Twitter, one of the world’s most popular microblogging platforms, will allow users to upload two-hour long videos (up to eight gigabytes in size), according to a tweet put out by the platform’s controversial owner—Elon Musk. It goes without saying that the feature is only available to those users who have subscribed to the platform’s premium service—Twitter Blue. The feature saw immediate backlash, as is the case with every announcement from Twitter these days, after several users posted movies illegally, from The Super Mario Bros. Movie to Shrek. It was reported that nearly nine million people ended up watching the Mario movie in a period of seven hours before it was taken down by the microblogging platform. The service has not taken any action against accounts which posted these movies on to the platform. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1659238056132501506 Why it matters: The long-video feature is another example of how Twitter seems to be shifting its focus on serving users subscribed to Twitter Blue. The announcement comes in the wake of the platform expanding the limit of characters for a tweet to up to 10,000. It is significant to note that Twitter may have a piracy problem on its hands after Musk’s decision to pare down the company’s staff affected the ability of the content moderation team to monitor effectively. Overview of Twitter’s recent features: The company has been busy making wholesale changes to the service following Musk’s takeover. The company let go of 5,000 people (more than 50 per cent) in a bid to bring…
