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Welcome back to the Elon Musk 
podcast where we explore the 

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latest news and updates on the 
companies associated with one of

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the most Visionary minds of our 
time, Elon Musk. 

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And in this episode, we'll be 
discussing the recent Twitter, 

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outage the left users unable to 
access links or images on the 

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platform and the implications of
the incident for the company and

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its stakeholders, the outage was
caused by a technical glitch 

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that brought down much of 
Twitter's internal tools, as 

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well as its public facing apis. 
It has raised concerns about the

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technical infrastructure and 
vulnerabilities on the platform 

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which have been compounded by 
recent layoffs and the shutdown 

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of free access to the Twitter 
API. 

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Now as we dive deeper into this,
incident will be exploring the 

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challenges and opportunities 
facing Twitter. 

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And we'll also discuss the 
potential Solutions and 

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Innovation that could help the 
company regain its footing and 

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re-establish itself as a 
reliable platform for real-time 

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communication. 
And social engagement Twitter's 

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website is breaking in novel, 
new ways. 

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And The company managed to 
recover from its latest outage 

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within a couple of hours, the 
story behind how it broke 

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suggest. 
There are likely to be similar 

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problems in the near future on 
Monday morning, Twitter, users 

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logged on to find a Thicket of 
connected issues. 

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Clicking on links with no longer
open them. 

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Instead users would see a 
mysterious error message. 

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Reporting that your current API 
plan does not include access to 

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this endpoint images, stop 
loading as well. 

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Other users reported that they 
could not access tweetdeck. 

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Check the Twitter own client for
professional users. 

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Now, everything went crazy KS 
took over the timeline is users 

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tweeted about the outage and 
often Illustrated their points 

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with images and memes that no 
one can see because they 

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wouldn't even load. 
Now, the Twitter API has been 

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shut down for outside sources 
for certain things and in a 

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tweet, the company offered the 
vaguest of explanations of what 

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was happening. 
During this time, they said some

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parts of Twitter May not be 
working as expected right now. 

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We made an internal change that 
had some unintended 

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consequences. 
Now, the changing question was 

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part of a project to shut down 
free access to the Twitter API 

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on February 1st. 
The company announced it will no

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longer support free access to 
its API which effectively ended 

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the existence of third-party 
clients and dramatically limit. 

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The ability of outside research 
has to study the network. 

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In a sign of just how deep Elon 
musk's cuts to the company of 

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been, only one site. 
Reliability Engineers, been 

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staffed on the project and on 
Monday, then engineer meeting 

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bad configuration change. 
The basically broke the Twitter 

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API now the change had cascading
consequences inside the company 

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bringing down much of Twitter's 
internal tools along with the 

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public facing apis on slack. 
Engineer's responded with 

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variations of crap and Twitter 
is down the entire thing as they

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scrambled to fix the problem. 
And we think Elon Musk was mad 

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about this, a small Epi change 
had massive, ramifications musk 

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tweeted later in the day after 
Twitter investor, Mark Anderson 

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posted a screenshot showing the 
company's API. 

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Failures were trending on the 
site. 

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The code stack is extremely 
brittle For No Good Reason. 

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Ilan said, will ultimately need 
a complete rewrite. 

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Now, they've had non-stop 
layoffs for the company with 

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only 100 or 500 50. 
Full-time Engineers now now, 

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Current employees are 
sympathetic to that view, which 

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places, at least part of the 
blame for Twitter's problems on 

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technical failures. 
That predate musk's ownership of

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the company. 
And the fail whale became an 

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icon of the old Twitter for a 
reason. 

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There's so much Tech debt for 
Twitter 1.0 if you make a change

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right now, everything breaks, 
that's what a current employee 

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said. 
Still, when musk took over the 

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company, you promise to 
dramatically improve the speed 

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and stability of the site and is
associate screen, the existing 

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staff for their Technical 
prowess, ultimately cutting 

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thousands of people working who 
were deemed not technical enough

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to succeed under musk's 
leadership but non-stop layoffs,

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have left the company with under
five hundred and fifty 

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full-time, engineer's, and just 
as former employees had 

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predicted from the start, these 
losses have made Twitter 

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increasingly vulnerable to 
catastrophic. 

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Outages Monday's, configuration 
chains was at least the six 

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high-profile service outage at 
Twitter. 

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The Year in January, Twitter, 
suffered an outage that lasted 

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for more than two hours and 
affected the site's mobile app, 

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as well as its web and API 
services. 

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In February Twitter, experience 
issues with posting tweets and 

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messages as well as 
notifications and likes. 

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And in March, a system 
irregularity, cause issues with 

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Twitter's ad platform in April, 
Twitter experience, a widespread

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outage that affected users, 
worldwide for over an hour. 

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And in July Twitter experience, 
an outage that caused it, Issues

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with notifications and finally 
the most out of recent outage on

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Monday and this type of outage 
has become so frequent that I 

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think we're all numb to. 
It said, one of the current 

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employees at Twitter and those 
are only the service outages. 

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There's other issues that are 
going on to such as the one that

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led musk's tweets to be made 
more visible on the timeline 

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than any other user which have 
also Royal the user base. 

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People got upset about that and 
in many ways, Monday's outage 

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represented, the culmination of 
musk's leadership at the 

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Japanese. 
So far the single-minded effort 

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to cut costs on his forty. 
Four billion dollar purchase. 

