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Comment by kelnos | Hacker News Reader

> It was rapidly approaching bankruptcy

I don't think that's a foregone conclusion.

> when Musk was (in the end) forced to purchase it

And because it's private now, we have no idea what its financial situation is. My expectation is that they're much worse off financially since Musk's acquisition, even after shedding most of the staff.

A lot of people I know predicted Twitter would be completely shut down within a year of Musk's acquisition. I wasn't quite so quick to agree, but I think we're still going to get there eventually unless Musk drastically changes course.

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> A lot of people I know predicted Twitter would be completely shut down within a year of Musk's acquisition.

As one of those people, I'm definitely eating crow. Three things happened that bode well for Twitter's future:

1. Musk has attracted a loyal core of true believers that think he has saved free speech with the Twitter purchase.

2. The Overton window of online discussion has started moving right. In particular, companies are becoming less interested in toeing a left ideological line with their ad spending.

3. A bunch of people who hate X and hate Musk and his politics stayed on Twitter! To me this is most surprising of all, but perhaps shouldn't be because many of these same people posted to Twitter in the past while simultaneously calling it things like "the hellsite"[1].

I'm no longer sure we'll ever "get there" other than if a new paradigm marginalizes all of social media the way social media marginalized blogging.

[1] https://samkriss.substack.com/p/welcome-to-hell

Regarding your 3rd point, this is the same behavior we see when people say they're leaving the country if X candidate wins an election. They never leave, because change is hard and they're addicted to the attention they get when they complain.

Proud to be one of those that ditched "the hellsite", and it remains ditched. One of the best moves I've ever made.

The blast of "For You" inauthenticity that hits a fresh X/Twitter account is about equaled by the astroturf fiesta that hits a fresh Instagram Threads account. The underlying modus operandi of the apps are the same, regardless of political declension.

Difference between the two is that beneath the surface Twitter is a functional social environment, while Threads is certainly not.

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