This video is brought to you by Squarespace, the best all-in-one platform for any of your website
building needs. Hey guys, it's Celestia, and Elon Musk is ruining Twitter so much that artists are
legitimately leaving it for Tumblr. So today, we're going to talk about why; specifically, how the new
changes to Twitter will impact artists, whether or not artists should be leaving it as a result, and
why Tumblr is actually potentially viable for art again, at least in my humble, correct opinion. But
before we get into the blue check mark nightmare, let me take a moment to talk about something
that doesn't suck: today's sponsor, Squarespace. Squarespace is a website building and hosting tool
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good. Anyway, thank you so much to Squarespace for sponsoring this video, and please go check
out squarespace.com to get a free trial to build your own website, because no matter what your site
needs are, they have a template for you. And once you've built it, go to squarespace.com/duchesscelestia to
save 10% on your first website or domain purchase! Alright, so: Twitter. Everyone hates it, everyone's
always hated it, but for a very long time, it was still home to one of the largest art communities
out there, because hating Twitter has pretty much never meant not using Twitter for most people. It's
toxic, it's a cesspool of hate and cancel culture, it's poisoning the youth of America, whatever-- it's
still where the vast majority of artists online go, and as a result, the art community there has
always been pretty huge. And in fairness, it still is; a lot of artists DID leave Twitter recently,
and a lot more will continue to, but because the community was already so large, that number
is still exponentially smaller than the number of artists staying. Things are, however, changing pretty
drastically, and those changes are making many artists question their futures on the platform.
So let's talk about why. I don't think I'll be the first to tell anyone this, but in case you somehow
didn't know before now, Elon Musk finally did buy Twitter, after months of everyone wondering if he'd
succeed in backing out like he tried to or not. I'm sure he would have, but Twitter sued him, so he
didn't have a lot of options. His motivations for wanting to buy it in the first place are unclear;
if you believe him, he bought it to defend free speech from the corruption of Big Twitter and
save humanity, thank you anime protagonist Elon Musk! Personally, I'm more convinced that he's a
man-child addicted to tweeting and threw a tantrum when his favorite bird app started trying to tell
him there were things he couldn't tweet, and it just so happens that when a billionaire throws
a tantrum, they spend 44 billion dollars to make themselves feel better. That's mostly a joke, and
obviously just my opinion, and you might notice from from that opinion that I don't exactly like
the guy, so take it with a grain of salt. Whatever his motivations really are, he does claim that
the massive changes he's making to the platform are for the sake of protecting free speech and
unlocking Twitter's potential as a platform for open, uncensored debate and discussion, which does
sound like a good thing. But pretty much everyone is worried that given how toxic and vitriolic
Twitter has always been, Elon rolling back content moderation even further to allow for worse is
going to mean the spread of hate and cruelty without anyone or any system in place to stop
it. And those fears have been pretty much proven correct, as a Montclair State University study
showed that within 12 hours of his acquisition of Twitter, 398 hate tweets an hour were made, which
had almost quadrupled from the 84 hate tweets an hour in the week prior, with things looking like
they're only gonna get worse from there. It doesn't help that Elon has openly stated his intention to
lay off half of Twitter's staff, with 3,700 jobs already having been eliminated with little to
no notice for employees, many of whom worked in content moderation. He plans to make a content
moderation council with members of many diverse viewpoints, and claims that no changes will be
made to content moderation until that council has been created, but while policies may not have been
changed yet, he's made it abundantly clear that those changes ARE coming. And I would imagine
having a huge number of content moderation staff laid off isn't having a great impact
on how well the site is currently being moderated, either. I can't say that for sure, but I do think
it's likely. Regardless, none of this is directly explaining why artists in particular should be
worried about the changes he's making, although wanting to avoid a platform that's potentially
collapsing into vitriolic chaos where hate-fueled verbal attacks go unchecked is probably something
that's universal to most people, artists and non-artists alike. But that really is just the
beginning, because amongst other things, Elon has now made a very significant change to verification
on Twitter. A lot of major advertisers have paused their campaigns on the platform following his
acquisition, largely because they, like everyone else, are cautious and worried about what direction
he'll take things in. And as a result of that, Twitter, whose primary source of income is from
advertisers, has taken a pretty big financial hit. To try to supplement that and make Twitter Blue a
more viable primary source of income for the site, Elon has now made it so that anyone who pays its
monthly fee of eight dollars can get a blue check mark, denoting them as a verified account. Prior to
this, verification was only for accounts that had actually proven their identities and were
significant public figures, and that blue check mark was a way for people to check whether or not
