When he’s not spreading conspiracy theories and being a transphobic father of a trans kid, Elon Musk is trying to understand how Twitter works. The social media platform, which he bought for over $40 billion last year, has seen a parade of problems following mass layoffs. Throughout it all, Musk continues to confound everyone by showing a repeated lack of understanding how his own website works on both a technical and social level, and the latest fiasco has him locking his own Twitter account.
Twitter allows all users to “protect” their Tweets. Also known as “locked” and “private” accounts, protected accounts can only be viewed by accounts that already follow the account, and new followers are manually verified by the account holder. While every account is set to public by default, anyone can change this setting by going to Settings> Privacy and safety> Audience and tagging, and selecting “Protect your Tweets.”
According to Twitter: “When selected, your Tweets and other account information are only visible to people who follow you.”
Several large conservative accounts whom Musk frequently engages with — including Libs of TikTok and Ben Shapiro — Tweeted this week they were experimenting with using the setting to ensure their audience that already follows them saw new posts, and came to the conclusion that Tweets from protected accounts are seen more often by existing followers than the total number of views when their account is public. So, early on February first, Musk locked his personal Twitter account to experiment for himself.
“Made my account private until tomorrow morning to test whether you see my private tweets more than my public ones,” the billionaire Tweeted.
While several prominent accounts engaging in their own tests claim to have experienced an increase in reach, the strategy is not entirely without problems. With such restrictions, followers of protected accounts are unable to retweet or easily share your content without taking and posting screenshots. And despite massive followings, many conservative personalities seem to be surprised that the setting is working as intended.
Tim Pool Tweeted that protected accounts can’t engage with public accounts they don’t already follow, which is the whole point of the setting. He added that he could no longer see Tweets from protected accounts (he doesn’t follow). Per Twitter:
“If you at one time had public Tweets (before protecting your Tweets), those Tweets will no longer be public on Twitter, or appear in public Twitter search results. Instead, your Tweets will only be viewable and searchable on Twitter by you and your followers.”
The source of the problem with audience reach is likely Musk’s own creation. Twitter has long let users toggle between a chronological and algorithmically sorted timeline. Since owning the company, however, Musk has made the algorithmically sorted timeline — which shows Tweets from accounts you don’t follow and does not necessarily show you everything accounts you follow post — the default screen when opening the site. The separate timelines are now described as “For you” and “Following” on the platform.
Many users used third party apps like Tweetbot to make sure they only saw Tweets from accounts they followed and in chronological order, but the company hindered the operation of such apps in January with a sudden change in policy, The Verge reported.
Musk’s account remains protected at the time of writing.