• Elon Musk’s Twitter account has been private to test whether there is a problem with reach.
• The owner of the platform reported several times over the last 24 hours that there was an issue.
• Furthermore, Twitter will block free access to its API from 9th February.

Over the last 24 hours Elon Musk’s Twitter account has been private. No, it’s not because he was booed off of the stage at a Dave Chappelle show, nor was it because he was being teased.

No, the reason the Chief Twit made his account private was to test whether reports that setting an account to private yielded better visibility. A number of accounts directed concerns directly to Musk that the only way followers could see an account’s tweets is when they set their account to private.

It’s bizarre but not more bizarre than Musk seemingly A/B testing this claim live on the website.

More bizarre is Musk’s response to the Libs of TikTok account with three words, “Something is wrong”.

This later changed to “Something fundamental is wrong” in response to another user.

Reports from those on the platform experiencing these restrictions suggest that the fact that tweets aren’t appearing comes down to the fact that their reach is limited. By taking an account private, the reach limit is effectively ignored. It’s unclear if this is indeed the case but it’s all we have to go on at the moment.

The good news is that this bizarre test yielded some information.

“This helped identify some issues with the system. Should be addressed by next week,” Musk said without elaborating further.

It’s the age-old question of whether you’re shadow banned because you broke the rules or engagement is low because your content isn’t all that good.

API gets a paywall

Not content with charging users to be part of a lords and peasants system, Twitter is now blocking off free access to its API. This includes API v2 and v1.1 and free access to the API will be cut off on 9th February.

“Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent over a trillion Tweets, with billions more every week,” the Twitter Dev account posted on Thursday morning.

“Twitter data are [sic] among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us,” the firm added.

This news comes after a number of third-party apps reportedly stopped working. While the Twitter Dev account said it was simply enforcing API rules and only “some apps” were not working, Musk’s darling Community Notes was quick to correct the firm.

“Currently it’s all major third-party clients, not some. Also, it is unknown what long standing rules have been broken as no guidance has been provided to any API partner,” reads a Community Note posted in January.

Furthermore, developers say the rules Twitter enforced were unannounced and undocumented.

“We are sorry to say that the app’s sudden and undignified demise is due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by an increasingly capricious Twitter – a Twitter that we no longer recognize as trustworthy nor want to work with any longer,” chief executive officer at Twitterrific, Sean Heber said in a statement.

One of the reasons Musk and co could be putting the API behind a paywall is simply because it can potentially generate money. With Musk needing to pay $1.5 billion in interest on a $12.5 billion loan, generating revenue is key for Twitter.

Given advertisers have been reluctant to return to the platform, billing users is the next obvious move but whether it will have a positive effect on perception and Twitter’s finances, is very questionable.

[Image – Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash]