The restrictions on using Twitter for free are not going to be as severe as assumed. Elon Musk has qualified his statement about the “For you” feed. The accounts you follow should also appear in this feed for free users.
Shortly after the announcement of restrictions on free use of Twitter, owner Elon Musk corrected himself on an important point. It’s about whose tweets are allowed to appear in the “For you” feed compiled by the software.
In his original tweet on Tuesday night, Musk wrote that posts from April 15 will only appear in the area from paying subscribers. Less than 24 hours later, he made it clear: “Forgot to mention that accounts that you follow will also be in ‘For You’.” After all, users specifically wanted to read tweets from these accounts.
The complete ban of the free users from the “For you” area could have reduced the reach of their tweets. However, no figures are known on how many posts on Twitter are selected by the algorithm instead of being displayed in chronological order.
Musk’s initial announcement drew criticism and accusations of money-grabbing. Now it only seems to be about the tweets from accounts that a user is not following. The “For you” algorithm throws in some posts from profiles that you have not subscribed to.
The tech billionaire had also announced that participation in Twitter polls should only be reserved for paying subscribers. The subscription costs 8 euros per month in Germany.
Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion in October. After a slump in advertising revenue, he wants to focus more on subscription revenues.