the accounts they were following were authentic. Now that everyone can get one for eight dollars,
the spread of misinformation and fake accounts has dramatically increased, which shows how much
Elon actually thought this through, because he ended up dealing with an influx of Elon Musk
parody accounts abusing his own foolproof system to appear legitimate. He banned them all, of course,
because actual racist assholes saying the n-word at a record-breaking rate is apparently not nearly
as problematic to him as a troll with a parody account saying his name is short for Elongated
Muskrat. All of this came after him proudly saying comedy is now legal on Twitter. His priorities are
interesting. But let's be honest, that's not news. What's relevant to artists about the blue check
mark fiasco is that it's not just verification anymore; Elon is now planning to change up the
algorithm to have verified Twitter Blue users be the primary focus, meaning that posts by people
paying him eight dollars a month get boosted to the top of everyone's recommendations, while
posts by those who don't will be suppressed. This is still just a plan, as of me writing this, at least;
that may change, and it hasn't been confirmed to be happening quite like that yet. And new information
suggests that he might not be changing the whole algorithm, but rather just separating Twitter into
sections, like-- you know how TikTok's homepage is the For You page where the algorithm recommends
you stuff it thinks you'll like, but you can switch to your following page instead to see content from
the people you actually follow? It sounds like Elon's plan is to make Twitter's homepage a
verified tab where only posts from Twitter Blue users will be promoted, but you'll still be able
to switch to your following tab to see the people that you actually follow, regardless of whether
or not they pay him. I don't know for sure whether or not that's the case; Elon himself has basically
said "there will be a million changes, we'll keep the ones that work out". But even if that is the
case, that still means a massive blow to the art community for those of us not willing to pay for
the nightmare. First of all, most people on TikTok focus 90% on their For You page and vastly
less on their following page, and I strongly doubt it would be any different for Twitter. Second of
all, yes, a following page means that our existing followers can still see the art that we post, but
not being promoted at all to people who don't already follow us because we're not verified means
losing a huge amount of our ability to grow our followings and connect with the community. We're
pretty much just limited to the circles of artists that we already followed and who followed us, and
finding new ones would either require them to be Twitter Blue users, or for us to actively seek them
out, and vice versa. Some artists are using the lists feature to prepare for this change and
make sure that they still have a way to see posts from the people they want to see, regardless of the
algorithm, which will hopefully be an effective way to at least keep track of the artists that
we already know we want to keep up with, and maybe even find others by looking through the
other people in the lists that you were added to, but it doesn't change that if Twitter Blue
users do, in fact, end up getting post priority over everyone else, which I don't doubt will happen so
that Elon can desperately incentivize people to pay him money, the art community will definitely
see some changes, and I can't foresee any of them being good. It's already starting to divide artists
based on whether or not not they're willing to pay for Twitter Blue just to maintain their ability to
have their art seen: some are saying that they struggled and worked for years to build their
followings there, and eight dollars a month is worth keeping it. Others are saying that anyone
who does pay eight dollars a month is betraying the art community by basically submitting to
this oppressive change, and showing Elon that he can get away with doing it. The hostility between
the two sides of this coin is only growing, and unfortunately, I imagine that it will continue to.
And that's only one reason artists are leaving Twitter; there are also those of us who quite
simply don't want to use and support a platform that Elon Musk owns because they don't want to
support him, there are those of us who are worried about the content moderation or lack thereof
and don't want to stick around on a platform where hate and slurs can be spread without any
punishment or consequence, there are those who are worried about Elon's unpredictability and what it
means for the future of the platform and they want to jump ship before he sinks it. There are a lot
of reasons why artists are leaving, is my point, and it seems like it might actually be a turning point
for the art community to move away from Twitter as a primary platform. Twitter as a whole lost 1.3
million users in the first week after Elon's acquisition of it, with roughly 877,000
accounts being deactivated by the account holders, and 497,000 being suspended by Twitter itself. And
while that's still just a drop in the bucket compared to the over 396 million total users,
it still shows that this change is not a welcome one to a lot of people, and that it might be enough
to shift at least some of the community's focus to other platforms. That said, as much as I would like
Twitter to be a thing of the past, I don't think it will be. It's still home to one of the largest art
communities out there, especially internationally, and a sentiment that I've heard from many is that
they'll go wherever their favorite artists are, regardless of the problems that platform may have.
