It has been almost three weeks since the Kimberley Prospector’s Twitter account was suspended on 15 March 2023, and the appeal, emails and tweets sent have yet to be answered. This is a troubling reality for South African news publishers, as it is likely that Twitter’s refusal to reinstate the account is an indication of their lack of support for unpaid Twitter accounts.
The Kimberley Prospector had been using Twitter to share news headlines from South Africa with fellow South Africans, but now the traffic generated for South African publishers has declined by over 45%. Despite their attempts to reach out to Elon Musk directly, the effort has been fruitless. It would seem that unpaid free Twitter accounts are basically censored or outcast from the platform, rendering them virtually useless.
This issue is now affecting all South African news publishers, as the Kimberley Prospector’s lost traffic is being felt by other news publishers in the country. Even though Twitter stated that it would review the request to reinstate the account in 5-7 days, it has been almost three weeks, leading to the conclusion that Twitter is no longer media-friendly. This is further supported by the fact that Twitter Press email now auto-responds to journalists with a poop emoji. ????
Given the high rate of exchange of the dollar to the rand, it is likely that the majority of South Africans, including The Kimberley Prospector, will not be able to afford to pay to be visible on Twitter. This essentially means that South African news publishers are being excluded or exiled from the Twitter platform. It is a worrying situation, as censorship of news publishers is a dangerous precedent to set.
This article was written by Jurno.
Tags: Elon Musk Twitter