Heisenberg Media, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Searches for ‘How to delete Twitter’ have surged by 500% in the past week since Elon Musk took over the platform.
Experts at security firm VPNOverview have used Google Trends to establish search increases over the past week since Musk’s $44 billion (£38 billion) takeover. Globally, searches for ‘How to delete Twitter’ surged by 500 per cent in the past week, from October 24 to October 31, the firm found.
Searches for ‘boycott Twitter’ are also up 4,800 per cent in the last seven days, from October 26 to November 2.
Deleting a Twitter account is actually a ‘straightforward and easy process’ that can be completed in a few steps, VPNOverview says, although users wanting to ‘disengage’ from the site should not feel compelled to do so.
Naj Ahmed, a privacy expert at VPNOverview, said it’s ‘unlikely’ that there will be immediate wholesale changes at Twitter and that the takeover ‘doesn’t mean a whole lot right away’.
‘Twitter’s not trying to revolutionise the way people communicate, or disrupt an existing industry, unlike most of Mr Musk’s existing companies,’ Ahmed said.
‘This is quite different from most of Mr Musk’s portfolio, as it’s one of the few times that he’s bought an established company that isn’t trying to push the boundaries of what’s possible.’
Ahmed also said he expects ‘more openness’ in the type of content that’s published on Twitter, as well as the return of certain popular figures who were banned by the platform, such as Donald Trump and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Musk said: ‘Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks.’
It’s already known that Twitter users have been threatening to delete their accounts in protest at Musk and his initial shake-up of the platform.
Since becoming owner, Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX has wasted no time making significant changes to Twitter, including firing top execs and dissolving the board of directors.
He’s also confirmed going to make Twitter users pay $8 per month to be verified after the initial plan to charge a $20 per month blue tick verification fee.
