What the Twitter Sale Reveals About Twitter, Itself | Vanity Fair

From a Twitter reality check by Nick Bolton

"Yet now, for the first time in the company’s history, numerous news outlets have reported that Twitter is seriously considering selling itself. What’s changed? For one, it’s becoming apparent that Twitter can’t be saved in its current instantiation. Adding new media content, like live N.F.L. video streams for users to consume, and banning Milo Yiannopoulos, an alt-right defender of ultra-conservatism, for attacking celebrities, are moves that are a couple of C.E.O.s too late to save the service. While Twitter inarguably holds a tremendous amount of influence in our society (Exhibit A: Donald Trump; Exhibit B: #BlackLivesMatter), it’s also apparent that the company has been unable to eradicate malevolent trolls, or to change the direction of the product in order to entice new users, and—most importantly for this conversation—to prove its importance to investors, who prefer monetary influence over media prowess. (Its stock price, which peaked at $69 in 2014, was trading in the mid-teens before the sales rumors started.) The reality is that Twitter, in its current state, is un-fixable and a sale is likely the best way out of this predicament. (A Twitter spokeswoman said in an e-mail, “as a matter of policy we don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”)"

What the Twitter Sale Reveals About Twitter, Itself | Vanity Fair