No, LeBron James doesn’t wish to be traded — that was put into the world by a faux Twitter feed purporting to belong to the Los Angeles Lakers celebrity when a pay-$8-and-pretend-to-be-anyone verification system made a quick look.
And no, actor Edward Norton is just not all that anxious concerning the attainable demise of the social media website below Elon Musk’s management.
“If a lot of that stuff went away,” Norton mentioned, “I think we’d be the better for it.”
In the same vein, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a four-time NFL MVP with 4.5 million followers, mentioned: “I look forward to the day I have no social media, which may be coming sooner rather than later.”
Yes, athletes and celebrities from the leisure world are identical to us: They’re monitoring the chaos and uncertainty surrounding Twitter since its new proprietor got here aboard. They’re not essentially certain easy methods to proceed — and never essentially certain the microblogging hen app’s disappearance can be the sky-is-falling catastrophe some are making it out to be.
“I just look at it like, you know, Twitter is, was and will always be a dumpster fire,” mentioned actor Ryan Reynolds, certainly echoing the feelings of many, well-known or in any other case.
“But who knows? We’ve got to play it by ear. I mean, we’ll see where it all goes,” mentioned Reynolds, who has 20 million followers. “I was around when MySpace and Friendster were a thing and … it feels like Twitter and TikTok are everything right now. But these things, they all come and go, like anything in life.”
Launched in 2006, Twitter created an area the place the well-known may circumvent conventional media and talk instantly with followers to push messages or merchandise whereas, in flip, growing the positioning’s reputation among the many hoi polloi. There are actually greater than 230 million customers.
Questions about Twitter’s future arose the second Musk accomplished his $44 billion takeover in late October. He removed half of the full-time employees, prompted lots of of engineers and others to stop final week and now’s anticipated to eradicate jobs associated to content material moderation.
Concerns about fraudulent accounts and misinformation ( which Musk himself has unfold ) will not be new.
But they’re amplified currently.
“It’s scary right now,” mentioned Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, who has greater than 85,000 followers. He mentioned he will get “the majority of my news” through Twitter and makes use of it to attach with mates, work together with followers and promote corporations.
He likened the present state of the positioning to “Wikipedia when I was growing up: You always have to fact-check, because it wasn’t always correct.”
Timelines have been affected by posts telling individuals to search out accounts on Instagram or Mastodon or no matter different spot would possibly turn into a go-to if — when? — Twitter isn’t an choice.
“If you want to get your voice out there, there’s other ways,” mentioned Charles Leno Jr., a Washington Commanders offensive lineman with greater than 25,000 followers. “This may sound bad, because I feel everybody should have a voice, but it’s not true in terms of Twitter: It’s given voice to the voiceless — people who shouldn’t say anything. You don’t need to be talking about somebody else’s job, their relationship, their business. Support them or just shut up. There are positives about Twitter; we just need more focus on that aspect, so it can be a more engaging place.”
Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, whose followers quantity practically 8 million, sees each side, too. He defined how the app can “pollute your mind” but in addition praised it as “a really powerful tool to connect with people.”
Ian Poulter, a professional golfer with 2.2 million followers, would like to see Twitter evolve into “a forum to have open discussion without there being some form of bullying and bad-mouthing and bots.”
Indeed, the toxicity is inescapable for — although actually not restricted to — many public figures.
“It’s a lot. I’m not really sure what you can do,” mentioned Jessica Pegula, a professional tennis participant ranked No. 3 on the planet. “If you’re going to be on social media, you have to deal with it to some extent.”
Some in leisure bid adieu.
Shonda Rhimes, creator of TV hits “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder,” actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson of “Modern Family” fame and singer Sara Bareilles are just some of the oldsters who mentioned they’re finished with Twitter — and did so, after all, through Twitter.
Those who advise entertainers and athletes — and, in some instances, tweet for them — don’t know easy methods to proceed, though they’ve lengthy had a direct line to Twitter staff to resolve points.
“Everybody who’s a Twitter user is doing their best to ride the wave,” mentioned George Atallah, assistant government director for exterior affairs on the NFL Players’ Association, certainly one of a number of sports activities unions in contact with one another about this. “Everybody — agents, governing bodies, athletes, marketing reps, unions — is all in the same boat, adjusting based on the whims of the new owner.”
Jennie Smythe, founding father of Girlilla Marketing, a digital advertising and marketing agency in Nashville, Tennessee, mentioned adjustments to the verification course of brought about issues for leisure shoppers, together with nation star Darius Rucker, who abruptly misplaced his blue test with out warning. She mentioned a lot of her shoppers, together with musicians, actors and non-profits, are consistently coping with imposters.
“It is not a vanity play,” Smythe mentioned. “It is more as a protection measure for followers.”
Drew Rosenhaus, an agent whose agency represents about 100 energetic NFL gamers, mentioned he longs for the times “when you could just look at the blue mark and know it was real.”
“We’re living in a new world on Twitter. It’s going to require a little more due diligence,” Rosenhaus mentioned, including that he doesn’t anticipate “a mass exodus” of his shoppers from the app, as a result of “there’s a lot of value from it.”
Benito Perez-Barbadillo, a publicist whose shoppers embrace Rafael Nadal, likes that the 22-time Grand Slam champion simply can attain his 15 million followers — for now.
“We have our verified account. If that’s taken away from us, we might consider not using Twitter anymore. I don’t know,” Perez-Barbadillo mentioned. “If we’re not going to be official anymore, we might just say, ‘Well, goodbye, Twitter.’”
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AP Sports Writers Dave Campbell, Doug Ferguson, Jenna Fryer, Will Graves, Brett Martel, Steve Megargee, Steve Reed, Ralph Russo, Noah Trister and Teresa Walker, AP journalists Gary Gerard Hamilton in New York, Krysta Fauria in Los Angeles and Malak Harb in Dubai contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”