my first thought is that it's a dumbing down of the twitter experience.

if this is a good idea longterm i've no idea - i imagine in the short term they believe it will increase user interaction.

of course emoji responses will be for sale by the thousand, as per followers and likes.

slightly off topic, it's a further avoidance of the elephant in the room, which is the political interference prevalent on the platform, which in my view is the issue that really needs to be addressed.