X: the little social network with less than a billion members

Showing all posts about social networks

X: the little social network with less than a billion members

23 October 2026

If social media/social network platforms were compared to planets, then X, previously Twitter, would be the Pluto of the solar system; a dwarf planet.

Because unlike its peers, X, twenty years after launching in 2006, is still well short — make that a long way short — of joining the one-billion-member club.

Should we take a leaf out of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) handbook, when they re-determined Pluto’s status? ¹ Should commercial social platforms with fewer than one-billion users, be classified as dwarf platforms?

According to Search Engine Land, X has about five-hundred-and-sixty million users. Facebook (FB), launched in 2004, has some three-billion members. Instagram, albeit a FB offshoot, has a similar user count. This from launching in 2010. TikTok, online since 2016, now has nearly two-billion members.

A chart of the top social media/social network platforms ², based on monthly active users, published by Salesforce, has X ranked at a lowly number twelve. On the other hand, it is twice as popular as LinkedIn. The news isn’t all bad for X.

Everyone loves dwarf planets

I don’t like bagging out dwarf planets, so I’ll go easy on X. For a social media platform, the old micro-blogging service — is X still considered a micro-blogging service? — punches above its weight.

The brand is ubiquitous. Only five-hundred-and-sixty million people call themselves members, but find me someone who hasn’t heard of X. Though we mustn’t forget X stands on the shoulders of a (somewhat) giant called Twitter.

Even before the current owner took over, resulting in what seemed like daily headlines for months, nearly everyone knew the Twitter name. Something someone said or did on Twitter, was often reposted in mainstream news reporting, and often as an embedded tweet.

As of January 2024, X was the sixth largest referrer of website traffic, although the figure sounds more impressive than it is. X accounted for a modest two-point-three percent of referrer traffic, but was still among the top platforms, albeit well overshadowed by Google.

There’s billion member potential here, but where is everyone?

Twitter and X, were, and are, well, different

The platform is two-decades old. Why has it not enjoyed the stratospheric-level success of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others?

When decentralised social platform Mastodon rose to prominence in 2022, people were hesitant to get involved. They found Mastodon was way too confusing. Why couldn’t it “be easy to figure out like Twitter”, was a common refrain a few years ago.

But if Twitter was so user-friendly then, why did so many people stay away?

Part of the answer lies in the platform’s early simplicity. In the beginning Twitter was a text only medium. Further, posts/tweets were restricted to one-hundred-and-forty characters. It was like text messaging for the web. A lot of people found the tweet limit as challenging as signing up to Mastodon. Others, of course, thrived on this brevity.

But there was no support early on for images and video. People didn’t like walls of text, even when they weren’t particularly sizeable. Things changed though. Today, you’d probably be hard pressed to find a post without a photo or animation. And X users who are prepared to pay for premium membership, can write posts containing up to twenty-five thousand characters.

Had X, while still Twitter, launched with imagery and a larger character limit, it could well be part of the billion member club by now.

Then there is the elephant in the room; the current owner. In taking the platform in the direction he did, some users, existing and potential, were put off. To say the least.

If I were to make the simplistic assertion that half of people are conservative in their politics, and the other half something else (not the way things really work of course), then possibly alienating potentially half of a user base isn’t clever.

This will probably be why X will not achieve a membership of one billion. X is a planet that may well be doomed to remain a dwarf.

1. In 2006 no less. Oh, the irony. ↩
2. If you consider the likes of YouTube, WhatsApp, and Telegram to be social networks. ↩

AI, absence of Eisenberg, Fincher, see The Social Reckoning flop

16 October 2026

Brent Lang writing for IndieWire:

With only one member of its creative team returning, Sony Pictures shied away from selling it as a sequel, but the studio still sprinkled bits of “The Social Network’s” DNA into promotional materials.

The Social Reckoning, directed by Aaron Sorking, a continuation of sorts of 2010’s The Social Network, is poorer, it seems, for the absence of David Fincher, and Jesse Eisenberg. Fincher’s obligations to Netflix kept him away, while Eisenberg, among other things, didn’t want to repeat himself.

Recent controversies surrounding AI, the Hugging Face hack, and claims the technology could result in humanity’s extinction, have also apparently proved to be significant distractions.

