Decentralized discourse: How open provide is shaping Twitter’s future

Six weeks on from Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter takeover, few phrases can completely encapsulate events as they’ve unfolded inside the interval since. “Chaotic” or “farcical” come pretty shut, though, with mass layoffs, U-turns, ultimatums, resignations, crowdsourced ban reversals, advertiser standoffs, selecting fights with Apple and a revamped verification system that has everyone and their uncle confused.

In actuality, this was all largely anticipated by anyone listening to the flip-flopping grandstanding that enveloped the six-month period as a lot because the acquisition. Nevertheless taking a step once more from the entropy now enshrined at Twitter Towers, it’s worth a recurring theme that has permeated the saga ever since moneyman Musk entered the picture — one that might play an instrumental half in shaping Twitter’s future.

The open provide problem

Even sooner than procuring a 9.2% stake in Twitter once more in April, Musk openly posited that Twitter’s suggestion algorithm have to be open provide. When Twitter later accepted his provide to buy the company outright, Musk doubled down on that notion, saying in his inaugural statement that he wanted to make Twitter “larger than ever,” which included “making the algorithms open provide to increase perception.”

The principle behind the thought is sound adequate. To know why Twitter is displaying people a particular piece of content material materials, and by extension the snowball effect this is having on society, having insights into algorithms might help — and open sourcing these algorithms would play a element.

Nevertheless by most estimations, such a solution is imperfect, because of viewing code doesn’t let you know the way the algorithm was created and what (if any) human biases had been involved in its creation, nor what data it was constructed on.

Little has been acknowledged by Musk about open sourcing Twitter’s algorithm since taking up, nevertheless he has laid off the entire “ethical AI” group that was engaged on the very draw back that Musk had acknowledged: bringing additional algorithmic transparency to the desk.

Twitter had in fact previously committed to open sourcing on the very least one amongst its algorithms following controversy over racial bias that was seemingly embedded into its image-cropping tech. That in no way pretty materialized, nevertheless the reality that its ML Ethics, Transparency and Accountability (META) group is now nearly defunct signifies that it may probably be awhile sooner than an identical program emerges from Twitter.

However, the “open provide problem” continues to be hovering across the globe of Twitter in various guises.

The “Twitter numerous”

Mastodon has emerged as the default life raft for these leaping ship from Twitter, and whereas it probably isn’t the Twitter 2.0 that plenty of the world truly wishes correct now, it hints at what a future Twitter might seem like. The so-called “open source Twitter alternative” does have Twitter-esque microblogging choices, but it surely certainly’s based mostly on a totally completely completely different infrastructure centered throughout the concept of the fediverse: a decentralized group of interconnected servers that allow completely completely different platforms to talk with each other, powered by the open ActivityPub protocol. 

Although it springboarded past 1 million after which two million full of life prospects last month, Mastodon isn’t the one platform standing to revenue from the Twitter debacle. Tumblr was already positioning itself as a “better Twitter,” and guardian agency Automattic’s CEO Matt Mullenweg revealed that Tumblr downloads had skyrocketed inside the weeks following Musk’s arrival at Twitter.

Info from Sensor Tower backs that up, with Tumblr app installs inside the U.S. alone rising 96%.

Tumblr isn’t open provide or decentralized, nevertheless Mullenweg is a fan of the model. WordPress, which he co-created, is among the many many prime open source projects on the planet, and Automattic recently open sourced its Pocket Casts podcast app.

Searching for to capitalize on Twitter’s predicament and Mastodon’s modest rise, Mullenweg has been quick to align Tumblr with the open provide sphere, confirming previously discussed plans to make Tumblr as “open provide as potential.” He moreover solicited feedback on plans to align Tumblr with the fediverse and assist related open provide protocols, sooner than revealing that Tumblr intends to assist the ActivityPub protocol ultimately. This may indicate that prospects of Mastodon and Tumblr can be able to discuss straight with each other. Flickr CEO Don MacAskill later polled his Twitter followers on whether or not or not the photo-hosting platform and group should additionally embrace ActivityPub.

Elsewhere, open source enterprise messaging platform Rocket.chat revealed earlier this yr that it was transitioning to a similar decentralized communication protocol often known as Matrix.

So it’s clear that there’s rising momentum inside the social sphere to maneuver away from centralization, in the direction of an interoperable world the place people aren’t tied into single-player ecosystems.

