Twitter Users Angry After Elon Musk Introduces New Feature That Limits Freedom of Speech

X (formerly known as Twitter) has been evolving and experimenting with new features ever since Elon Musk acquired the company for over $40 billion and fired more than half of the workforce in the name of driving the social media company to efficiency and profitability. While his dream of making X profitable again currently seems far-fetched, he has invited some slack from the users of the social media platform after announcing the newest feature of Twitter.

The newest feature allows users to limit the replies on their tweet from verified users only.

Limit Replies To Verified Users

The official account of X posted “you can now limit replies to verified users”, to which Elon Musk requoted saying “this should help a lot with spam bots”

While the new feature seems to be portrayed as an enhancement and remedy against bots that have infiltrated the platform, it really is the opposite. Let us explain:

• Many bots on social media platforms (including X, formerly Twitter) are verified accounts. This means that measures that limit replies to only verified users will still not get rid of bots or fake accounts.
• The limited ability of unverified users to reply on some posts might trigger one of the two things: either the user buys the verified checkmark that costs $8/monthly or leave the platform completely.

For the above mentioned reasons, the new feature is not particularly going to be an effective measure of battling bots on the platform. The reaction from Twitter users has been mixed, though most of the users expressed disappointment on the move and did not welcome it.

User Reactions

Here are some replies and reactions of X users:

One user said “”fweee spweech” lol – d*mb*ses.” while another chimed in in support of the new feature to say “verified users can bring valuable insights. Excited to see how this will shape discussions!”

• “If I was getting trolled hard enough to need to do this I would just private my account. Feels like a useless feature.”
• “Many bots and scammers are verified though”
• “the whole point of this feature is just to strong arm people into paying $8 a month to defend themselves from slander and abuse since he doesn’t enforce TOS against anyone with a checkmark unless they are critical of him then he will.”