Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Meta, Instagram Follow Suit as Social Media Giants Enforce Post Viewing Limits

Transcript

Meta, Instagram Follow Suit as Social Media Giants Enforce Post Viewing Limits · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hi everybody and welcome back to the show.
• 0:04
  Now in this episode, we're going to delve into the unfolding
• 0:06
  drama of social media giants Twitter and Instagram.
• 0:10
  Recently, Instagram mirrored Twitter strategic move of
• 0:12
  limiting the number of posts users can view daily.
• 0:16
  Now this controversial step, justified as a measure against
• 0:19
  spam attacks, has intensified the rivalry between these
• 0:22
  platforms, prompting allegations of copying an intellectual
• 0:26
  property infringement. And in this episode, we'll also
• 0:29
  unpack these issues and evaluate their implications for the users
• 0:33
  in the future of both of these social media behemoths.
• 0:35
  We'll explore the fallout from Elon Musk's drastic limitations
• 0:39
  on Twitter, Adam Masri's cryptic announcement for Instagram, and
• 0:43
  the ensuing accusations of Threads, Meta's new app being a
• 0:46
  clone of Twitter. And we'll unpack these complex
• 0:49
  dynamics right after we return from a brief pause for a message
• 0:53
  from our sponsors. Don't go away.
• 0:55
  We'll be right back with more on this story of the social media
• 0:59
  rivalry and its broad reaching implications.
• 1:04
  All right, welcome back, everybody.
• 1:06
  Now, airing claims of corporate copyright behavior and
• 1:09
  infringement of intellectual property, Twitter and Instagram
• 1:13
  are battling for dominance in the world of social media right
• 1:16
  now. Instagram's latest move to limit
• 1:18
  the number of posts users can view, much like Twitter's recent
• 1:21
  policy change, is stirring controversy.
• 1:24
  At a Mossery, Instagram lead and Meta employee announced this
• 1:27
  strategic shift on Monday on Threats and Instagram based
• 1:30
  application and Mossery pointed to an uptick in spam attacks,
• 1:34
  necessitating changes to rate limits.
• 1:37
  The details of these limits remained ambiguous, prompting us
• 1:40
  to reach out to Meta, the parent company of Instagram.
• 1:43
  But Meta declined and then leave users and industry observers to
• 1:47
  speculate right now what's going on over there On social media
• 1:50
  platforms, imitation is common. This move by Instagram was
• 1:53
  immediately recognized. It's a striking resemblance to
• 1:56
  Twitter's recent policy update implemented by the company's
• 1:59
  owner, Elon Musk, And in early July, Musk limited the number of
• 2:03
  daily tweets users can view due to concerns of system
• 2:06
  manipulation and extreme data scraping.
• 2:09
  Musk quickly took to Twitter, dubbing threads as a clone of
• 2:12
  Twitter and accusing Meta of intellectual property theft, now
• 2:17
  following a series of trial and error.
• 2:19
  Twitter Blue users found their daily post views capped at
• 2:22
  10,000 and in contrast, unverified accounts saw a
• 2:26
  harsher cut off at 1000, while new accounts were limited to
• 2:30
  about 500. The Musk announced on Monday a
• 2:34
  50% increase in the limit for verified users.
• 2:37
  And despite the high thresholds, these changes disturbed the
• 2:40
  functionality of Tweet Deck and other services.
• 2:43
  The users reported issues with viewing embedded tweets and
• 2:46
  watching videos contained within posts.
• 2:49
  And in the face of these measures, the rate limit
• 2:51
  exceeded message became a common sight on Twitter, evoking
• 2:55
  widespread user grievances. Now tech Blogger Andy Baio
• 2:59
  highlighted the views of a web developer who argued that Musk's
• 3:02
  decision was the result of a bug, effectively self inflicting
• 3:06
  A Distributed Denial of Service attack on Twitter or DDoS or D
• 3:10
  dos. The former head of trust and
• 3:13
  safety at Twitter, UL Roth, concurred with this sentiment.
• 3:16
  In a blue sky post, adding that tampering with rate limits is
• 3:20
  the quickest route to breaking Twitter.
• 3:22
  However, Twitter has since managed to fix most of these
• 3:25
  issues, although the shaky user interface had already prompted
• 3:28
  many to experiment with Medis Threads app.
• 3:31
  According to data from Quiver, Quantitative Threads currently
• 3:35
  boasts 114,000,000 users and its threads hasn't been operational
• 3:39
  for even a month. Assessing real engagement
• 3:42
  requires looking at monthly active users.
• 3:44
  Yet Data Platform suggests that user engagement on Threads has
• 3:48
  halved since its launch. Although Threads has attracted a
• 3:52
  significant user base, the platform falls short in several
• 3:55
  key areas that could have helped it overthrow Twitter.
• 3:58
  Threads is criticized for being home to an increasing number of
• 4:01
  spammers and lacking important features, they could boost user
• 4:04
  retention. To counteract this, Mark
• 4:06
  Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, laid out a plan to enhance user
• 4:10
  retention on Threads. He stated that the company would
• 4:13
  focus on. Improving the basics of
• 4:15
  retention for the rest of the year, and Zuckerberg conceded
• 4:18
  that stabilization would take time, but expressed optimism
• 4:22
  about growing the community once the foundation was solid.
• 4:25
  Now, while Threads has garnered significant attention since his
• 4:28
  launch, reports from NBC News indicate A dropoff and user
• 4:32
  engagement, and data from Sensor Tower and similar web suggests
• 4:36
  that daily active users and time spent on the platform both saw
• 4:39
  significant decreases. And in response, a Meta
• 4:42
  spokesperson expressed excitement about Threads initial
• 4:45
  success and emphasize the company's future focus on
• 4:48
  ensuring stability of the platform and they're going to be
• 4:51
  delivering new features and continually improving the user
• 4:55
  experience. However, Threads battle for
• 4:58
  multimedia and social media supremacy is far from over.
• 5:02
  Regulatory concerns have kept the app from reaching the EU
• 5:05
  market, while some users have attempted to access Threads via
• 5:09
  a VPN. Meta has taken steps to block
• 5:12
  this method of access, and Meta has assured that the EU remains
• 5:16
  an important market and it's making calculated moves to limit
• 5:20
  its accessibility. Now.
• 5:21
  It's only been launched since July of 5th of this year in the
• 5:25
  US, and threads already boast over 100 million users, but the
• 5:28
  platform's introduction has been far from smooth, with various
• 5:31
  issues plaguing the user experience.
• 5:34
  A launch might have been premature though.
• 5:36
  With users wishing to delete threads being forced to delete
• 5:39
  their entire Instagram account, threads will evolve and so will
• 5:44
  Twitter, and the social media war will continue to wage on.
• 5:48
  Thank you so much for listening to the Elon Musk podcast today.
• 5:52
  I really do appreciate your time here and I appreciate you
• 5:54
  spending it with me. Now please take a second and
• 5:58
  take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you in the
• 6:01
  next one.