mayln@lopers.unk.edu

Twitter announced two new features that will be added to its platform, including a paid subscription feature called ‘Super Follows’. 

The microblogging service unveiled two new features during its presentation for analysts and investors: Super Follows and Communities. Both changes are departures from the social media site’s simple format. 

The Super Follows feature allows Twitter users to charge followers for access to additional content. Additional content might include bonus tweets, community group access, a newsletter or other perks. The Super Follows feature makes Twitter the latest social media platform to integrate a direct payment tool into its platform, allowing both Twitter and its users to acquire a new form of revenue. 

The Communities feature allows Twitter users to create or join groups created around specific interests. Users would see more tweets focused around their selected interests. The feature is comparable to Facebook’s Groups feature.

Twitter did not specify when the features would become available to users. 

After the announcement, Twitter users voiced concerns about the Super Follows feature. The hashtag #RIPTwitter trended in conjunction with users voicing their displeasure with the idea of paying for someone’s tweets. The hashtag became one of the top five trending topics, with over 40,000 tweets, and spawned a plethora of memes. Some users considered using other social platforms such as Tumblr once more.