Twitter owner Elon Musk on Thursday announced, and then rolled out, a feature on the social media platform that allows users to see how many people viewed a post.
“Twitter is rolling out View Count, so you can see how many times a tweet has been seen! This is normal for video. Shows how much more alive Twitter is than it may seem, as over 90% of Twitter users read, but don’t tweet, reply or like, as those are public actions,” Musk wrote. Hours after his post, users reported seeing the feature.
In another post, Musk said that the impressions will be shown to all Twitter users and not just the individual who made the post. A similar feature exists within the platform in which a post’s analytics can be accessed.
Musk’s announcement Tuesday comes days after he said he would be stepping down as Twitter’s chief executive after he purchased the platform for $44 billion in late October, rolling out a number of changes and new features. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had posted a poll on his account asking if he should remain the CEO of the social media platform, and a majority of respondents said “no.” However, some speculated that the informal, online poll was targeted by bot accounts.
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” Musk wrote on Twitter. He did not provide a timetable.
After taking over the platform, a number of prominent conservative accounts were restored, including former President Donald Trump, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), James Lindsay, Jordan Peterson, and the Babylon Bee. As for Trump, the 45th president has not used the platform since his account was reinstated.
This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday denied allegations that it is violating Musk’s free speech rights by trying to enforce a fraud settlement.
In a brief filed Thursday, the SEC said the tech billionaire waived his First Amendment rights by agreeing to the settlement and amendments. The federal agency also said it disputes Musk’s argument to scrap the agreement because he signed it under financial duress and didn’t understand it, while it argued that doing its job in the interest of shareholders and markets outweigh Musk’s capacity to make Twitter posts about Tesla without the company’s approval.
“Musk’s agreement protects investors by ensuring that the information the public uses to make decisions about Tesla securities is accurate and consistent with what Tesla reports,” the agency’s brief said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times