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‘All we wanted was an edit function!’ Twitter feels the wrath after announcing pay for ‘Super Follows’ feature

February 26, 2021 | | Print Article

Amid the heavy-handed censorship and other concerns folks have about Twitter, the social media platform unveiled some planned new features Thursday.

One of the most sought-after features on Twitter is the ability to edit a tweet once it has been posted, where typos and other errors can be corrected. But none of these issues were addressed in the announced changes, prompting the hashtag #TwitterRIP to start trending online.

One change will allow users to charge their followers for access to additional content, such as bonus tweets, access to a community group, subscription to a newsletter, or a badge indicating your support, The Verge reported.

This will be called “Super Follows,” with Twitter expected to get its cut, of course.

The other change will allow users to create and join groups based around specific interests.

 

“We’re rethinking incentives and exploring solutions to provide monetary incentive models for creators and publishers to be directly supported by their audience,” said the company during its Analyst Day presentation.

Twitter said it aims to double annual revenue in 2023 to at least $7.5 billion and 315 million monetizable daily active users, up from its current 192 million.

More on the changes from The Verge:

Direct payment tools have become increasingly important for creators in particular in recent years. Patreon has been hugely successful, and other platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and even GitHub have all launched direct creator payment features. Twitter will presumably take a cut — the company has been hinting at subscriptions features that would offer it a new source of revenue — though it doesn’t appear to have said yet what that fee will be.

Twitter also announced a new feature called Communities, which appear to be its take on something like Facebook Groups. People can create and join groups around specific interests — like cats or plants, Twitter suggests — allowing them to see more tweets focused on those topics. Groups have been a huge success for Facebook (and a huge moderation problem, too), and they could be a particularly helpful tool on Twitter, since the service’s open-ended nature can make it difficult for new users to get started on the platform.

 

Twitter users were skeptical about the planned changes, with many making it clear that they will not be paying to read anyone’s tweets.

Here’s a sampling of some of the responses from the social media platform:

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