The arrival of 4,000 characters, revolution or chaos?

Remember. We are in 2017, Twitter decides to double the size of posts. No more 140 characters – in reference to the maximum length of an SMS –, hello 280 characters. Internet users are lost and crying foul (well, yes, we are exaggerating a bit). Five years later, the drama is quickly forgotten and no one stands up against this change. But the discontent could quickly return. In a brief response to a user, new Twitter boss Elon Musk confirmed that he would increase the size of posts to 4,000 characters, almost the equivalent of an article of 20 minutes.

After the paid certification, the mass layoffs and the reduction of moderation, this new functionality could be “an additional nail in the coffin of Twitter”, estimates Stéphanie Laporte, founder of the Otta agency and program director in digital communication at Inseec. And for good reason, by considerably extending the length of tweets, the multi-billionaire could “harm the spirit of Twitter”, warns the specialist.

Towards a multitasking network?

Because it is this spirit of microblogging that has made the success of the blue bird firm. “Twitter is an exercise in conciseness and synthesis. In one or two lines, we have the information,” explains Stéphanie Laporte. And for those who wanted to decipher a slightly longer subject, there are still the now very famous threads, used in particular by scientists during the coronavirus epidemic. “Today, some threads are several thousand characters, it’s true, but they are rare, it’s not the central functionality of Twitter,” she adds.

According to the specialist, the new boss of Twitter intends to transform the platform into “a meta social network, a multitasking platform” in which the published content will be longer. A twin of Facebook in a way. “But if you want to develop a point, there is LinkedIn, Facebook or even blogs. Twitter, on the other hand, must remain a summary space where you can quickly learn about information,” warns Stéphanie Laporte. Because this multitasking aspect is what caused the decline of Facebook, according to her: “In contrast, Instagram broke through because the application was reduced to its sole use of sharing photos and videos, which is not drowned in an ocean of possibility”.

The risk for Twitter is to lose some of its users. First, the new generation, “hostile to extended content”, according to the expert, but also its historical audience, attached to this spirit of conciseness. “If we see a wall of text coming, it could have a negative effect on both generations,” continues Stéphanie Laporte. Especially since this feature could also disrupt the way of “scrolling” users: “It will not be compatible with a mobile format, the text will take up the entire screen. Inevitably, there will be less user retention,” she continues.

While the feature hasn’t gone live yet, Twitter designer Andrea Conway has already shared her first mockups, giving a preview of what the posts might look like. Posts will show the first 280 characters – the current limit – and then a “see more” button to view the full text.

This is what posts with 4,000 characters might look like.
This is what posts with 4,000 characters might look like. – Screenshot of Andrea Conway’s tweet

Moderation difficulties

The other danger is moderation. Having become the main concern since the arrival of Elon Musk, it could still deteriorate with this new feature. “Now that there are fewer employees and that we are going to multiply by twenty the length of the tweets, the volumes of moderation will be monstrous”, worries Stéphanie Laporte.

And with moderation issues come fears of misinformation. Because with 4,000 characters, some users could post partially repeated articles or fake news. Others could put sensationalist information at the start – in the first 280 characters – to “finally offer poor content in the long text”, fears the specialist. “It could be misleading and detrimental to the quality of the content,” she adds.

Nevertheless, Elon Musk’s idea does not come out of nowhere, meeting the needs of some of the users. While browsing Twitter, it is not uncommon to come across a tweet including a screenshot of a note, like Kylian Mbappé below.

Unlike threads, used by experts – scientists, doctors, journalists – it is more public figures who use this subterfuge. A site also exists to post messages exceeding 280 characters: TwitLonger. Here, with 4,872 characters, this article already looks a bit like a Twitter 2.0 post.


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