Bluesky pondering

That’s one path Twitter might also go down. The company in fact flirted with an identical decentralized methodology in its earliest days, based mostly on one specific particular person straight involved inside the enterprise, whereas the prospect has reared its head as soon as extra in newest situations too.

Blaine Cook, one amongst Twitter’s founding engineers who joined the company merely months after it was created, took to Twitter recently to lament the reality that Twitter might have been a decentralized protocol from the get go. He said that it was one factor that he had started to develop whereas he was chief architect on the burgeoning social group, nevertheless the enterprise was ultimately canned shortly after he left the company in 2008.

“The [decentralized] API was very similar to ActivityPub within the current day, and ActivityPub’s lineage could be traced once more to those early experiments,” Put together dinner suggested .

Consistent with Put together dinner, these “early experiments” had been based mostly totally on XMPP, the open communication messaging protocol (beforehand known as Jabber) developed by Jeremie Miller, who moreover now sits on Bluesky’s board (additional on Bluesky below) alongside Jack Dorsey. Nevertheless whatever the assist of some, Put together dinner acknowledged the thought merely didn’t fly.

So, what occurred to this fediverse enterprise at Twitter? “I’ve in no way gotten the whole story,” Put together dinner acknowledged, noting that he was outvoted on the matter and was later “pushed out of the company” and the API in no way materialized.

Fast-forward to 2022, though, and there stays some prospect that Twitter might nonetheless embrace federation and an open provide protocol.

As a result of the Twitter acquisition crawled nearer to its conclusion a lot of months once more, co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey took to Twitter to say that his biggest regret was that Twitter had transform a company inside the first place (though it’s easy to say that once you’ve made your billions). This constructed on completely different statements Dorsey had made to that influence, as an illustration in April when he tweeted:

I’m [SIC] don’t think about any specific particular person or institutions ought to private social media, or additional normally media corporations. It have to be an open and verifiable protocol. Each little factor is a step in the direction of that.

Twitter had in fact already birthed a Mastodon-esque decentralized enterprise called Bluesky, which Dorsey launched to the world back in 2019 whereas he was Twitter CEO. He acknowledged on the time that Twitter could be funding a “small neutral group of as a lot as 5 open provide architects, engineers, and designers,” charged with establishing a decentralized customary for social media, and the ultimate phrase goal was for Twitter to undertake this customary itself. However it was on a regular basis going to be a protracted journey, with Bluesky solely recently announcing a beta signup program for Bluesky Social, an app constructed on the model new AT Protocol.

If all goes to plan, any agency or developer can be able to assemble an app using the AT Protocol, and discuss with completely different apps that share that protocol (along with Twitter). This means prospects might elect to make use of 1 specific app that presents messages in a really completely completely different format powered by a novel algorithm, after which “lift-and-shift” all their data to an alternate down the street if their requirements change.

Whatever the chaos ensuing at Twitter within the current day, the Bluesky enterprise ought to remain shielded from interference, insofar because it’s a Public Benefit LLC that’s operationally independent from Twitter, though it was relying on $13 million in funding from Twitter by means of its preliminary R&D part.

With Musk now on the helm at Twitter, it’s unimaginable to know the place this leaves Bluesky. Sure, Bluesky may be neutral, nevertheless Twitter was alleged to be its big-name shopper, and Dorsey is no longer in value at Twitter.

reached out to Bluesky lead Jay Graber, nevertheless they’d been unable to supply a comment on the time of writing. Nevertheless on the day Musk took over Twitter, Graber did tweet to remind the world that Bluesky was neutral and, similar to e-mail, decentralized initiatives such as a result of the AT Protocol can’t be bought.

Musk has confirmed on numerous occasions that he’s keen on the concept underpins Bluesky though. He’s known to be a large fan of crypto (some people actually think that Musk is Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto) and decentralization. In a set of messages exchanged between Musk and Dorsey earlier this yr, Musk expressed curiosity in Dorsey’s imaginative and prescient for Twitter as part of an open provide protocol. Nevertheless with Musk at current additional concerned with trying to jump-start Twitter and avert bankruptcy, adopting the AT Protocol gained’t be prime of his to-do guidelines inside the fast future.