You can’t do anything without AI somehow meddling. Despite The Social Reckoning not doing too well at the box office, I’d still like to see it, though that will probably be by streaming.

Come back Twitter/X, all is forgiven

14 October 2026

Since its acquisition by Elon Musk in 2022, Twitter/X has been considered a neighbourhood on the wrong side of the tracks. But not any more. Things have changed. Now it’s the place to be. Because, among other things, the platform is “cheerful” and “inclusive”. So say some people.

But the question is vexed, the matter of Twitter/X being either in, or out of, favour. Especially for long time users, people there since the platform’s inception in 2006. I doubt many of them think all that highly of the present owner. Or the direction the platform has gone.

A change of management, and outlook, was not something the majority of these early adaptors wanted, nor asked for. They were just picked up, and carried along with it. People who spent years cultivating profile, and in some cases, large followings. For them, the prospect of having to migrate somewhere else, leave behind the most of their followers, and start again, was daunting.

Best then to keep calm and carry on. Twitter/X, on the whole, may not be “cheerful” or “inclusive”, but it is vast. It is possible to carve out corners free of hate speech and warped political ideologies. And that might be ok for some people whose livelihoods depend on their Twitter/X followings. Provided they are able to stay in their own lanes. Even if that sounds like being in a gilded cage.

But the warnings that something might go wrong were there from the beginning.

Just about everyone I once knew on Twitter/X, started out as a blogger. At the time, Twitter/X, and other social networks, were seen as an “outpost” for someone’s blog. A small something on the side. They were a convenient, fun even, way for a blogger to network, spread the word, and make friends, but all roads led back to their website, which was sacrosanct.

Because, even twenty years ago, people knew they were merely occupying a room in someone else’s house. The concern then though was the house rules might change without notice. Or we might wake up one morning and find the property had been demolished, was gone.

No problem though, our blogs and websites were still there. But Twitter/X was too convenient, too fun, too easy. The time had come to go “all in” with the platform, and forget about blogs.

Of course, no saw what happened to Twitter/X, coming. Even that wouldn’t have mattered though, had those former bloggers not become so dependent on the platform. If they had kept their websites, and concentrated their online presence in a space they had control and ownership of.

But that’s moot point. Discussion isn’t about websites. It’s about which social media platform is not as bad as the others. Threads is dross. Mastodon is fringe. Bluesky is in decline. But Twitter is ok. No one’s saying social media is good, is the answer, is the way forward. They’re only saying it’s tolerable.

If that doesn’t say anything about the state of the world today, what does?

Why are the Zuckerbergs here? What are they doing? Follow the lede to find out

12 October 2026

Jeremy Stern introduces his fifteen-thousand word essay, published in Colossus, about Meta CEO, and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, with a lede so succinct it must be the envy of any writer:

There they are. The Zuckerbergs.

Ledes, also called hooks, are a brief sentence that entices someone to read a newspaper or magazine article. The longer the piece, the more important the hook.

They were something I struggled with during my extremely short career a freelance newspaper writer. I was fortunate to be working with an editor who helped me out a little.

“Try again,” he’d say, patiently after I sent through idea after idea. The rest of what I’d written was fine, but it took awhile to get the first line right.

But Stern’s lede is a classic.

Even though I know who the Zuckerbergs are (or thought I did; take a look, you’ll see what I mean), I still wanted to read on to learn just where the Zuckerbergs were, and what they were doing there.

But Stern’s Zuckerberg write-up is replete with hooks. Of sorts. As it must, to sustain interest in a fifteen-thousand word long article. Particularly in 2026. But not hooks in the conventional sense.

They’re enticements to continue reading. Subtle — suspenseful even — builds up to the next part of the story. The constant piquing of a reader’s curiosity.

Ledes aren’t seen often in blog posts, though there are writers using them. The environment online is different, the blogosphere another realm. Titles are what matter. A blogger’s primary instinct is to appease the SEO gods. Their favour must be curried. Perhaps then the gods will bestow good fortune on the blogger through favourable placement on a search engine results page.

This is achieved by post titles, not ledes or hooks.

