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NZ Twitter’s Secret Santa brought smiles across Aotearoa – a festive game in which Kiwis gifted presents to strangers, selected by a Twitter register.
But the organisers announced on the social media platform on Wednesday that they will have to end the initiative, blaming changes made by new Twitter owner, Elon Musk.
“I have some very sad news. Due to changes made to Twitter by Elon Musk we’ve had to make the very hard choice that we can not run #SecretSantaNZ anymore. It’s a heart breaking decision because we thought we’d future proofed with the App etc, but we will always have the memories,” the Secret Santa Twitter account shared.
With many people tagging @elonmusk in the comments, the organisers also explained in the comment section that “part of it” was due to new cost charges on the website.
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The account said in a separate Tweet that “automated DMs and messages has had big changes” leading to their decision to cancel the programme.
Musk has made a string of controversial changes to the platform since acquiring it last year.
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These include eliminating the company’s communications department, abruptly suspending journalists’ accounts, conducting a poll to vote whether he should step down as CEO, and making management decisions that would “probably fall foul of New Zealand employment law.”
The Secret Santa Twitter account was started in 2010 by Hamilton’s Sam Elton-Walters (@websam) and was taken over by New Zealand Post in 2013.