If we look back, the first post on Facebook was back in February 2004, while the first tweet was published by Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006 on a social network that would be known as Twitter, until Elon Musk came along and changed it to X.
Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen other networks emerge, such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok, and we’ve even seen others emerge and disappear, such as Tuenti and Google+.
We are currently witnessing what is possibly the biggest change social media has undergone since its inception, as it is changing the model and the very essence of social media as we know it.
Social media is ceasing to be a space for relationships and connection between people and becoming entertainment platforms where everyone fights for our attention.
This change also affects their business model, and we’re seeing how they’re gradually moving from free to subscription-based platforms.
This new model raises some uncertainties, such as whether users will be willing to pay to use these platforms, what the actual economic situation is, or whether we are witnessing the beginning of the end for social media.
In this new model, platforms become entertainment venues where the goal is to capture attention through dangerously addictive algorithms and where we have to invest money through subscriptions. This leads public administrations to reflect on the role these platforms should play as a communication channel with citizens from now on.
But let’s take it one step at a time.
What causes this change?
On October 19, 2022, the European Union approved the European Union Digital Services Act. which affects social media platforms in several ways. This new regulation has been implemented gradually and was on 17 February 2024, when the process is complete and the law already applies to all online platforms in the European Union.
Some of the highlights of the law affecting social media include:
- Transparency obligations: Social media platforms must provide clear and transparent information about how their algorithms work and how decisions about content distribution are made.
- Removal of illegal content: Social networks must remove illegal content, such as hate speech, incitement to violence, and child pornography.
- Protection of intellectual property rights: Social media platforms must take measures to prevent intellectual property infringement, such as removing infringing content and cooperating with rights holders (we’ll discuss the Telegram case another day).
- Protection of personal data: Social networks must protect users’ personal data and comply with EU privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This new regulation also differentiates between platforms with fewer than 45 million users, for which the rule came into effect on August 25, 2023, and those with fewer than 45 million users, which had until February 17 of this year to adopt the necessary changes to comply with the requirements of the new law.
Therefore, large platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) or Amazon have had to adopt changes in their business and management model to comply with the demands posed by this new regulation for the European market.
If we look at social media management models, we mainly find 3:
- On the one hand, there is the model we could call “Chinese,” in which the authorities have absolute control over social media platforms. X, Facebook, or WhatsApp don’t operate in China, but they do have government-controlled equivalents.
- Another model would be the American one, which is the one we’ve been moving toward in Europe until now. In this case, platforms have absolute freedom to operate with regard to the use of advertising, content, or user data.
- And a third model would be the European model, in which the authorities, highly protective of their citizens’ rights, place limits on the activity of these large platforms and force them to comply with regulations regarding privacy and publicity rights.
Why do European authorities promote a protectionist model?
The adoption of a new technology generally follows a model known as the “technology life cycle,” which has different phases. The first of these phases is the “awe” phase, which is followed by a phase of widespread adoption of the new technology. Later, when problems or disadvantages generated by the use of that technology begin to emerge, a phase usually arrives in which regulations or authorities balance its use.
Several scandals have emerged in recent years regarding social media, leading authorities to adopt various measures to curb what was happening.
Let’s remember, for example, the Cambridge Analytica case involving the unauthorized collection of personal data from millions of Facebook users, which was then used to influence the 2016 US presidential campaign and the Brexit referendum.
Another scandal was the so-called “Facebook Files” case, which exposed how Facebook prioritized growth and profits over the safety and well-being of users.
It was precisely this latest scandal that led Mark Zuckerberg to change Facebook’s name to Meta in an attempt to divert attention and its potential consequences.
X launches subscription
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter in October 2022 and its transformation into X has been accompanied by various changes to the platform, which are closely related to everything we were seeing.
We must not lose sight of the fact that these large platforms are businesses, and as such, they must report profits and capitalize on investments, such as the $44 billion Elon Musk paid for Twitter.
Musk’s erratic management, at least so far, suggests an urgent need to monetize this platform, which has led him to take several measures, such as:
- Initially, he introduced payment for verification. Until then, earning the blue check mark on Twitter was a sign of authority and allowed a profile or account to be identified as relevant or official. Under Musk, this changed, and verification now meant paying for a new service, Twitter Blue. The price was set at €8 per month.
- This first subscription model has evolved into X Premium and we now find several types of subscription.
- If you are a personal profile you have these options:
- Basic: €3.63/month or €38.72/year.
- Premium: €9.68/month or €101.64/year.
- Premium+: €19.36/month or €203.28/year.
- If you are a company or organization you have 2 options:
- Basic: €229/month or €2,299/year.
- Full access: €1,149/month or €11,495/year.
