Twitter: One million leave: BBC News Review

Nearly a million Twitter users leave as Elon Musk takes over.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story.

Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video

and try the quiz on our website. Now, the story.

Almost one million.

That's how many Twitter accounts have been deactivated

since Elon Musk bought the social media platform last month.

Musk's takeover has been controversial.

Some people are worried about his approach to free speech.

Thousands of staff have lost their jobs

and there are plans to make some users pay a subscription.

Many users are moving to an alternative called Mastodon,

a free social network platform where posts are called 'toots'.

Eugen Rochko, the founder of the platform, tooted on Monday

that he thinks the massive increase in users is 'pretty cool'.

You've been looking at the headlines, Beth.

What is the vocabulary?

We have 'flock', 'on fire' and 'mammoth'.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

Let's take a look at our first headline.

This one comes from The National,

a Scottish media outlet.

OK. So, Twitter users in Scotland, as well as many other places in the world,

are leaving. And the word that we are looking at in this headline is 'flock',

which is connected to birds, isn't it?  

Yeah. So 'flock' as a noun is a group of birds

and remember the Twitter logo is a bird and you post 'tweets'.

'Tweets' is a word that is the sound a bird makes.

Yeah. So, the headline writer uses 'flock'

because of Twitter's connection to birds.

It is used as a verb in the headline,

but we can also see it as a noun, to refer to

a group. So, a group of birds or sheep.

So, what's the connection to sheep?

Well, if you picture a field with one sheep

and it moves over here all of the other sheep follow it.

Sheep are famous for following each other.

So, the headline writer has used this as well

to describe all of these people moving from Twitter to Mastodon.

They're following each other, like sheep.

And so, there's a nice double meaning in this headline related to birds and sheep.

But there would 'flock' - is that one that we use in everyday English?

Yeah, we do. So, imagine a shop has a sale, then

all of the shoppers might 'flock' there because they want

to buy something for good price.

Yes, and if your favourite singer or group is going on tour,

people will 'flock' to ticket websites to try and get a place at the concert.

And also, if we make a good video,

people 'flock' to our website to watch it...

I hope that happens! Yeah, same.

Let's take a look at that again.

Time for our next headline.

This one is from CNN.

So, the headline says that Twitter is in chaos, lots of people

are leaving, they're joining Mastodon, a rival.

The expression we are looking at is 'on fire'.

Now, this sounds a little bit dangerous.

Beth, if something is on fire,

that's not a good thing. Shall I call the fire brigade?

No, no. Don't call the fire brigade.

So, this expression, 'on fire' is used to talk about

a good thing, to say that something is amazing, or is doing well.

So, the headline writer is actually praising Mastodon

because it's so popular at the moment. Yeah.

So, often in this programme, we talk about metaphorical language. 'On fire',

literally, means that something is in flames.

That's not the sense here. No, in this headline,

and also in informal conversation, we use 'on fire' to say

that we're impressed with something.

Yeah. And not just social media platforms.

We use it more widely.

Yes, we do. So, we often use it to talk about skills. For example,

I watched my friend play football yesterday

and she scored three goals - she was 'on fire'. Yeah.

And I saw you preparing the script

this morning. Beth, you were 'on fire'. Thank you, Neil.

I think we're both 'on fire' today.

Let's take a look at that again.

Time for our next headline, please.

This one is from Slate.

The headline is asking if Mastodon could become a social media 'mammoth',

And 'mammoth' is the word

we're looking at. What is a 'mammoth'?

Well, they are extinct animals.

They looked a little bit like hairy elephants.

They have a big trunk, and they were absolutely enormous.

Yes. And so, size is the key in this headline.

It's asking whether Mastodon could become a really big social media platform.

Exactly. And 'mammoth' is also related to another very big

and extinct animal, that also looks like a hairy elephant, a mastodon.

And that is the name of this new social media platform.

Yeah. So, there's a really nice double meaning in the headline.

It's quite clever. It links the 'mammoth' to the 'mastodon'.

Another really big extinct animal, and also the name

of this social media platform.

We're looking at 'mammoth', though.

And, as an adjective,

it can be used to describe really big things.

Yes, it can. So, for example, this morning,

it took me over two hours to get to work.

It was a 'mammoth' journey.

Yes, and I had a 'mammoth' task at the weekend.

I tried to get my kids to clean their bedroom and took a long, long time.

Let's have a look at that again.

We've had 'flock', move together in a large group.

'On fire', impressive because something is done very well.

And 'mammoth', something very big.

Don't forget there's a quiz on a website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Thank you for joining us and goodbye. Bye!