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Twitter turmoil.

 The din created by Musk's unorthodox management has attracted a larger flock to the social networking site, apparently drawn into the chaos unleashed by the billionaire's $44bn takeover. Usage of far smaller rivals such as Mastodon and Tumblr has rocketed, as some Twitter users encourage followers to abandon the site to test out competitors. Social, which is described as a «non-toxic social network». Even if Twitter has gained users, the business is struggling.

Changes to moderation and verification of high-profile accounts have led some advertisers, including General Motors, Carlsberg and General Mills, to pause spending over «brand safety» concerns. In addition, Musk has raised the spectre of bankruptcy, warning that the company might have a net negative cash flow of several billion dollars. Fears over the maintenance of the site have been exacerbated by this week's staff departures which come just weeks after Musk cut half of the 7,500 workforce. But users who believe the company is nosediving are doing so by tweeting their concerns rather than leaving the platform.

Twitter's mobile app was downloaded 7.6mn times worldwide in the 12 days from October 27 to November 7, up 21 per cent from the previous 12-day period, according to data from Sensor Tower. Among those to depart are model Gigi Hadid, who said Twitter was becoming «more and more of a cesspool of hate & bigotry» within days of Musk at the helm, and US television producer Shonda Rhimes, who said she was «not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned». With more than 12mn Twitter followers, British actor Stephen Fry posted a picture of the word «goodbye» spelt out in Scrabble letters last week. But an FT analysis of the 50 most followed individuals on Twitter shows little indication of a significant drop in activity since the takeover. However, those numbers may be skewed by politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden ramping up tweeting during the US midterm elections.

The concerns of some users do appear to reflect a changing site. In the week following Musk's acquisition, NewsGuard said that the top accounts that it deemed «superspreaders» of false information saw a 57 per cent increase in engagement in the form of likes and retweets compared with the two weeks before the buyout. «The users Musk should be concerned about leaving are higher profile, higher status users that tend to bring audiences with them,» said Robyn Caplan, a senior researcher in social media at the non-profit research institute Data & Society. Smaller rivals have become unlikely beneficiaries of Musk's acquisition of Twitter.Engagement on the once-popular microblogging site Tumblr has grown, with installs up 77 per cent to 301,000 in the 12 days after the acquisition. Not-for-profit, open-source platform Mastodon, founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko, has also installed 1mn in the same 12 days, up from 15,000 in the prior period, according to Sensor Tower. Some of Mastodon's features will be familiar to Twitter users, with posts known as «toots» rather than «tweets» and shared content referred to as «boosts» rather than «retweets». But some users have complained that the platform is too complicated to set up and use.

Mastodon has a series of different servers that form a network known as the Fediverse, and each server has slightly different policies. «While some test out alternatives, Musk has been forced to reconsider how he plans to shake up his business. » Users could pay $8 a month for verification and other benefits, and impersonators took advantage of ape companies and individuals with verified accounts. But, in a sign that Musk is taking steps to reassure brands, he tweeted the company would soon roll out a feature to «enable organisations to identify which other Twitter accounts are associated with them».

Attention has switched this week to whether Musk will convince enough workers to stay to implement his plans. Musk has rejected concerns that the departure will collapse the site. «How do you make a small fortune in social media,» he joked in a tweet.

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