Predictably, Twitter’s First Paid Creators Appear To Be Right-Wing Influencers
Every time it seems like Twitter can’t seem to get any worse under Elon Musk’s ownership, it somehow manages to reach a new low. Mere days after Twitter announced in a recent blog post that the company is sharing its ad revenue with select users, the creators who have announced themselves as part of the program are—surprise, surprise—right-wing influencers! Among the personalities who identified themselves as receiving Twitter payouts are hate speech repositories like Ashley St. Clair, Ian Miles Chong, and noted accused human trafficker Andrew Tate, to give you an idea of the sheer quality on display here.
It’s no secret that Musk has been pandering to conservative audiences on Twitter, amplified by the crossover between right-wing weirdos and people willing to pay for Twitter reach under Musks’ new scheme, but this push continues to signal exactly who he thinks should be spotlighted on the platform. This announcement comes with major skepticism as to its legitimacy from former Twitter staffers, as reported by the Washington Post, suggesting that “The numbers are totally and completely bogus. It’s all completely made up.”
And with an admission by Musk himself that ad revenue has gone way down with so many advertisers abandoning the platform and Twitter operating at a huge loss, it begs the question: What money is there to even give? I guess everyone who’s paying $8/month for Twitter can give themselves a pat on the back for funding these people.
Given that Facebook/Instagram’s Twitter competitor Threads is seeing rapid growth in the weeks since its debut, a scheme like this to entice users and investors back to the platform would make sense, but all the evidence seems to suggest that there isn’t a real payout structure, with these payments seeming more like a stunt than the start of a real initiative.
It remains to be seen whether anyone outside of the initial wave of right-wing influencers actually sees any money from Twitter. If the amount of similar tweets of people asking if anyone’s actually received any money is any indication, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
(via The Washington Post, featured image: Sunrise, our edits)
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