Readers of blog posts don’t necessarily need, or want, to be lured in. They’ve come to read what a blogger has to say. Either the subject matter interests them, and they read on, or it doesn’t, in which case the reader goes elsewhere.

The writer of an article published in a newspaper or magazine, doesn’t always have that luxury. So the lede it is. Build it baby, build it. And keep honing the craft, because sometimes you’re only as good as yesterday’s hook.

Reports of the death of social media have been greatly exaggerated

29 September 2026

Dan Sinker:

I’m not sure what keeps me there, what keeps any of us there, beyond inertia. We’re in the Looney Tunes stage of the end of social, where we’ve glided well past the edge of the cliff and it’s slowing dawning on us that the only way left is down. Fast.

I would like to believe we’re living in the late-stage social media age, but the evidence seems to suggest otherwise.

Enshittification rules: there goes the post-platform internet era

16 September 2026

Enshittification, the idea that online platforms, particularly social networks and social media, degrade once they become popular, is a fiction, according to Ruby Thelot, Professor of Design, AI and Media Theory, at New York University.

Because, rather than turning away from from the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, people continue to embrace these platforms.

Thelot made the claims in comments published at a16z, which were re-posted by 404 Media, and said people are using these platforms more than ever, and are quite happy with the experience. Further, according to Thelot, membership of the platforms is increasing, along with their profits.

But Thelot didn’t stop there.

He said Cory Doctorow, who first used the word enshittification, might have valued Facebook early on, but became resentful as the platform evolved. Thelot believes that people who are about the same age as Doctorow probably feel the same way, but younger people see things differently.

The idea of enshittification, he posits, gives people who should have left a social media platform, reason to stay put and despise being there. Thelot doesn’t mince his words.

Thelot’s comments though are at odds with the emergence of what is described as the post-platform internet ere. This is a shift towards decentralised platforms such as Mastodon and Bluesky, newsletter publishing platforms like Buttondown, and a resurgence of personal websites and blogs.

But the term post platform internet sounds like wishful thinking. There are, of course, adherents. I’m among them. But there is really a mass migration towards decentralised social media platforms?

Hardly.

Mastodon, despite not being that difficult to use, still confuses a lot of people. Bluesky, meanwhile, has seen a decline in active users in recent months.

The main social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads, remain for now, just too easy to use, and are also places where most members will find other people they know.

Despite the angst and despair the major platforms engender, a post-platform internet seems, for now, destined to remain a fringe movement.

My Feed My Way will make Instagram feeds overwhelming says Adam Mosseri

14 September 2026

Ange Lavoipierre, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), quoting Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram (IG):

“If you go to a chronological feed, it ends up getting overwhelmed with content from companies, brands, and publishers. Creators get drowned out, and then your friends get drowned out even more.”

These are the words of the Head of Instagram. Can it be Mosseri has no idea how the platform he oversees, works?

Australia’s proposed My Feed, My Way laws give local IG users a choice. They can either see content posted only by the people they follow, in their main feed, or elect to see what the algorithm presents.

If IG users choose to only see what the people they follow publish, how is anyone supposed to see what is posted by “companies, brands, and publishers”, if they’re not following them?

Of course creators — a dubious use of the term in the first place, given the quality of some of their content — who sit squarely in the companies, brands, publishers, and influencers category, will be drowned out: that’s the idea.

As for friends, how do they “get drowned out even more”, if they are the only people an IG user follows? Their content is the entirety of what anyone opting for the “friends only” feed will see. With the possible exception of ads, I imagine.

But if someone is only following two people, both of whom maybe only post something twice daily, how could they feel their feed was overwhelming?

Mosseri is clearly unhappy with the proposed My Feed, My Way laws.

So displeased that he seems to be losing sight of what’s what. He continues to believe the platform is not addictive, while also conceding IG “is too complicated”. In saying that, Mosseri is trying to suggest adding a button somewhere, giving users the choice of what they see, will clutter — clutter even further — IG’s interface.

The last time I looked at the IG app, before deleting it from my phone, there was an option to select “following” or “favourites”. In theory, choosing “following” meant someone would mainly see posts only from those whom they followed. This was only somewhat effective though, provided another option, “snooze suggested posts”, was enabled.

