Is Trump a boon or a bane for Twitter?

Is Trump a boon or a bane for Twitter?

No, I am not about to do Trump-bashing. But essentially, carrying the most polarized and most social media savvy President ought to have its downside.

On the plus side, Trump’s use of Twitter has given undoubted status to Twitter as the “new age media”, as a “pervasive and direct” communication tool. Twitter obviated the need for detailed media protocols to “get the word out”.

For Twitter, their usage trends have changed. Instead of hitting a peak at tech events or sports or entertainment events, or even people’s movements, Twitter now peaks at things like Executive Actions, oh-he-skipped-the-press-pool type of events.

Twitter is just a medium. Twitter can’t be responsible for what people say on Twitter. Hopefully they are not censoring.

So when Trump says visitors to US will be required to declare their Twitter handles, it is different in a lot of ways. If this legislation comes through, people will start thinking about what to post on Twitter, whether to post on Twitter or even whether to be associated with Twitter at all.

THAT may – just may – be the beginning of the end of Twitter.