{"id":6327,"date":"2023-10-28T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/business\/a-look-back-at-elon-musks-first-year-owning-twitter-in-tweets\/"},"modified":"2023-10-28T08:00:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T08:00:57","slug":"a-look-back-at-elon-musks-first-year-owning-twitter-in-tweets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=6327","title":{"rendered":"A look back at Elon Musk\u2019s first year owning Twitter, in tweets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n You\u2019d be forgiven for failing to remember every twist and turn \u2014 every controversial post, weird office update, legal threat and policy rollout (and, sometimes, rollback) \u2014 that took place during Elon Musk\u2019s first year owning Twitter.\n <\/p>\n

\n Since Musk closed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on October 27 of last year, he has not only rebranded the company as \u201cX\u201d but fundamentally changed what was once one of the world\u2019s most prominent and influential platforms for real-time news and information. By extension, he\u2019s also shifted the social media landscape writ large, as Twitter\u2019s splintering audience seeks alternatives.\n <\/p>\n

\n Here\u2019s a look back at some of the highlights of Musk\u2019s year owning the company, told through tweets \u2014 er, Xs?\n <\/p>\n

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\n Following a months-long legal battle attempting to extract himself from his agreement to buy Twitter, which Musk himself had initiated, Musk showed up at Twitter\u2019s San Francisco headquarters on October 26 carrying a bathroom sink. He tweeted, \u201clet that sink in!\u201d and it seemed like the deal might finally come to a close. Musk reportedly told employees he met with that day that he didn\u2019t plan to cut 75% of the company\u2019s staff, as had previously been reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n The following evening, Musk officially closed the deal. He tweeted \u201cthe bird is freed.\u201d That day, he also told Twitter advertisers that he didn\u2019t want the platform to become \u201ca free-for-all-hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences\u201d despite his promise to bolster \u201cfree speech.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n Within days of taking over Twitter, Musk ousted many of its top executives and then laid off half of the company\u2019s staff via email, including employees in key departments such as ethical AI, communications, search, public policy, curation and platform wellness. Later in the month, he conducted a second round of layoffs by asking remaining employees to commit to working \u201cextremely hardcore,\u201d and cut those who didn\u2019t.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the days following Musk\u2019s takeover, some of Twitter\u2019s biggest advertisers also began pausing their spend on the platform over concerns about the layoffs, what Musk\u2019s \u201cfree speech\u201d vision would mean for content moderation and general uncertainty about the company\u2019s future. On November 9, Musk held a Twitter Spaces call to plead with advertisers to remain on the platform. The same day, he tweeted, perhaps prophetically: \u201cPlease note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in the coming months. We will keep what works and change what doesn\u2019t.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n During that same month, Twitter launched its first iteration of paid verification to almost immediate chaos. Musk also restored former President Donald Trump\u2019s Twitter account following an unscientific poll of his followers, but said he wouldn\u2019t bring back conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.\n <\/p>\n

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\n December brought us the start of the so-called \u201cTwitter Files,\u201d a series of reports from independent journalists whom Musk hand picked to look through select internal Twitter documents. Despite several days of fervent attention to the reports, they revealed little new information about the company and its former leadership.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rolling layoffs at the company continued. Musk began a mass unbanning of previously suspended Twitter accounts, including members of the far-right and users who\u2019d shared misinformation.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mid-month, Musk temporarily suspended several prominent journalists from Twitter for posting about @ElonJet, an account run by a teen that had posted the updated locations of Musk\u2019s private yet. The move drew blowback and called into question his stated commitment to free speech. The company also introduced a policy, which was quickly rolled back, banning links to other social media platforms.\n <\/p>\n

\n Musk also polled his followers about whether he should step down as Twitter\u2019s CEO. The majority voted \u201cyes,\u201d and he said he just had to \u201cfind someone foolish enough to take the job!\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n January was \u2014 blissfully \u2014 a relatively quiet month in Twitter-land, although the company did get sued by a landlord for alleged nonpayment of rent.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Musk kicked off February by announcing that Twitter would charge for access to its API, angering researchers who had long used the tool to measure platform manipulation. Public safety officials worried that they\u2019d lose the ability to alert the public of threats like earthquakes and transit issues; eventually, Twitter reversed course and allowed government institutions to use the API for free. Twitter also announced plans to allow only paid users to have text message two-factor authentication, upsetting some users.\n <\/p>\n

