Elon Musk overtakes Obama as most followed Twitter account
Elon Musk has surpassed former US president
Barack Obama as the most followed account on Twitter, five months after he
bought the platform in a tumultuous takeover.
The
founder of Tesla and SpaceX on Thursday had 133,084,560 Twitter followers, a
nose ahead of Obama, who had 133,041,813.
The
feat comes as the role of Twitter as a key platform for the exchange of news,
ideas and PR messaging seems increasingly troubled.
Musk
last week told employees the company was worth half the $44 billion he shelled
out for it and the tycoon is still struggling to find a way to take the brakes
off content moderation without spooking advertisers and government regulators.
Since
taking control, Musk has sharply cut the group's payroll from 7,500 employees
to fewer than 2,000 and has put his faith in drumming up paid subscribers to
make the platform financially viable -- but the results have been
disappointing.
The
app has seen a string of technical snafus, including an incident where tweets
by Musk suddenly dominated the feeds of millions of users, even those not
following the tycoon.
Musk
has encouraged users to communicate more freely on Twitter and said the site
would impose the least amount of censorship allowed by law.
The platform
said that starting on April 1, the trust-building "blue tick" for
certain individual accounts -- such as celebrities or journalists -- would be
rolled back and reserved for paying subscribers.
Want to send us a story? SMS to 25170 or WhatsApp 0743570000 or Submit on Citizen Digital or email wananchi@royalmedia.co.ke
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a Comment