Why Are People Leaving Twitter

If you are on Twitter (I just can’t get my head around the new name), you may have noticed your follower count has dropped noticeably since the U.S. election. I’ve lost about 5% of my followers.

Why the sudden drop in followers? It is suspected that a significant number were election bots which were being used to influence American voters. I suppose they were no longer needed after November 5. But the exodus of legitimate users is the result of several reasons including a mix of platform changes, user dissatisfaction, and the emergence of alternatives. My take is that, for many users or former users, the single factor that is driving them away from the platform is the owner, Elon Musk.

Just as Truth Social is a vehicle for Donald Trump, Twitter is clearly now Elon Musk’s app. His tweets appear on your feed even if you have blocked him. He plays with the algorithms to reflect his interests and beliefs and manipulates the reach of causes and ideas he doesn’t support. Some advocates and journalists have been banned from the site. The result is that communications on the site is being filtered and manipulated by Musk. Earlier this year, I was averaging almost 2 million impressions a month. Now it’s down to about ½ million per month. So much for being an absolute free speech believer.

There have been some positive platform changes such as longer posts, longer videos and going ad-free but all at a cost. But most changes have received a thumbs down from users. The blue check, which used to indicate that an account was notable, is now a revenue stream. This has led to impersonations of government and other public accounts. At the same time, banned have been allowed back onto the platform.

Many advertisers have also left Twitter. Consequently, the platform is filled with low-quality ads, promoted tweets, and automated accounts. Verified users' posts and replies appear regardless of whether you follow them. So, users have less control over what content they see. The push toward monetized features like Twitter checkmarks and exclusive content subscriptions have created frustration among users. These changes have widened the gap between paid and free users, contributing to dissatisfaction.

Moderation on Twitter has been abysmal under Musk. Although Twitter have clear criteria with regards to inappropriate conduct and harassment, they are not often applying those rules when receiving complaints. This has frustrated users. The only remedy has been to block those people. Then Twitter introduced another change where blocked users could now see your tweets but are just not able to communicate with you.

Finally, there is the frustration with bots. When the verified status was changed to a paid feature, the false justification was to control bots. Since the takeover by Musk, the number of bots on the platform has exploded. Bots don't just inflate the numbers of followers, but they also keep trying to engage with genuine people, send annoying messages, and even risking the online presence and privacy of everyday users.

Finally, the arrival of alternative platforms has encouraged people to leave in search of a social media app that is more like the original version of Twitter. Those alternatives include Mastedon, Threads and Bluesky. I’ve tried Threads and Bluesky and have so far been underwhelmed. As an author I use social media to promote my work. Threads has been a complete disappointment. Any writing related posts are generally ignored. Joke posts are popular although there far too many users who would know a joke if it hit them over the head. I’ve been a Bluesky user for a much shorter time, and it has some promise. But many users are people who supported Harris in the election and hate Trump and Musk. I have yet to determine whether this demographic will also be interested in books.

Should you leave Twitter for another platform? It depends on what you are looking for. Are you a casual user or do you use the platform for marketing? Here are some considerations.

• Does Twitter align with your values, or are you unhappy with the platform’s current direction?

• Is the content you engage with and the connections you have still valuable and relevant?

• Have you explored alternative platforms? Do any of them better suit your needs and preferences?

If you are considering Bluesky there are a few things you also need to be aware of.

• Google indexes Twitter posts. That alone is a great reason to stay on Twitter. This means your posts will appear in search engines like Google, Bing, etc.

• Advertising options are not available on BlueSky. They may offer that at some point.

• Bluesky still needs to be added to most social media scheduling tools, which means all manual posting for now.

If you leave Twitter, download your archive to repurpose it on Bluesky and elsewhere. Log into your Twitter account, scroll down to More, Click on Settings, and Click on Download Archive. You will be prompted to re-enter your password, and then you can request the download.

Also, deactivating your Twitter account might not be enough to erase your tweets, retweets, and mentions. Because they can remain accessible in various ways, leaving traces of your activity behind. So, if you really want to leave Twitter, you may want to clean up your past content before doing so. Deleting your tweets, retweets, and mentions ensures that your online history is wiped clean before you deactivate your account.