Dorsey, within the meantime, remains on the Bluesky board, and recently said that he’s pushing for Bluesky to be a direct competitor to “any agency trying to private the underlying fundamentals for social media or the information of the people using it.” And that, in actual fact, comprises Twitter.

Challenges

Considered one of many biggest arguments in the direction of a decentralized social group is extra more likely to come from a enterprise perspective, as federated packages give prospects additional various and it’s tougher for corporations to lock prospects in. The so-called “group influence,” the place a product’s value will improve as a result of the number of people using it should improve, isn’t virtually as potent if the buyer can acquire an app from one agency and chat with their friends who use a novel app.

“As a result of the inception of Fb, Twitter, and Instagram, group outcomes have trapped prospects on these platforms — no person wishes to go someplace their friends aren’t,” Put together dinner acknowledged. “The fediverse inverts the administration and permits people to resolve on the place to host their on-line identification. The hope is that ultimately, this may increasingly additionally indicate opponents between — as an illustration, Mastodon and completely different social software program program — and the evolution of choices in a method Twitter was in no way able to assist.”

Hemant Mohapatra, affiliate at VC company Lightspeed India and former investor at Silicon Valley’s Andreessen Horowitz (which backed every Fb and Twitter), acknowledged that whereas decentralization has its benefits, the prevailing centralized “Web 2.0” model permits social networks to engineer “serendipity” into their content material materials strategies using a much bigger pool of information. In several phrases, it’s less complicated for corporations to assemble one factor the place people can uncover “points” that they like — people or content material materials — and thus entice them once more for additional.

“In centralized packages, the algorithm decides the considered ‘serendipity,’ based mostly totally on pursuits, filters and so forth,” Mohapatra suggested . “TikTok’s full platform runs purely on this. Everytime you decentralize this, counting on how the once more end is constructed, ‘crawling’ the sharded data is that much more sturdy. Prospects then should go to what’s a ‘pub/sub’ construction — prospects subscribe to publishers as an alternative of getting the platform to counsel and ground points. The ground house of random discovery, or serendipity, goes down.”

This helps to give attention to that whereas decentralization might revenue prospects in terms of giving them flexibility and avoiding lock-in, there are trade-offs. Such trade-offs might also cease Twitter, or irrespective of future contender, from with the flexibility to monetize as efficiently — undoubtedly on the diploma of the social networks of within the current day. Large-targeted and behavioral selling might also be off the taking part in playing cards inside the fediverse, which could indicate money should come from elsewhere. That might probably be old-school contextual selling tailored to a particular “event” of a social group, but it surely certainly might also indicate that subscriptions for “power choices” transform an integral part of social networks — one factor that Musk is focused on right now at Twitter as a result of the advertising dollars dry up.

Lastly, though, the place there are many people, the innovators and entrepreneurs on a regular basis work out new strategies to cash in.

“I completely depend on for-profit entities to emerge, offering white-label or polished Twitter-like experiences,” Put together dinner added. “A terrific analogue proper right here could be e-mail: Many people use e-mail day by day for important enterprise operations, and loads of corporations are able to current value-added suppliers on prime, whatever the underlying protocols and most e-mail software program program being free.”

For now, the group influence continues to be very quite a bit alive in within the current day’s huge social networks. Nevertheless with a rising array of decentralized decisions, the current crop of social networks might transform a lot much less sticky over time: If someone can soar ship to Tumblr and nonetheless chat with their buddies over on Mastodon, there’s a lot much less impetus for everyone to be within the equivalent social space.

Cory Doctorow, creator, activist and specific adviser to the Digital Frontier Foundation (EFF), is a strong proponent of open source and interoperability — making points created by completely completely different people or corporations work collectively, whether or not or not it’s printers and ink cartridges or, definitely, social networks.

So what does the next mannequin of social media seem like?

“A large, sprawling, pluralistic web of semi-connected packages, some larger run, some worse, with every technical and approved protections for freedom of movement to can help you change nodes with out shedding your communities, shoppers, family and friends,” Doctorow outlined to .

What we’re potential talking about are quite a few separate enterprise (or not) apps associated by shared protocols, nevertheless none truly getting uncomfortably huge. If adequate social networks do be part of an open protocol, it acquired’t matter quite a bit if people go away Twitter and be part of the equivalent social group, as they’ll be able to choose from a lot of choices. This may assist a whole new array of smaller social networks — quite a few completely completely different apps doing their very personal little issue, constructed on their very personal algorithms and moderation insurance coverage insurance policies, with their very personal enterprise fashions in place.

