Twitter removes this ‘feature’ to level playing field

Since his takeover, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been seeking to end the “lord and peasants” system to level the playing field for all the users of the social media platform. Previously, he relaunched the Blue services with allowing all to purchase a subscription and get a blue checkmark. Now, the micro-blogging website is removing the mention of the device from which the tweet comes.
A Twitter handle by the name @PubityIG tweeted that “Twitter has removed the ability to see which device a tweet comes from. (Twitter for iPhone, Twitter for Android).” Musk quoted the tweet saying, “Hallelujah!!”

There have been various instances wherein users have tweeted something to promote Google-owned Android or Samsung but they used an iPhone to share the tweet. This caused embarrassment to the users because of the subsequent backlash.
For example, actress Gal Gadot was spotted promoting Huawei Mate 10 Pro on Twitter and the image posted on the handle was from an iPhone.

Earlier this year, Google took a jibe at Apple CEO Tim Cook from Google Pixel’s official Twitter handle. Cook posted a video teaser hinting at Apple’s new product launches and captioned it “Take Note” and “The possibilities are endless.”
Google responded to Cook’s tweet from Pixel’s official handle. “Hmmmm Okay, I See You, #TakeNote. #TeamPixel is here to get you closer to your favourite team – tell us yours and we might be able to make your NBA Tip-Off even better.”

For the unaware, “Take Note” hashtag is not exclusive to Apple as it was used by the Utah Jazz NBA team on Twitter. The owner Ryan Smith also called out Cook for using the team’s hashtag however it was Google that grabbed attention but for the wrong reasons.
Google posted the reply with “an iPhone” but soon after releasing its mistake, the company deleted the tweet and shared it from the Twitter Web App.
Musk hinted the feature’s removal
Neither Musk nor Twitter have given any reason for the removal and the significance of this development. However, the new CEO of the microblogging website previously hinted at its removal.

“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,” he tweeted.

Here’s what users are saying
Twitter user Affinitweet (@affinitweet_) says that the label essentially keeps the platform safe. “It is necessary to know from where the tweet has been published. Not to know if people use an iPhone, Android or TweetDeck, but to know if the tweet has actually been published by the user or a third-party app. It’s nonsense to remove it if you want to keep Twitter safe,” the account tweeted.
When one user asked why does the removal matter, another one pointed out that “it’s free advertising for companies that are attacking his company. It’s pretty easy to see why.”