So while a significant number of us may be leaving, unless enough of us do so to prompt others to
follow, it probably won't result in any long-term change. What it might do, though, is make artists
branch out more, so that even if they don't leave Twitter altogether, they DO have alternatives to
it that they can use simultaneously or switch to in the worst case scenario that Elon actually just
straight up kills Twitter. And in a shocking move that I had personally not at all been expecting,
Tumblr just looked at that opportunity and may have used it to make itself a viable option for
that again, at least it looks that way. Most of us know that Tumblr's been in decline for a
long time now. In December of 2018, they made a decision to ban all NSFW content
from the platform, alienating a massive portion of the community that used Tumblr specifically for
that content, as well as a huge number of NSFW artists, some of whom had even established
their following so concretely there that it was how they were making a living. Not only that, but
to enforce the ban, they began using bots to scan every post on the platform for any form
of nudity. And the bots were exceptionally bad at it. They would pretty much mark any post with
skin tones as explicit and hide it, at which point you could appeal that for human review and have
it reinstated. But for a lot of artists, their completely SFW art was being flagged and
hidden within the first few minutes of it being posted, meaning that the few moments where art
is liable to get the most engagement and get the ball rolling in terms of likes and reblogs, were
spent with it not being visible to anyone. A lot of this combined to drive a lot of artists away
from the community, at which point a lot of us, myself included, turned to Twitter. And while
Tumblr DID work to improve the bot flag-and-review system, it was too late for most, as the damage had
been done: the site went from getting 521 million unique visitors a month to just 370 million in the
span of two months, and this was widely regarded as not only the death of Tumblr's art community, but
the death of the platform as a viable, mainstream form of social media altogether. Following the
global health event of 2020-- I'm still not sure how much YouTube will let me say about that, so I don't
want to risk it-- regardless, anyway, during that time period, Tumblr did start to make a gradual recovery,
though not to its former glory at all. But by 2021, Gen Z finding it and deciding it was worth a shot
brought it back to semi-relevance, at least in some circles, and in September of this year, they made
an update that gave a lot of people, including me, a lot of hope: they introduced community labels, a
form of self-moderation that allows people to label their own content as containing sexual
themes, violence, or alcohol and drug use, at which point they'll be automatically blurred to users
who are underage or have just marked those labels those things they don't want to see. Most people
took that to mean that, in a very good marketing move, Tumblr looked at the people leaving Twitter
and decided to tentatively start removing the NSFW ban to entice people to come
back to them instead. Tumblr did very little to dissuade that misunderstanding, even stating that
something they WOULD allow, given it had the right community label, would be, and I quote: "fanart of
your favorite ship engaging in a very private moment". One staff member even said that female
presenting nipples would be unbanned, and also that NSFW fan art was okay again,
but has since backtracked on both of those claims, and other Tumblr staff have confirmed this to be
incorrect. As it turns out, Tumblr will not be lifting the ban on any kind of NSFW
art or content, at least not right now, which was a disappointing conclusion to reach after
such a hopeful, misleading announcement. Even so, if community labels succeed, it's entirely possible
that NSFW content could eventually make a return in some capacity, if this is the
step in the right direction that artists hope it is. Regardless of whether it was deliberately
deceptive or not, the announcement did get a lot of artists interested in Tumblr as a platform again,
and even though our hopes were largely crushed in terms of the site going back to how it was, many
of us still decided to revisit it as a potentially viable platform again anyway, largely because of
Twitter's current unpredictability. For many of us, Tumblr used to be a safe, kind, and welcoming
art community, and compared to the increasing amount of hate and anger and targeted attacks
that both minorities and LGBTQ artists on Twitter now, a safe and welcoming community is exactly what
a lot of us were looking for. And as it turns out, that community is kind of thriving again.