However, social networks as they stand keep digital vortexes for primarily probably the most half, by benefit of the reality that people have to be the place all their friends are. True interoperability stays a pipe dream for now, nevertheless there are encouraging indicators on the horizon.

Regulation time

There was an array of anti-trust lawsuits which have already led to some important change, resembling Apple being forced to allow dating app developers in the Netherlands to make use of varied value decisions, whereas Google has faced associated regulatory pressure to open up.

This helps for instance how Large Tech is being strong-armed into loosening its stranglehold on their respective platforms. In tandem, these corporations have moreover been trying to appease regulators by means of additional proactive measures.

In 2018, Fb, Google, Microsoft and Twitter joined forces for the Data Transfer Project (Apple joined later), an open provide initiative to co-develop devices for transferring data between suppliers. Not an unlimited amount has come from this effort so far, nevertheless there have been a lot of problems with discover — Fb has launched a software program that lets prospects swap their photos and flicks to Google Photos, as an illustration. And earlier this yr, Google revealed that it would be investing $3 million in portability packages.

Nevertheless none of this goes virtually far adequate in terms of addressing the underlying “stickiness” embedded into these platforms. There could also be nothing truly stopping Fb and Twitter prospects with the flexibility to message each other within the current day, previous the technological limitations each agency has chosen to implement. That is the explanation regulators are persevering with to look fastidiously at these types of walled gardens, with Europe pushing ahead with rules to strain interoperability between messaging platforms. And inside the U.S. there are similar plans for an interoperable future by means of the ACCESS Act.

Elsewhere, Europe’s Digital Services Act, which entered into strain last month, has provisions for algorithmic transparency. The European Charge currently launched the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT) to help assist its oversight and algorithmic auditing of very huge on-line platforms (VLOP). And earlier this yr, U.S. Senators launched the Algorithmic Accountability Act, touted as a “landmark bill” designed to convey transparency and oversight to software program program and computerized packages that are used to “make important alternatives about virtually either side of People’ lives.”

None of this primarily requires social platforms to open up all their algorithms for the world to see, nevertheless in delicate of his publicized obsession with open sourcing Twitter’s suggestion algorithms, such legal guidelines might spur Musk into releasing the code (for irrespective of good that may actually do).

Throw all of this collectively into a big melting pot, and what now we now have is a fertile panorama for change: a rising array of open provide protocols which will bridge myriad social networks, a push in the direction of algorithmic transparency and regulators forcing the long-established incumbents to participate.

Nevertheless irrespective of promising progress metrics that Mastodon and its ilk have reported over the earlier month, the precise truth stays it’s troublesome to scale a social group, which retains Twitter in a relatively strong place for now.

“It’s true that the ‘regulation of small numbers’ is at play proper right here — it’s easy to double a small amount and exhausting to double an enormous one,” Doctorow acknowledged. “And it’s likewise true that whilst you scale one factor up shortly, you uncover quite a few new points … the exhausting method. It’s incumbent on decentralization advocates to handle that momentum and deal with these points as they occur.”

What’s moreover apparent proper right here is the emergence of a lot of “competing” protocols: ActivityPub, At Protocol (Bluesky) and Matrix to name just a few. Off the bat, these completely completely different protocols don’t play ball with each other. However it’s faraway from an insurmountable hurdle, offered that these protocols is not going to be proprietary IP: They’re open and could be made interoperable.

“I really feel number of protocol is crucial, as is number of the features constructed on prime of the protocols,” Put together dinner added. “That acknowledged, I strongly think about that interoperability between ActivityPub and Bluesky acquired’t be troublesome. The one issue stopping, as an illustration, interoperability between Twitter and Fb’s timeline has been protectionist insurance coverage insurance policies by these corporations.”

There are numerous completely completely different analogies which will help us understand how points might evolve proper right here. Inside the e-mail realm, there are completely completely different protocols for accessing e-mail resembling IMAP and POP, whereas the telecommunications sector has moreover thrived on interoperable protocols for routing and carrying phone calls and textual content material messages. As quickly as upon a time it wasn’t possible to send a text message between completely completely different carriers, nevertheless within the current day it’s one factor most people take as a right.

