Elon Musk has acknowledged that his $44 billion takeover of X may fail — a stark admission that came as he faced fresh public outrage over a decision to eliminate the social media sites block feature.
Musk commented on Xs uncertain future came even as Threads, the rival text-based social media platform launched by Mark Zuckerbergs Meta last month, prepared to roll out a web version in its latest effort to lure users.
The sad truth is that there are no great social networks right now, Musk said. We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one.
The X owner, who is worth an estimated $225.5 billion, infuriated users last Friday by revealing they would no longer be allowed to block accounts, except in the case of direct messages.
Musk argued that the block feature makes no sense and said users would have to make do with simply muting accounts from appearing on their timeline.
The move triggered immediate pushback, with Monica Lewinsky among those who urged Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino to reconsider nixing the feature.
The sad truth is that there are no great social networks right now.
We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one.
Please rethink removing the block feature. as an anti-bullying activist (and target of harassment) i can assure you its a critical tool to keep people safe online, Lewinsky said.
Despite his apparent doubts about Xs future success, Musk poked fun at users who had raised a stink about his decision to get rid of the block function.
Pretty fun blocking people who complain that blocking is going away. How does the medicine taste? Musk wrote on Sunday.
The criticism was one of the multiple headaches that emerged for X over the weekend.
On Saturday, a glitch on Xs platform caused pictures and videos that were uploaded to Twitter prior to 2015 to disappear from the site.
One of the pictures to be temporarily erased was comedians Ellen DeGeneres famous selfie from the 2014 Oscars alongside Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Meryl Steep. That image was later restored, though the glitch appeared to persist for other media.
“More vandalism from @elonmusk,” said user Tom Coates, who was among the first to flag the issue. “Twitter has now removed all media posted before 2014. Thats – so far – almost a decade of pictures and videos from the early 2000s removed from the service.”
Separately, a report from Mashable revealed that 42% of Musks roughly 153 million followers had zero followers of their own. More than 100 million accounts that follow Musk have tweeted fewer than 10 times.
More vandalism from @elonmusk. Twitter has now removed all media posted before 2014. Thats – so far – almost a decade of pictures and videos from the early 2000s removed from the service.
For example, heres a search of my media tweets from before 2014. https://t.co/FU6K34oqmA
The data suggests that many of Musks followers have inactive accounts — and raised the possibility that some could be bots. The billionaire famously vowed to eliminate all bots from Twitter as part of his plans to rejuvenate the site.
Meanwhile, Zuckerbergs plan to roll out a web version of Threads added additional pressure on X. While Threads has lost more than half of its user base since its debut, it is still considered the most significant challenge to date for Musks platform.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri confirmed on Friday that Threads web version was close to a debut.
Its a little bit buggy right now, you dont want it just yet, Mosseri said. As soon as it is ready, we will share it with everybody else.
If X were to fail at some point, it would mark one of the costliest business disasters in history. Musk was forced to sell off a significant chunk of Tesla stock to fund the $44 billion deal.
Earlier this month, Yaccarino claimed that X is close to breaking even from a revenue perspective following Musks extensive cost-cutting measures, including mass layoffs.
