Elon Musk has again made an unpopular and likely controversial decision to remove the tweet source label on Twitter. This tweet source label is used to tell the tweet reader with what kind of device the uploader created the tweet.
Usually, this label will appear at the bottom of the text along with the date when the tweet was made. This label will appear in the form of phrases such as “Twitter for iPhone”, “Twitter for Android”, “Twitter for Web” and others.
But with Elon Musk’s words on Twitter today, it seems that all those labels will disappear. Musk made this known via a recent post on his Twitter account stating that Twitter would “stop adding what device a tweet was uploaded with,”.
And we will finally stop adding what device a tweet was written on (waste of screen space & compute) below every tweet. Literally no one even knows why we did that …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2022
According to him, it is not important and just a “waste of space on the screen”. He also said that “actually nobody knows why we did it.”
This indicates that Twitter does not yet have a clear explanation regarding the existence of this label. Reporting from Apple Insider, this label actually has functionality that is quite important for cyber security. (14/11/2022)
This label is considered to be useful for detecting bots that very often roam the social media. This is because they often use PCs/Laptops so that the “Twitter for Web” sign appears when organizing bots.
Even so, Musk’s decision became quite a hot topic of conversation on Twitter. Many refused for security reasons as above, but there were also those who actually remembered funny incidents because of this little label.
Especially when public figures and corporations use Twitter for iPhone when promoting their Android-based products.
Like the well-known artist, Gal Gadot, who promotes Huawei products but uses the iPhone in 2018. But at that time, he immediately deleted his upload and replaced it with an Android-based smartphone.
Likewise with the Android cellphone company, Google Pixel, which is promoting the NBA event that they are holding in 2022.
Of course, there are many more public figures and companies who have been caught using Twitter for iPhone in their uploads.
For the level of companies and artists, maybe this is quite sensitive because it relates to the brand image of their devices.
However, it is different with netizens who make this mistake entertainment. Instead of fighting, Android and iPhone users actually make this a meme that is quite ticklish.