There’s no precise function why social networks developed on completely completely different protocols have to be any completely completely different.

Open sesame

All this leads us to 1 fascinating pontification: What if Twitter decided to go all-in on open provide? Not solely a suggestion algorithm or a protocol, nevertheless your entire capturing match — codebase, purchasers ‘n all? It’d undoubtedly be a Herculean endeavor, notably with the whole thing else occurring at Twitter correct now.

It’d even be an almost unprecedented switch to see a $44 billion personal agency open its full codebase to the world’s heaps. That’s to not say that it couldn’t ever happen though, as Musk has form in making radical strikes. Eight years prior to now Musk ripped up the patent playbook when he pledged that Tesla wouldn’t sue any agency that infringed any of its patents “in good faith.” On the time, Musk acknowledged it was all about expediting electrical automotive adoption and the infrastructure required (e.g., charging stations), an ethos that’s broadly aligned with that of open provide.

“Know-how administration shouldn’t be outlined by patents, which historic previous has repeatedly confirmed to be small security definitely in the direction of a determined competitor, nevertheless comparatively by the ability of a company to attract and encourage the world’s most gifted engineers,” Musk wrote on the time. “We think about that making use of the open provide philosophy to our patents will strengthen comparatively than diminish Tesla’s place on this regard.”

Whereas the “attraction to and encourage the world’s most gifted engineers” facet stands out like a sore thumb when juxtaposed in the direction of the turmoil at Twitter within the current day, the reality that Musk was ready to make such a left-field switch with the company’s patents is notable when you concentrate on the place he finds himself within the current day at Twitter. He clearly should impress a depleted workforce and prevent Twitter from falling apart.

Nevertheless would going your entire 9 yards on open provide make issues higher at Twitter?

“What Musk did at Tesla with the patents was unprecedented,” Heather Meeker, an open provide licensing specialist and affiliate at seed-stage VC company OSS Capital, suggested . “Nevertheless I’m undecided laying the code open would treatment their maintenance draw back — it might generate a great deal of good will though. A lot of the maintenance effort for a company — like Twitter, or each different — is in inserting collectively and managing the platform, not writing or sustaining code.”

Put together dinner agreed that it’d make little sense for Twitter to go completely open provide attributable to the reality that its points are a lot much less regarding the number of eyeballs on code than it’s about infrastructure, along with the strategic alternatives it makes at a enterprise diploma.

“Nowadays, Twitter isn’t quite a bit a one-source repository, nevertheless an immense deployed infrastructure that may potential take weeks to rearrange from scratch,” Put together dinner acknowledged. “I’m undecided open air engineers might contribute in any important method. And most of Twitter’s points as of late are protection, not code per se, as quite a bit as Musk is fixated on that aspect.”

Inside the additional fast time interval, however, there are essential safety and security implications at play, with chief information security officer Lea Kissner recently departing and content material materials moderation seemingly going out of the window.

Open provide might have a element to play proper right here, perhaps best evidenced by means of Community Notes, beforehand generally called Birdwatch until Musk decided it was time for a name-change last month. Consistent with Musk, Twitter “should transform by far primarily probably the most right provide of particulars concerning the world,” and Neighborhood Notes is seemingly what will power that mission.

Neighborhood Notes is principally Twitter crowdsourcing information accuracy from its hundreds and hundreds of consumers, with authorised contributors able to worth and add “helpful context” to tweets. This was opened to everyone inside the U.S. in October and commenced rolling out to everyone globally over the weekend.

The Neighborhood Notes score algorithm provide code is in the marketplace on GitHub for anyone to peruse and already there are third-party builders establishing merchandise on prime of it, such as the open source Community Notes Dashboard, which serves as a leaderboard for contributors to the Neighborhood Notes program.

The ethos behind Neighborhood Notes is sound in principle, insofar as one amongst Twitter’s biggest points from a content material materials moderation perspective has been scalability: Algorithms have restricted accuracy and battle with nuance, whereas there can solely be so many individuals available to help internally.

If Twitter was to journey farther down the path of open provide, it could help convey a bit additional perception once more to the platform; one factor that has been eroded of late — merely within the current day, info emerged that Twitter had disbanded its Perception & Safety Council advisory group.

