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Interest in leaving Twitter grows as Musk’s grip tightens

Published

2 years ago

November 26, 2022

Twitter is changing under new owner Elon Musk – Copyright AFP/File Ben STANSALL

Analysis of Google Trends data reveals that web search trends for ‘Delete Twitter Account’ in the U.S. grew 335 percent on 1^st week of November, 2022, around the same day when Elon Musk officially bought Twitter for $44 billion. Atypical for a takeover on this scale, the process was played out in public.

Many of the concerns are connected with the apparent right-wing shift in terms of the social media platform’s ethos that is being constructed as the result of Musk’s acquisition.

This finding came from a business-to-business networking site called SeeBiz. The company also saw a major increase in Google web search trends for other variations like “deactivate twitter”, “delete twitter”, “how to deactivate twitter”, “deactivate twitter account” etc. All the search term variations related to delete twitter are following same increasing trend as per the Google.

Elon Musk dubbed himself ‘Chief Twit’ in his Twitter profile and listed his location as the company’s San Francisco headquarters, as the deadline nears for him to complete his buyout. – Copyright AFP Hector RETAMAL

According to Richard Seymour writing in The Guardian, Musk has not purchased Twitter as the outcome of sound business analysis. Instead, this is part of political project and the consequences are unlikely to be positive. Seymour writes that Musk: “Notoriously rules by fear, breaking the law, busting unions and firing employees who criticise him. He appears to want to establish the same pattern at Twitter, based on his apparently unassailable conviction that he knows best.”

The chaos surrounding Elon Musk and his Twitter takeover seems to have upset a lot of the social media platform’s user base. Similar increase in trend these terms was also seen in the last week of April 2022, when Twitter initially announced that it had come to an agreement with Elon Musk.

Analysis was also performed on the same trend in Google search volume as well:

Keywords and phrases	Jul-22	Aug-22	Sep-22	Oct-22	Increase %
delete twitter account	60,500	60,500	49,500	110,000	94%
deactivate twitter	4,400	4,400	3,600	8,100	96%
delete twitter	5,400	5,400	4,400	12,100	139%
how to delete twitter	6,600	6,600	3,600	6,600	18%
how to deactivate twitter	3,600	2,900	2,900	5,400	72%
deactivate twitter account	1,600	1,600	1,300	2,900	93%
how to delete your twitter account	2,400	2,400	1,900	3,600	61%
how to delete twitter account permanently	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,900	90%
how to delete my twitter account	1,600	1,300	1,300	3,600	157%
how do I delete my twitter account	1,900	1,900	1,600	8,100	350%

In the U.S., the reaction to the buyout has been split along partisan lines, with praise for Musk’s planned reforms and vision for the company, particularly his calls for greater free speech coming from those of a conservative leaning. In contrast, Musk has received harsh criticism over fears of a potential rise in misinformation, disinformation, harassment, and hate speech on the platform, from those of a liberal or social democratic persuasion.

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