Twitter (X) ad revenue in Nigeria. The good, bad and the ugly

Twitter; now officially known as X recently started paying Nigerians their share in ad revenue. This means that they get paid based on the amount of impressions or engagement they get per post. The minimum impression is 15 million, though I must admit I don't quite understand how twitter calculated that and the payment. But the whole Nigerian twitter space has gone crazy due to this payment, so much so that some are even ranking twitter above other paying social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Tik Tok.

Elon musk the CEO of Twitter has said that he wants Twitter (now X) to be an everything app, i.e a place to play, buy, sell, say and do everything. While the platform hasn't quite gotten there it's safe to say it is on that trajectory.

But what are the advantages and disadvantages of this ad revenue in Nigeria, a country where the love of money is the root of all creativity and horrors. Let's take a look at some of the benefits, the side effects and the disadvantage of this in Nigeria.

The Good

Nigeria is a country that is riddled with poverty and inequality. The rich keeps on getting richer and the poor can only hope for the best. The new Twitter (X) ad revenue is a welcome development on the fight against poverty. Most people have been on Twitter for a long time and only make money through ads done by them personally now they don't have to worry, since they already have the followers they can just continue posting their content and get paid by Twitter.

This is not only limited to normal people though, the amount being paid by Twitter is so huge that even celebrities, companies and government officials can get paid for doing basically nothing. Since they already have a large number of active followers who are interested in their posts they can make money by just doing what they normally do daily.

The new ad revenue can also encourage creativity amongst youths. While they are already established platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok , people can create a unique kind of content exclusive to Twitter (X) and start posting it there. Twitter can become a full time job for thousands.

The bad

One of the major disadvantage of this is the way it is designed. The new Twitter (X) is a free space that anyone can post almost anything without being banned which means people will want those engagements badly enough to do some crazy things for it. Anything from fake news to controversy is going to be rampant. People will have a hard time distinguishing what is real or what is just attention seeking.

Social media platforms have this bane of being an avenue of people living their best (fake) life. People post their fantasies and project them as their real lives, with the new Twitter (X) that may rise and probably mutate to another level. People posting stuffs they don't believe in or even fantasize about. This type of misleading information may fuel a dangerous crisis and this leads us to the ugly.

The ugly

When people start posting their engagement seeking posts some may throw shades at a specific religion or sect. We have seen cases where a seemingly harmless post about religion leads to death. Let's not forget this is Nigeria, religion is a big deal here and any post concerning religion is sure to garner response and everyone knows that.

The issue of fake news may be taken to a whole new level with people posting about fake suicides or missing persons, just to get people's attention. Someone may post something they don't really mean, but it may anger someone else who might seek to cause harm to the poster in the real world. It's scary to think of someone getting harmed over something they don't believe in. Social media is a dangerous place where people with different psychological frames reside.

The country is at a boiling point with religious and tribal tensions building up, a totally unmeaning post may just be the thing to upset the apple cart and let all hell break loose.

All these said it is important to note that these are just probable speculations we have been faced with other technological advances before where doomsday prophecies were made and none came true. I think it all boils down to us and how we choose to use the platform. If rightly used the advantages outweigh the disadvantage massively and if certain censorship measures are employed we may just be alright.