“There are numerous benefits of open provide, exterior contribution to the code is just one of many,” Joseph Jacks, founder and seed-stage investor at OSS Capital, suggested . “Completely different benefits that can be immediately impactful — on the diploma of why Signal is additional trusted than WhatsApp — embrace code transparency, and perception and privateness assurance, because of the world would know how the whole thing primary to the platform is carried out. Open provide permits a extreme diploma of provable perception in experience that in some other case is solely not potential.”

There could also be one notably alluring aspect of federation that might moreover enchantment to Twitter’s new proprietor inside the near time interval. A decentralized infrastructure might most likely help battle spam, bots and completely different harmful actors — one factor that Musk has persistently complained about before, during and after the acquisition closed. Fully completely different apps on a shared protocol might collaborate and share data.

“[With decentralization] I really feel we’ll see a whole bunch of shared code, design patterns, and eventually, shared infrastructure to help replicate and improve upon the sort of perception and safety insurance coverage insurance policies that Twitter carried out,” Put together dinner acknowledged.

So comparatively than relying on a single entity to deal with bots or abuse, all the companies on a shared protocol might share blocklists and detection fashions, bypassing the inherent constraints of a single product group at Twitter or Fb.

Alongside along with his visions for Twitter 2.0, there are indicators that Musk is looking for to lean on completely different sides of the open provide sphere, too, along with a protocol that’s utilized by billions of people globally.

Signal of intent

In response to a deliberate privacy policy change at Facebook last yr that may share some WhatsApp data with Fb, Elon Musk publicly recommended that people ditch WhatsApp for Signal, an open provide messaging numerous backed by WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton. And it’s clear that Signal stays on Musk’s radar within the current day.

In a response to a question posted on Twitter last month, Musk acknowledged that the target of direct messages (DMs) is to “superset Signal,” a lofty ambition that presumably means he wishes to make direct messaging on Twitter safer than Signal.

However it’s easy to say points on Twitter — it’s a really completely completely different issue executing on such daring (and obscure) plans. However, new evidence recently emerged that Twitter is actively working to revive a previously shelved project to introduce encryption to DMs, whereas a report on The Verge moreover detailed some of Musk’s apparent plans for encrypted DMs as part of Twitter 2.0.

The report, citing suggestions reportedly made at an all-hands meeting, signifies that Musk had spoken straight with Moxie Marlinspike, the cryptographer, security researcher and creator of Signal, about serving to out with Twitter’s DM encryption roadmap.

For context, Marlinspike, who left Signal back in January, co-authored the open provide Signal Protocol that powers encryption in WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype and Signal itself. Marlinspike moreover had a earlier occupation at Twitter after it acquired his enterprise mobile security company Whisper Applications in 2011, with Marlinspike occurring to maneuver up Twitter’s cybersecurity operations for a time. Twitter launched just a few of Whisper Applications’ merchandise beneath an open provide license, with Marlinspike subsequently leaving Twitter in 2013 to work on what would lastly transform Signal.

All indicators so far counsel that Twitter’s encrypted DMs plan will channel the Signal protocol in some form, serving as one different nod to how open provide is shaping Twitter.

Twitter 2.0

Twitter is at a severe crossroads, and nobody truly is conscious of what path Twitter will take, perhaps not even Musk himself.

In some respects, Twitter may probably be “too huge to fail” from an existential perspective as a result of the de facto “world metropolis sq.,” nevertheless that doesn’t primarily translate proper right into a thriving enterprise. Advertisers are queasy about aligning themselves with hate speech and other forms of questionable content in a light-touch moderation world, and Twitter could be unlikely to attract enough subscribers to interchange its misplaced selling earnings.

It’s troublesome to see a path forward for Twitter as a enterprise in its current form. It should evolve in a big method, which may require radical strikes previous trying to develop its subscription base. With rising consciousness of — and actions in the direction of — the fediverse, alongside mounting regulatory pressure spherical interoperability and algorithmic transparency, it seems like vital change is coming to the world of social networking.

“The reality is that federated suppliers are experiencing explosive progress, additional progress beforehand couple of weeks than beforehand a lot of years,” Doctorow acknowledged. “That may be a likelihood that’s ours to seize — or lose.”

Nevertheless what all this suggests for Twitter continues to be anyone’s guess.