Twitter, thousands of accounts disappeared. Silent protest or "bot" hunt?

The news of the day - the definitive acquisition of

by

, after months of tiring negotiations - was immediately accompanied, as expected, by reactions of a different nature.

Especially on the platform.

Especially by users.

Who reacted coldly, some with concern at the arrival of the new, eccentric owner on the "social of the twitter".

To the point of putting in place a form of silent protest but no less impactful:

.

Many users have in fact reported a sudden loss of hundreds of contacts, some even thousands, from their accounts.

There can be two explanations: either there is a substantial slice of "tweeters" who have not digested the transfer of ownership of Musk or the "cleaning" of

(the so-called

) has already begun, announced by the South African tycoon as a of the first things he would do once he bought the social network.

Without going so far as to invoke a sort of "

" of users and profiles, as some have done.

The theme is certainly much broader and concerns the

that the Musk social network will adopt in the near future.

The volcanic owner of Tesla and Space X has suggested and proposed everything and more about the new course that he would have given to "his of him" Twitter, also in reference to one of the most controversial aspects of him: the spread of profiles

counterfeit, automatic (behind which there is no natural person) or real

.

The new patron had indicated it as one of the priorities he would focus on.

But it is also true that, perhaps, he has involuntarily triggered a parallel centrifugal phenomenon.

Handle

The new Twitter patron

The other "problems" that Musk will have to face

But, in addition to this, there are several issues on which Elon Musk will have to confront: the increasing number of

(according to the

released in the past few hours, which Reuters spoke about);

the

;

.

_

There is a first big problem of "disaffection" from Twitter that Musk will have to face: the so-called

, that is, those users who connect to the platform daily and publish at least 3-4 contents in the same time interval, it seems that they are in free fall.

In the last two years there has been a sharp decline in their presence on the social network.

A serious loss, since it is 10% of users, who however are authors of 90% of all published content.

According to the data that Reuters has been able to consult, in fact, frequent tweeters have been

, at least for what concerns the contents in English.

The latest report on the use of Twitter, released just on the eve of the acquisition of the owner of Space X, showed how the

of the platform, if you want the reason why Twitter was born and spread, that is "

”, was

, especially in the last year.

After the (virtual) talk recorded at the beginning of 2021, when there was the assault of Donald Trump's supporters on the Capitol, a slow and progressive move away towards other

(now also among politicians),

, where you prefer to start public debates or engage in open discussions with your followers rather than chirping with tweets.

And to do so were above all politicians, heads of state, prime ministers and all those who now choose Twitter to spread official statements or announcements that make the news.

Finally, a "hot potato" not to be underestimated is the spread of

which, although constituting only 13% of the contents on the "social network of twitter", it was not possible to limit by virtue of that absence of censorship and freedom of expression , which on other platforms has been handled differently.

AP Photo

Donald Trump

Trump celebrates Musk's arrival

Meanwhile, among the first to comment with satisfaction on the arrival of Elon Musk at the top floors of the San Francisco company was former US president

: "I am very happy that Twitter is now in good hands and will no longer be managed. from madmen and radical left maniacs who truly hate our country ”wrote the former head of the White House on his social

.

Trump added that “Twitter must, now, work hard to get rid of all the bots and fake accounts that have damaged it so badly.

It will be much smaller, but better.

I LOVE THE TRUTH! ”.

In the post, the New York billionaire did not rule out the possibility of

, even though last April he flatly refused the possibility of accepting a possible readmission.

before he was banned.

And

because of his rhetoric about the January 6 attack on the Capitol, when the former

praised the assailants of the US Congress building.