That in group includes mainstream media journalists who report on it and influential people who read it and make decisions based on it. I can't believe you're making that argument with a straight face. We just had the Twitter president (who's been kneecapped by the Twitter ban, if you need another example of its power).
The ways Facebook, Insta, etc are being used now are heavily influenced by what Twitter started doing first.
Right, the tiny in-group of mainstream journalists and elites use it and place way too much weight on what's being said on the platform. Outside of that, most of America (& the world?) doesn't give a crap about what blue checks are saying. That doesn't stop journalists from twisting themselves into pretzels over what this or that person tweeted. I'm not saying it's not important and influential to the people using it, I'm saying those people think everyone else feels the same way and that's not the case.
It's trivial to buy a bot farm and pump up your tweets to make it seem you have a large following or tons of people agree with your opinion when in fact it's all manufactured. But hey, all that tech is complicated right? Better to not think about it... /s
The ways Facebook, Insta, etc are being used now are heavily influenced by what Twitter started doing first.