Twitter Has Lost Over A Million Users After Elon Musk Takeover

Twitter may have lost over a million users since Elon Musk took over. According to Bot Sentinel, a firm that tracks Twitter behaviour of over 3.1 million accounts everyday, Twitter might have felt a loss after Musk's takeover.

Right after taking over Twitter on October 27, Elon Musk posted "the bird is freed." This started an exodus of users, who began to leave the platform. Many celebrities were at the forefront too.

In fact, it was Elon Musk's interaction with author Stephen King that made him lower the monthly verification fee from $20 to $8.

We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?

¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

Reuters

Twitter: Losing ground?

Now, it appears that 877,000 accounts were deactivated and a 497,000 more were suspended between October 27 and November 1 - about double the usual number.

The firm reached the numbers by observing the proportion of users who had deactivated their accounts or faced suspension after Musk took over the company. They applied the percentage to Twitter's overall user base which, as MIT Tech Review pointed, stands at 237 million "monetisable daily active users."

Also read: Twitter Website Down A Day Before Musk Conducts Mass Layoffs In The Company

Between October 27 and November 1, Bot Sentinel found that 11,535 accounts they were monitoring had been deactivated. In addition, 6,824 accounts were suspended - which could be for various reasons from inactivity, inauthenticity, or violation of Twitter rules - about 0.59% of accounts monitored by Bot Sentinel.

AFP

In the week before Twitter was bought by Musk, about 5,958 accounts were deactivated or suspended - suggesting an increase of 208% in account losses in the days after the purchase was done.

Also read: 'Sleep Where You Work': Image Of Twitter Employee Sleeping At Work Goes Viral

"We believe the uptick in deactivations is a result of people upset with Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and deciding to deactivate their accounts in protest," said Christopher Bouzy, Bot Sentinel's founder, in conversation with MIT Tech Review.

Reuters

Now that Musk is at the helm of Twitter, a lot of users are also pushing the limits of what they can say on the platform. These suspensions could also be a result of those who said too much and got suspended.

What do you think about this Twitter's loss of user base? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Stokel-Walker, C. (2022, November 3). Twitter may have lost more than a million users since Elon Musk took over. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/03/1062752/twitter-may-have-lost-more-than-a-million-users-since-elon-musk-took-over/