Studio Emiko to Cease Twitter Activity Next Week, Move to Bluesky

Studio Emiko founder and CEO Emiko Hosokawa yesterday announced that she will cease all activity on Twitter next Friday. This also includes her VTuber operations. This move comes as Twitter made changes to the blocking system that would allow accounts that users have blocked to still view those profiles but not like or retweet any tweets, as well as to protest against the pro-artificial intelligence changes as outlined in the site’s new Terms of Service, which are set to take place next month. Hosokawa is also lobbying for stricter regulations over the use of artificial intelligence, especially in the creative sector. This move resulted in Bluesky surging in popularity to the point that the site crashed.

Twitter started going downhill after the company was “electronic artsed” by Elon Musk. This term is derived from the video game company Electronic Arts which gained notoriety in the 1990s when they developed a habit of acquiring smaller companies for their intellectual property assets instead of talent, forcing unwanted changes on that company, and shutting them down as a result of those products failing critically or commercially because of those changes. Sometimes, shady business practices such as locking features with microtransactions are also common.

When Twitter was acquired by Musk, he was now in control of the massively popular social media service. While he did give a little bit more freedom to consumers, he added microtransactions to some of the most popular features that were once free, but because that some of these changes were not good, his reputation suffered and usage rates fell. From the public’s perception, Musk took control of a perfectly good website, forced bad changes on it, and drove it downhill because of it.

The paltry practice is essentially the same thing in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Lenny would love those rabbits but accidentally kill them by squeezing them too hard. Musk wanted Twitter under his ownership to do well but those attempts ended up backfiring. Drillimation may follow suit by setting up a Bluesky account within this incoming week but will remain on Twitter for the time being.

You can check out Drillimation on Bluesky here.