Twitter’s Copyright Strike System Breaks, Resulting In Full Movies for All

Twitter’s troubles continue: Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the company seems to be on a bit of a downward spiral. He came in heavy, making changes and throwing out ultimatums, but Twitter’s copyright strike system breaking is only one of many mishaps that have occurred since. The company is also struggling with manpower due to firings and resignations and its monetization efforts via Twitter Blue.

Cracks have started to show: Twitter began firing employees right off the bat when Musk took over, starting with executives and moving on to what ended up being a majority of the workforce. The ultimatums did not help the employee count, either, with some resigning on their own as Musk pushed for a “hardcore” work environment.

Moreover, the exodus of employees has not been entirely smooth. At one point, Twitter began rehiring people it fired, saying that some were laid off by mistake. Other employees were brought back because they had the skills and experience necessary to accomplish Musk’s ambitious goals.

Twitter’s copyright strike system: In another show of dysfunction in recent days, Twitter’s copyright strike system broke down, something that became apparent Sunday night. The gap in automated copyright takedown led to a user going viral after uploading The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift in two-minute segments across 50 tweets.

• Ordinarily, a message of “this media cannot be displayed” will show after a media takedown, with the account and tweet remaining up. However, in this case, the account was suspended entirely, something done manually which has not been able to stop other accounts from doing the same.
• There have also been reports that the tweets from the suspended account were still accessible using mobile devices, which allowed people to continue to watch the movie.

Enter the world of sports: With Twitter’s copyright strike system down, things are chaotic, which has only been made worse because of sports. The NFL, NBA, and NHL are currently in full force and attracting a lot of attention. At the same time, the FIFA World Cup 2022, the most-watched sporting event in the world, is going on right now and is a prime target for uploaders.

• The breakdown of Twitter’s copyright strike system has opened a window for accounts to “rebroadcast” live sporting events. That means putting them up seconds after they air, breaking copyright.
• Broadcast rights are worth hundreds of billions and are highly protected by their networks. ESPN and ABC are owned by the Disney Company, which is highly protective of its copyright material. Moreover, there are individual leagues Twitter will likely have to deal with as well.

No quick fixes: The problem has persisted into today with no signs that anything will change. It appears that accounts are still being suspended manually, which is a big problem since there have been reports of the World Cup and other movies uploaded on the platform.

• It also poses a problem for one of Musk’s big ideas if things are not fixed. He wanted Twitter Blue to allow users to post much longer video content, which would be a disaster without Twitter’s copyright strike system being solid.
• It is not helpful that so many employees have been laid off, leaving Twitter running with a skeleton crew to fix the numerous issues popping up.

Elon Musk’s attitude: While legal issues are almost certain, Musk seems to remain unperturbed in the face of Twitter’s copyright strike system breaking down. If anything, his focus seems to remain on features like Twitter Blue.

However, the failures at Twitter are beginning to change how people look at Musk, which could affect his other companies. After all, while Twitter is now privately held, other companies under Musk’s banner are not.