Tumblr's numbers aren't drastically increasing or anything, which I imagine is because it's not where
most people who are leaving Twitter right now are going, but it IS where I'm seeing the most artists
in particular going instead, and it's resulted in a bit of a revival of the art community, which has
already been steadily recovering and growing over the past two years. Personally, I made a new Tumblr
for my art, both for the sake of this video and to start distancing myself from Twitter, and despite
the fact that I started from scratch with zero followers, I was actually shocked to see that my
art DID get engagement. And it's because Tumblr's tagging system and algorithm actually give you
a fair shot at having your your content be seen without needing a big following, which
is wildly refreshing compared to every other platform. It's been so nostalgic to be back
there again and reconnecting with that side of the art community, and honestly, I would strongly
recommend it to any artist looking to branch out or replace Twitter altogether, at least to try it
out and see if it's right for you. It's not its former self, and it still has its old dumb ban
in place on NSFW content despite the misleading new update, but especially with Twitter
falling into such chaos right now, it's nice to have somewhere where the algorithm makes sense
and you can actually find new artists to follow, and consistently see the content from the ones
that you already followed. So in conclusion, should artists leave Twitter? If it's for moral reasons,
not wanting to support Elon Musk, finding the chaos too stressful, or not wanting to subject themselves
to the increase of hate speech, absolutely. You have to do what's best for your mental health,
and Twitter is definitely not the best place for mental health lately-- or ever, historically, but it
IS worse now. But if they're leaving because they're sure the new algorithm and/or Twitter
Blue post priority will completely destroy the art community, no, I don't think they should leave,
at least not yet. Elon Musk changes his mind once every five minutes, and if Stephen King
can get him to lower the Twitter Blue price from twenty dollars to eight dollars just by expressing
his disapproval, I don't doubt that it'll see a million more changes before anything is really
finalized. It's entirely possible that Twitter Blue users won't end up being the only ones to
have their posts be visible, and even if they are, I still don't think that'll kill the art community
altogether. There are so many artists there and so many big names in the art community with hundreds
of thousands of followers that will follow them wherever they go, even if that means staying on
Twitter. The fact that many artists are already resisting by using lists to make sure they see
their favorite artists' content anyway tells me that for the most part, the community is more
dedicated to protesting this change than leaving because of it, and I don't think that resilience is
going away anytime soon. Maybe I'll eat my words, who knows-- I'm sure you'll let me know in the
comments. I do, however, think that artists should start looking into alternatives to Twitter, just
in case the worst does happen, because Elon is a ridiculously unpredictable dude and we can't say
for sure that he won't make the platform literally unbearable in every way. And even if it ends
up being completely fine, you might find yourself in the position that I'm in now with Tumblr: where
you're still using Twitter too, but also finding a lot of joy and success in a new community as
well, which is never a bad thing. Whether or not you should go to Tumblr specifically is
dependent entirely on your needs and preferences, although I wouldn't recommend going back because
of the misunderstandings and hype surrounding the potential return of NSFW content, as
that is ostensibly not the case, at least for now. If you're just looking for an alternative
art community where the art that you post might actually have a reasonable chance of being seen,
high follower count or not, though, hell yeah-- give Tumblr a shot. It was more than worth it
for me. But for now, that's all for me on the big Twitter-Tumblr art community debacle, although I'll
definitely make updates as needed if anything big changes. What do you guys think, though? Are
you still planning on using Twitter for your art, or are you planning on looking into alternatives?
Will you get Twitter Blue, or have you gone back to Tumblr's art community instead? Let me know in the
comments, because it's really interesting to see how everyone is handling this. Thank you guys for
watching, and I hope you enjoyed today's video. Special thank you as always to channel members
Cafe Soleil, Joseph Solomon, Unknown Code, and Abyss Reborn, as well as patrons Batman, Kyle Low, Blue Swanson,
this is totally my name, Uni Tea, Cora Feere, Jamesha Walker, ShiromeArtiste, Elenxji, Soul Crystal, Kim
Nguyen, StonyCobra13, and Shamil Sheep for their support, and I'll see you in the next one!