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He's been slashing the staff in 
a reducing Twitter's free 

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offerings and this paved a way 
for a single engineer to be 

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staffed on a huge project. 
One that is linked to several 

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critical interconnected systems 
that both users and employees 

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depend on and with few 
knowledgeable workers on hand to

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restore service, it took Twitter
all morning to fix the problem. 

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They were losing money during 
that time and this is what 

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happens when you fire 90. 
Percent of the company, one of 

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the current employees set as 
well. 

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Now, Twitter has technical debt 
to it's not just the recent 

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layoffs, the have left Twitter, 
vulnerable to these outages, the

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company's technical debt or the 
cost of maintaining outdated or 

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inefficient code. 
And hardware systems has been a 

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long-standing issue as one 
employee notes. 

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There is so much Tech debt from 
Twitter 1.0 that if you make a 

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change right now, everything 
breaks Twitter a struggle 

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struggle to keep up with its 
growth. 

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And the demand for its users 
resulting in a system that is 

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coupled together with Legacy and
spaghetti code, and outdated 

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technology, the company's 
internal systems and tools are 

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often unstable and unreliable as
well. 

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And there is a constant fear of 
things breaking down to make 

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matters, worse. 
Twitter has been slow to invest 

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in upgrading infrastructure and 
modernizing its code base. 

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The company has been criticized 
for prioritizing new features 

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and products over stability and 
reliability. 

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And, as a result Twitter's been 
Plagued by outages and technical

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issues for years in 2019. 
The company experienced a 

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massive outage less it for 
several hours, and affected 

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users around the world. 
The outage was caused by a 

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server. 
Configuration change that went 

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wrong according to the company 
and last year, Twitter suffered,

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several outages that cause 
issues with tweets, direct 

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messages and notifications. 
The company blamed the issues on

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an inadvertent change. 
We made to our internal systems.

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And now with the recent layoffs 
in the shutdown, The free access

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to the API. 
The company is facing serious. 

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Technical challenges again. 
Now Twitter said Ilan, said that

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the code stack is extremely 
brittle for no good reason and 

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will require a full rewrite. 
And we're not sure what 

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language, they're going to use 
for this new rewrite, but it 

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will be a modern rewrite not 
using the Legacy code will 

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probably rewrite it from 
scratch. 

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So, where does Twitter go from 
here? 

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Have a companies clearly facing 
seven. 

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Dictated to get challenges both 
in terms of his technical 

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infrastructure and its business 
model, must cost, cutting 

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measures have helped the 
company's bottom line, make more

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money, but they have also left 
Twitter, vulnerable to outages 

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and technical issues throughout 
the time. 

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He's been there. 
Now, at the same time, Twitter's

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facing intense competition, from
other social media platforms, 

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Tick-Tock Facebook. 
And the company's user base has 

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been stagnant for years in a 
struggle, to attract new users. 

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And An existing ones except 
Woody Allen. 

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Took the helm more users started
joining up to see what the whole

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parade was about, and what the 
drama was about over on Twitter.

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Now address these challenges 
Twitter's will need to make 

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significant investments in 
technical infrastructure and 

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modernize its code base. 
The company will also need to 

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develop new features and 
products that will attract users

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and keep them at gauge for 
future times. 

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Now. 
And perhaps, more importantly, 

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Twitter will need to re-evaluate
its business model in Find new 

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ways to generate money. 
The company is reliance and 

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advertising has proven to be a 
double-edged sword as it has 

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both fueled the company's growth
and left it vulnerable to 

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fluctuations in the advertising 
Market. 

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One possible solution is for 
Twitter to develop new revenue 

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streams such as paid 
subscriptions or premium 

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features for users. 
And the company is already begun

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experimenting with paid 
features. 

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The new check marks of course, 
exclusive content from different

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creators with a pay wall another
Possibility for Twitter is to 

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embrace its role as a platform 
for real-time communication to 

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develop new products and 
features that cater to that 

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role. 
For example, the company can 

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develop new tools for live 
streaming or real-time 

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collaboration, or could focus on
building a stronger Community 

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around certain topics or 
interests. 

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Ultimately the future of Twitter
will depend on its ability to 

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adapt to changing needs of its 
users in the broader social 

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media landscape and the company 
will need to strike a balance 

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between Innovation and Ability 
between growth and reliability. 

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And perhaps more importantly, 
Twitter will need to 

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re-establish itself as a 
platform that people trust and 

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rely on and is stable the 
company's recent outages and 

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technical issues have eroded 
user confidence in this platform

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and it will take a lot of time 
and effort to regain some of 

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those users trust as one current
employee notes. 

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There's so much potential here, 
Twitter could be an amazing 

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platform, but it needs to invest
in a sense. 

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Structure and its people if it's
going to realize its potential. 

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So in the end, the fate of 
Twitter will be decided by the 

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company's ability to overcome 
its technical debt. 

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Adapt to changing needs of its 
users and regain the trust of 

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its Community. 
It's a tall order, but a Twitter

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can rise to the challenge. 
It has the potential to be a 

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powerful force for real-time 
communication and social 

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engagement in the years to come.
Thank you for tuning in to the 

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Elon Musk podcast brought to you
by stage. 0 Productions, and 

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hosted by me will Walden. 
We hope you've enjoyed today's 

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episode and gained some valuable
insights. 

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00:11:01,300 --> 00:11:04,100
If you haven't already, be sure 
to subscribe on your favorite 

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free content. 
Check out our patreon at 

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00:11:11,100 --> 00:11:15,600
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Thanks for listening and we'll 

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00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:16,400
see you next time.
