces me to sign in before seeing any tweet. Nitter still works for now, but I guess we shall see how long that workaround lasts.
Unlike Facebook and Instagram (and more like, I’d guess, Reddit), on Twitter most users don’t engage with content itself (making posts, commenting, liking, messaging), they just consume it, so there’s less incentive to make an account. If this is a gambit rather than a mistake, it seems like a pretty bold attempt by Musk to force lurkers into making accounts (to acquire more user data and perhaps in the hope that once they have an account they’re likelier to engage more with the platform, spend longer on it, consume more ads).
I’m skeptical this is the new CEO because Musk already enhanced the sign-in wall before she took over (forcing it even for simply scrolling down someone’s page) and said in any case he’ll remain in charge of the tech while she focuses on ad sales.
I'm confused because I thought this was already the case. I have been trained by many annoyances to never open twitter links, because it always prompted me to sign in. I got an account way back in the day, and occasionally used it to sign in if I absolutely needed to see something on twitter. I never once tweeted from that account.
The sign in walls with facebook and instagram never annoyed me in the same way. My reasoning is probably a little irrational, but I feel like those profiles are for sharing personal info, and you should engage with them on a personal level. The vast majority of facebook and instagram profiles are for inter-personal sharing.
Twitter just doesn't feel the same. Everyone there is trying to shout as loud as they can at the rest of the internet and they want everyone to see it. And it strikes me as weird when a barrier is placed in front of that sharing. Its like when I go to youtube to watch a funny TV commercial, and youtube serves me up a video ad. There is a disconnect in incentives between the content creator and the content provider. The content creators (users) are saying "share this as widely as possible, with as few barriers as possible", and the content providers (twitter, youtube) are saying "I make no money on ads if there are zero barriers to sharing".
It was and then it wasn't again with varying steps along the way. There was a point before Musk took over where you could see a particular tweet or scroll a timeline one or two down before the sign in wall would come up. Then it seemed to have all been removed. Then recently, you couldn't actually run a search unless signed in, but could click a username that popped up in the search bar and navigate to their timeline. Then last week, you couldn't even see the search bar, but still open timelines through hyperlinks.
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