- Other ways Elon Musk wants to monetize the platform include charging for inactive names or accounts, which he will retain by selling for up to €50,000. He will also allow the buying and selling of names between users, with the platform taking a commission.
What does X offer us in exchange for that subscription?
Well, little by little, we’re seeing that it’s offering us more and more possibilities and options, and above all, and this is the best part, it’s going to let us do fewer things in the free option.
Among other things, the free option doesn’t allow us to edit the tweets we publish; it has set a limit on the maximum number of tweets we can publish (currently, the limit is 600 per month, but plans are to lower this figure); we can’t reply to our direct messages or respond to tweets, among many other things.
But most importantly, Elon Musk has said he’ll prioritize the most viewed and most widely reached tweets from those who have paid subscriptions. In other words, content doesn’t matter here; what matters is that you pay to gain visibility.
X’s situation is now almost critical. The departure of thousands of advertisers from the platform, as well as many users dissatisfied with Musk’s management, is causing this social network to lose the relevance it enjoyed a few years ago.
In desperation, Elon Musk has announced that X will introduce the option of also being a dating app, a super app with banking services, or even a job search platform similar to Infojobs or LinkedIn.
But X has not been the only platform that has made moves towards monetization, and so we have seen how Instagram and Facebook launched payment for verification last summer and have begun to charge for their services, for the moment 13 euros per month to be on each of these platforms.
The latest to announce it will start charging for its services is TikTok. These platforms are not being as aggressive in attracting subscribers so far, perhaps because they aren’t under the pressure Elon Musk faces, given their higher advertising revenue.
But until now, what did they live on?
The implementation of this subscription model comes hand in hand with the new European Digital Services Act, which puts an end to what has been the main source of funding for these platforms until now: targeted advertising.
As these platforms grew, they attracted millions of users, which was seen as a perfect showcase for advertising. Furthermore, they realized the amount of data users provided—including age, location, tastes, behaviors, etc.—which also allowed advertisers to “tell” them which ads were most appropriate for each user.
This uncontrolled use of user data, and its failure to comply with, among other things, the European Data Protection Regulation, is what has led European authorities to fine these platforms numerous times in recent years. However, the entry into force of this new European Digital Services Act undoubtedly puts an end to these practices.
From now on, these platforms will no longer be able to use user data, so advertising will no longer be as effective for advertisers, and they will have to seek alternative sources of funding, which is where subscriptions come in. The law also prohibits advertising to children under 16, which poses another challenge for these platforms, which are trying to find ways to verify the age of their users.
In the case of Instagram, they have decided to temporarily remove advertising for minors’ profiles until a suitable verification system is found.
This regulation only affects the European Union, so platforms in the rest of the world can continue to use this targeted advertising. However, Europe is one of the main markets, with more than 445 million users and the largest number of advertisers.
Compliance with new European regulations was what caused the new platform Meta launched last year in the United States and 100 other countries, Threads, with which it aims to compete with Twitter, to not be available in Europe until months later.
Another of the demands of the European authorities included in this new Law is that these platforms have to actively fight against disinformation, which has led Elon Musk to threaten to close X in Europe.
In fact, it was the European authorities who warned Musk that if he doesn’t comply with European regulations in this regard, they will be the ones to ban him from operating in Europe. The layoffs of more than 3,700 people and the dismantling of the content moderation center in Europe, among other things, prevent him from complying with these requirements.
European authorities have focused on issues such as deep fakes, misinformation, and hoaxes circulating on social media due to their potential impact on the upcoming European elections in June 2024.
And how does all this affect public administrations?
Well, it affects us in many ways and raises many doubts and questions that we will have to answer about the role that social media should play in public administration communication.
Beyond ethical issues, which we will address in upcoming articles, about whether public administrations should be on social media that in some cases pose a threat to our societies, or whose addictive effects are affecting our youth, we need to consider what payment for using these platforms entails.
As we have seen in the case of X, paying for the additional subscription option amounts to around 2,000 euros per year for each account, and in town councils, for example, they not only have one profile on X but several, so the cost of being present on social networks could start to be significant.
There’s also another fundamental question: while public administrations can more or less afford the cost of being present on X, will citizens be willing to pay to be on those platforms? And if we have to pay to be on all platforms, won’t we give up on some of them? Which ones will we choose?
It’s curious how, in just a few years, we in public administration have gone from practically “hating” social media to, in many cases, becoming the only channel of communication with citizens, and it seems impossible to live without it.
Therefore, I believe that without abandoning our presence on these social networks yet, the time has come to consider experimenting with other channels, formats and platforms to communicate with citizens, since one day we may wake up and find that X, Instagram or Facebook have closed, or that there is simply no one on them with whom we can communicate.
I know that all these changes are causing uncertainty and some concern, especially because it’s still not entirely clear where we’re going, but what is clear is that we’re moving.
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Amalia
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