\n Musk hinted at Twitter\u2019s financial troubles saying, \u201cI acquired the world\u2019s largest non-profit for $44 billion.\u201d (Twitter had, in fact, reported a profit in 2018 and 2019, prior to Musk\u2019s takeover.) <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

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\n On March 1, thousands of Twitter users were unable to view their timelines because of a glitch. Five days later, it happened again \u2014 this time affecting users\u2019 ability to see photos and click through links and, in some cases, access the site entirely. Musk chalked it up to the platform being \u201cbrittle\u201d (rather than his layoffs of many employees charged with keeping the site operational).\n <\/p>\n

\n Musk took heat for publicly mocking an employees\u2019 disability, after the employee tweeted at him, confused about whether he\u2019d been laid off. Musk later backtracked and apologized.\n <\/p>\n

\n Also this month, the FTC confirmed it was investigating Twitter\u2019s privacy practices, and Twitter said part of its proprietary source code had leaked online.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the end of March, Twitter followed through on Musk\u2019s earlier promise to open-source part of its source code in an effort to help users understand the platform\u2019s recommendation algorithm.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Musk and Twitter got into a spat with NPR, and several other public broadcasters, after rolling out a new label calling them \u201cstate-affiliated media,\u201d the same way it identified foreign propaganda outlets such as Russia\u2019s RT and Sputnik. Twitter eventually changed the label to \u201cgovernment-funded media\u201d and then did away with the designation altogether, but NPR and PBS left the platform nonetheless.\n <\/p>\n

\n Former Twitter executives, including former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, sued the company to recover legal expenses. Musk told the BBC he had laid off 80% of Twitter\u2019s staff since his takeover and that the company was \u201croughly breakeven.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And on 4\/20 \u2014 a day Musk likes to giggle about for its connection to a marijuana holiday \u2014 Twitter removed the verification checkmarks from users who\u2019d been authenticated under the company\u2019s old system. Quickly, some prominent users were impersonated and others tweeted their frustrations. Musk said the move was meant to eradicate bots, with the added perk of incentivizing users to pay up for the platform\u2019s subscription service. But the move marked the beginning of a radically different information regime on Twitter, making it more difficult for users to determine a verified account\u2019s authenticity and trust what they see on the site.\n <\/p>\n

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\n May began with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey saying he no longer thought Musk was the right person to run Twitter.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lucky for him, just over a week later Musk announced he\u2019d found a new CEO for the company in former NBCUniversal ad exec Linda Yaccarino (although Musk retains ultimate control over the company).\n <\/p>\n

\n May also brought us Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 campaign launch on a Twitter Spaces event with Musk, which was plagued by glitches, echoing audio and, in the words of a Musk lieutenant, \u201cmelting servers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Fidelity released a report estimating that Twitter was worth only one-third of its pre-Musk value.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Musk in June said that he\u2019d be \u201cup for a cage fight\u201d with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, kicking off weeks of will-they, won\u2019t-they, they-probably-won\u2019t discourse on and offline.\n <\/p>\n

\n In more serious matters, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton visited Twitter\u2019s headquarters to conduct a stress test for the new Digital Services Act regulating everything from social media content moderation to targeted advertising, which officially went into effect two months later. The visit was an early test for Yaccarino, less than a month after she officially took over as CEO.\n <\/p>\n

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\n On July 6, Meta launched Threads, its competitor app to Twitter and perhaps the biggest threat to the bird app since Musk\u2019s acquisition. Threads quickly took off, gaining millions of signups within days of its launch (although engagement has been slower to catch up in the months since).\n <\/p>\n

