The enshittification of Shitter gets worse (with occasional updates)

And, in this case, it has nothing to do with Elmo Musk's politics.

Update: Scratch that; in the 2025 updates at bottom, it does have more to do with Musk's politics, AFAIK.

It has nothing to do with #BlueAnon celebrities and political celebrities fleeing to BlueSky, all while either forgetting or else being ignorant of the fact that its owner, Ice Bath Balls Jack Dorsey, wasn't exactly a barrel of enlightenment when he owned Shitter, and neither was Shitter itself. (This also ignores that Ice Bath Balls Jack couldn't make a real profit on Shitter, so he dumped it on Musk.)

What it is, is that Elmo's Shitter appears to have dumped the "Trending" on the right-hand rail of a normal Shitter page. Dumped as in gotten rid of it.

Instead, we have this "Explore," listed as being currently in Beta, but surely about to be shoved down our throats. (Later removed, but a symbol of Musk's ADHD that drives anything and everything he runs, from Shitter through Tesla to the Boring Company, and now, reportedly, the USofA.)

It's nice. Or rather, "nice."

But, it's all about politics.

It's like Elmo and his autistic/OCD goons don't recognize the world of non-political media, and for that matter, non-media period, users of Shitter. (Well, maybe former users, if more and more of these people go away, too.)

Like #NBATwitter, for example.

I don't know if Cory Doctorow has tackled this subset of enshittification in detail, but it's the reverse of the old (and untrue) adage that "the customer is always right." It's now, "the tech dudebro owner is always right."

That said, it IS fun watching and reading all the post-election #BlueAnon blather. Or rich people like Ellen Degeneres being serious about leaving the US.

LeBron is just taking a Shitter break. Maybe he'll establish international residence after he retires? 

Update, Nov. 22: A LOT of people must have bitched about this. Shitter made them go away.

Update, Feb. 4, 2025: It's gotten worse. I got a warning label for allegedly engaging in "inauthentic behavior," and per the engagement numbers after that happened about 48 hours ago, it's like I've been shadowbanned. I appealed, but no response yet, because of how many people Musk fired, among other things. Sub-update, Feb. 6: The "impressions on my posts" are less than half of what they were a week ago.

Update 2, also Feb. 4: Elmo's lawsuits against advertisers for boycotting Shitter (can't believe we're not going to see directed verdicts against Musk, let alone a dismissal of at least some of these) won't help retain other advertisers. Related? More and more subreddits banning Shitter links will drop his counts. Blue Sky surely will pick up some of this.

Update, Feb. 27: When I used "tranny" on Shitter when posting this story about Dannie Goeb, aka Dan Patrick, with the word "Tranny" in the header, Shitter's Nazis limited its visibility. I appealed, and knowing I would lose, I mentioned they worked for a Nazi-saluting Grüppenfuehrer boss who lets racism run rampant. I still lost.

Update, May 26: I have a regular battle with Elmo's shitbots every time I use "Zionazi" in a Shit. (Since it IS Shitter, or Xitter if you want the X pun, comments there ARE Shits. Or Xits.) I've won every time we fight this battle. That's continuing to happen through June 7.

The latest? They restricted my June 5 post's visibility. Then, after my appeal, restored it. Then I get another email saying it's restricted again. No message about that below, but it refuses to show any analytics, like this is Shitter Security doing a passive-aggressive "shadow restriction."

So, I quote-tweet it. I talk about calling Zionists Nazis, then spell out the Zionazi word. And get slapped 10 seconds after posting.

Since you can't embed a restricted Shit, here's what was originally restricted:

They're doing an actual boycott of the Zionazi enablers, not just ripping up signs.

And, Shitter Security, don't make me go through this with "Zionazi" again. https://t.co/jj71CWeZCi

— Free Palestine #GLM #PLM 🍉☢️🌻🌲🇵🇸 (@real_gadfly) June 6, 2025

And, if Shitter's messaging is that fucked up, it needs to fix that, too.

On the analytics, as of this June 7 update, when I try to get that info for the original, it reverts back to the quoted.

And then, per The Dissident, there's Elmo's search-censorship of looking for Elias Rodriguez. I normally use "censorship" to refer to government, not private sector actions. But since Musk is a quasi-government agent, the shoe fits.

Update, June 12: Now, since the latest Zionazi battle, more and more of my Shits are getting no data, as in views, likes, retweets, etc. I click, and I get the "something gets wrong" screen. I think it's more Shitter's incompetence than shadow-restricting, though. 

That's even with more and more companies caving to Musk and re-advertising there, just like they've caved to Trump. Capitalism — what a country, eh? That said, not all threatened businesses have caved, and the litigation threat appears to have been a move by Musk's fellator-in-chief, Linda Yaccarino, who becomes more odious all the time.

Among those that did cave? Bezos the Bozo's Yellow Satan! Why? Per that link, Elmo threatened not to pay Amazon Web Services a bunch of past-due bills.