Twitter isn't for news anymore

Hi, it’s Eari, the technology reporting intern in San Francisco. Unlike my older peers, I never felt the need to join Twitter in order to ha [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi, it’s Eari, the technology reporting intern in San Francisco. Unlike my older peers, I never felt the need to join Twitter in order to have a career in journalism. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Salesforce [cut more jobs]( • Qualcomm gave a [weak forecast]( • DoorDash reported [record orders]( What’s the point? My first day on the job in San Francisco, it seemed like all the older reporters around me had Twitter pulled up in the corner of their computer screens, tracking the news from their competitors. It was weird for me to see this app, which my fellow students and I had never taken seriously, being used in a professional setting. I downloaded the app, which is now [called X](, with a bit of hesitation. I’d never needed it in school, and didn’t feel it was necessary in order to be an informed citizen. Quite the opposite. When people talk about Twitter at the University of Southern California, where I’m a rising senior, it’s regarded as a place for political polarization or for jokes — for celebrities and [government leaders]( to say crazy things that go viral. But they don’t talk about Twitter often. Mostly, I don’t think about it at all. To give you some context: Twitter launched when I was 5 years old. A whole generation of journalists used the app to promote their work and make a name for themselves, separate from their employers’ brands. I’m graduating a year from now, and I think it’s safe to say we’re past the time where it will ever be useful in that way for me. The app, these days, just doesn’t work for the news industry — especially for a journalist trying to build a new following. X’s algorithm doesn’t favor posts with links to news articles, and the direct messaging tool no longer lets users talk freely to others with an account, so it’s not useful for reaching sources. The blue checkmark that used to designate a true identity, which was awarded to many journalists’ accounts during Twitter’s rise, now [only means]( that account is paying [Elon Musk](bbg://people/profile/1954518)’s company $8 a month. I’m not confident that X is the best place for my work to reach the audience I want it to. I will most likely delete the app as soon as my internship ends, and I won’t be alone. According to a Pew Research Center survey from March, [60%]( of adults who used the social network in the past year have taken a break from it. As of May, less than 20% of Twitter users were between the ages of 18 and 24, according to Insider Intelligence data. It’s not just the product changes that make X unappealing to me. It’s also the community. In the handful of times I’ve opened the app, I’ve seen [hateful]( rhetoric and political banter fueled by accounts aiming to stir up controversy and anger — content that is just not worth my time. When news stories do go viral, I’ve seen X users directly attack the reporters. In my informal survey of Bloomberg’s other journalism interns, there are a few still trying to make X work in their early careers. One who is reporting on the agriculture team, Nazmul Ahasan, said he credits the app with helping him stand out and be considered for this internship, though he’s disappointed with recent changes. Jesse Levine, my fellow technology team intern, said that she still loves looking at funny tweets — er, X posts — but doesn’t see any advantage in using the app for a journalism career. With the app’s name change and recent [drama](, people have been talking about the [death](bbg://securities/NSN%20RVHND9DWLU69) of Twitter as society once knew it: a cultural center, a driver of news conversation, a political catalyst. But it’s never been that way in my life, and not just because of Musk. Instead, you’ll see me on Instagram or LinkedIn. —[Eari Nakano](mailto:enakano7@bloomberg.net) The big story Europe has effectively sat on the sidelines during the development of the modern internet economy, as Silicon Valley and China built the world’s largest consumer technology and cloud computing companies. As the consensus builds that AI is tech’s next inflection point, European business leaders and public officials [fear history will repeat itself](, with potentially disastrous strategic and economic consequences. One to watch [Watch the Bloomberg Technology TV interview]( with Worldcoin CEO Alex Blania. Get fully charged SoftBank’s semiconductor unit Arm Ltd. is targeting an [initial public offering]( at a valuation of between $60 billion and $70 billion as soon as September, a sign of bullish interest in artificial-intelligence chips. The crypto market rebound this year could have [room to run]( if the US economy manages to achieve a soft landing. Salesforce released a new version of Slack specifically designed for salespeople as it works to integrate its [largest-ever acquisition](. A cyberattack on Norway’s government ministries uncovered last week [exploited a vulnerability]( linked to mobile device management and lasted at least four months. 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