\n Sensing the threat, Musk threatened to sue Meta over Threads, calling it \u201ccheating.\u201d The lawsuit never materialized.\n <\/p>\n

\n Twitter this month launched<\/a> its controversial creator ad revenue share program. Musk said Twitter remained cash flow negative because of its heavy debt load and a 50% decline in ad revenue.\n <\/p>\n

\n And then, Musk rebranded Twitter as \u201cX\u201d and doubled down on his vision to make the platform into an \u201ceverything app\u201d for communications, entertainment and payments. The city of San Francisco, however, did not appreciate the giant, blinking
\u201cX\u201d sign that was affixed to the top of the company\u2019s headquarters, and quickly had it removed.\n <\/p>\n

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\n As Twitter, now X, continued to struggle to lure advertisers back to the platform, Yaccarino teased new brand safety controls meant to allow advertisers to restrict the kinds of content their ads could appear next to. She also said X was \u201cclose to breakeven.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Days later, two brands halted their spending on the platform after their ads appeared on a pro-Nazi account. (X said the account and ads were not widely viewed, and that it was improving its brand safety controls.)\n <\/p>\n

\n The company also sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a watchdog that had reported about a rise in hateful content on the platform, accusing the group of trying to drive advertisers away from the platform. (CCDH is fighting the suit.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Issues also started to emerge with X\u2019s creator ad revenue share program. Under the platform\u2019s new paid verification scheme, users who subscribed for a blue check already had their posts boosted by the platform\u2019s algorithm. Now, the possibility to be paid for posts that garnered significant engagement threatened to incentivize users to post inflammatory content. Musk warned users not to attempt to manipulate the program.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League for defamation, claiming that the nonprofit organization\u2019s statements about rising hate speech on the social media platform have torpedoed X\u2019s\u00a0advertising revenue. (He said US advertising revenue remained down 60%.) Musk also liked and engaged with a series of posts criticizing the organization. A #BanTheADL campaign spread on X, and the ADL accused Musk of \u201clifting\u201d the campaign.\n <\/p>\n

\n No lawsuit was ever filed and the ADL, after pushing back firmly on Musk\u2019s claims, eventually appeared to make nice with the platform and resumed advertising on X.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the meantime, Musk posted to reassure his followers that his fight with the organization did not mean he is antisemitic.\n <\/p>\n

\n That month, X did sue California\u2019s Attorney General over the state\u2019s new content moderation law, which Musk called \u201ca wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n False and misleading claims spread rapidly on X in the days following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. Musk, in a since-deleted post, pointed users to known spreaders of disinformation for updates about the war, and later Musk asked users to stay \u201cclose to the truth\u201d in posts about the conflict. The company\u2019s leaders also touted X\u2019s \u201cCommunity Notes\u201d feature that allows users to provide context notes on other users\u2019 posts.\n <\/p>\n

\n The European Union officially launched an investigation of X after a previous warning about disinformation and illegal content on its platform linked to the Israel-Hamas war. (X, for its part, says it has removed \u201chundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts\u201d and taken down thousands of posts related to the conflict in recent weeks.)\n <\/p>\n

\n In a continued effort to boost X\u2019s profits with subscription revenue, Musk announced plans to roll out multiple tiers of its Premium service, including a more expensive, ad-free tier.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Thursday night \u2014 the eve of the one-year anniversary of Musk\u2019s Twitter takeover \u2014 Yaccarino said in a blog post<\/a> that she is \u201cincredibly proud of the work our team has been doing\u201d and teased \u201cthe scope of our ambition for next year.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And on Friday, at around midnight, Musk posted noting the \u201cgood progress\u201d the company\u2019s engineering team has made over the past year.\n <\/p>\n

\n Later Friday morning, Musk revived his year-old \u201cbird is freed\u201d tweet, saying \u201cFreedom.\u201d But minutes later, he was out of celebration mode and back to his usual Twitter persona, riling up his increasingly right-wing fanbase: Musk, in a post responding to another user, implied that some people want the \u201cextinction\u201d of the descendants of Confederate Leader Robert E. Lee.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n