Will You Pay To Read Celebrity Tweets? Twitter Receives Flak For 'Super Follower' Feature

During its Analysts Day virtual event late on Thursday, Twitter had shown a slide about the "Super Follower" feature. "RIP Twitter" began trending on the microblogging site as people reacted to the report about the same.

Representative Photo: Getty Images

New Delhi: Twitter is embroiled in criticism over a new feature called "Super Follower" which will allow famous personalities and celebrities on the platform to charge their followers thereby helping the micro-blogging to earn revenue directly.

The feature got attention as "RIP Twitter" began trending on the microblogging site as people reacted to the report about the same.

During its Analysts Day virtual event late on Thursday, Twitter had shown a slide that read: "We're rethinking incentives and exploring solutions to provide monetary incentive models for Creators and Publishers to be directly supported by their audience".

As the news about it broke out, several users posted: "RIP Twitter. ALL WE WANTED WAS AN EDIT BUTTON".

While more details are awaited, the "Super Follower" tool is expected to work like Patreon where followers pay to get access to exclusive content. Nevertheless, the unexpected announcement has led to users criticising the move as reactions over the same flooded the platform.

During the virtual event, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said "Our goal is to more than double our total annual revenue to over $7.5 billion in 2023. This requires us to gain market share with performance ads, grow brand advertising, and expand our products to small and medium-sized businesses throughout the world".

"We have a goal of at least 315 million mDAU in the fourth quarter of 2023, which requires continued compounding growth at about 20 per cent per year from the base of 152 million mDAU we reported in the fourth quarter of 2019", he added.

Auto-Block Feature Against Abusive Content

During its Analyst Day presentation on Thursday, Twitter also announced the plan to introduce a way for users to automatically block and mute abusive accounts.

According to a slide reported in the Analyst Day slide deck, this new feature will be a toggle for users, who will have the option to turn it on in a new "safety mode."

Twitter described that it will "Automatically block accounts that appear to break the Twitter Rules, and mute accounts that might be using insults, name-calling, strong language, or hateful remarks."

This new safety mode will help the platform in automatically detecting accounts that "might be acting abusive or spammy" and limit how those accounts can engage with your content for seven days.

(With Inputs From Agencies)