Suggested posts, being content by the aforementioned companies, brands, publishers, and influencers, were slipped into an IG member’s main feed, if the algorithm deemed this was somehow of interest. But the “snooze suggested posts” setting only did so for thirty-days at a time.

Disabling suggested posts also required drilling down through several levels of the settings menu to find. Indeed Mosseri is correct when he says IG “is too complicated”. The Australian government proposal aims to make this a one-step, lasting, action.

Mosseri can take consolation though from Anika Wells, the Australian communications minister, who thinks, as I wrote last week, most IG users will stick with the algorithm:

“The reality is that lots of people will want to choose the algorithm.”

Anyone hoping an unintended, or unspoken consequence, of the My Feed, My Way laws, would result in people spending less time looking at screens, will be disappointed.

But to each their own. I spend quite a bit of time using my phone, while say on a public transport trip. Typically I’ll be reading or sending emails, organising work schedules, or reading news.

And I’m often grateful for the chance to do so during so-called downtime, as it leaves time for doing nothing later on. But I don’t look at any Meta social media/network apps, as I removed them.

But I’m still at a loss to recall what I used to do on a train trip during the pre-smartphone era. Likely I starred out the window and daydreamed, something I still do once I’ve finished using my phone.

Proposed Australian laws allow social media users to opt-out of algorithms

9 September 2026

It’s almost enough to entice me back onto social media. But not quite.

The Australian government is proposing to give local social media users the choice to opt out the algorithms that determine the content they see.

If the laws eventuate, social media companies will be obliged to allow their members to only see content posted by the people they follow, if that’s what they choose.

Anika Wells, the Australian communications minister, thinks however most social media users will elect to keep the algorithm. It seems to me, seeing the content of only those they’re following might feel like going cold turkey for some people, who are accustomed to non-stop algorithm content.

The proposed new laws, which are currently being considered by the Australian parliament, will also compel social media companies, search engines, and AI chatbots, to withhold “harmful” content:

For Australians aged under 18, platforms must take steps to prevent content that promotes eating disorders, misogynistic content, pornography, glorification of crime, bullying and abuse, and any other material that could inflict “serious harm” on children.

In relation to adults, the harms are confined to existing crimes including child abuse, sexual violence, menacing or harassment intended to cause serious harm, support for terrorist organisations or encouraging suicide.

Some people are concerned these provisions may result in curbs on free speech, given the communications minister will have the power to add to the “harmful” content categories.

As of the time of writing, I’ve not heard reactions from the big tech companies to the proposed laws, but I doubt we’ll be waiting long.

Trailer for The Social Reckoning, the bleak follow-up to The Social Network

31 August 2026

A trailer for The Social Reckoning, directed by Aaron Sorkin, which opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 8 October 2026, and follows-up 2010’s The Social Network, which Sorkin co-wrote.

As I wrote a few months ago, The Social Reckoning is a far darker continuation of the Facebook story. That said, hints of what were to come, namely co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s megalomaniac tendencies, were seeping through in The Social Network.

In this instalment, Jeremy Strong, instead of Jesse Eisenberg, portrays the Meta CEO, and does so with a callous, robotic demeanour, as if Zuckerberg were no more than an AI entity of Meta’s making.

If recent headlines featuring Meta haven’t already, The Social Reckoning may well turn a few people away from Facebook, and social media generally. This would be no bad thing.

Operation Bluebird may yet get new Twitter to fly

28 August 2026

Talk about defying the odds. Maybe. Late last year, Operation Bluebird lunched a bid to “revive” Twitter, the micro-blogging platform Elon Musk bought in 2022.

Operation Bluebird claimed — rather optimistically I thought — they could take control of the Twitter brand, as they believed Musk had abandoned the rights to it, when he renamed the platform X.

X immediately filed a court action opposing the claim, but a US judge has tentatively ruled in favour of Operation Bluebird, backing up their belief X have given up on the Twitter brand.

The ruling isn’t official, but that doesn’t seem to concern Operation Bluebird, who want to go ahead and launch the “new” Twitter.

I’m no power social media user, but I signed up for Twitter early on, and for a time enjoyed using the platform. I have my doubts, but I’d like to see Operation Bluebird succeed.

« older posts