Twitter under Elon Musk: A Year of Turmoil and Change

Twitter under Elon Musk has been a wild ride, to say the least. The billionaire entrepreneur took the reins in October 2022, and it's been a year of turmoil and change ever since.

Elon Musk's first move was to lay off half of Twitter's staff, a shocking 3,700 employees, in an effort to cut costs and streamline the company. This drastic measure sent shockwaves through the tech industry.

The new CEO also made some significant changes to the platform's content moderation policies, allowing more hate speech and misinformation to spread. This was a major departure from Twitter's previous approach, which had been to crack down on these types of posts.

Musk's ownership has also been marked by a series of high-profile controversies, including the reinstatement of Donald Trump's account after it was suspended following the January 6th Capitol riot.

Elon Musk acquired Twitter on October 28, 2022, marking a significant shift in the platform's leadership.

The Twitter Files, a series of internal documents, were released between December 2022 and March 2023, providing insight into Twitter's inner workings. These documents were made available to journalists and authors by Musk himself.

Journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and authors Michael Shellenberger, David Zweig, and Alex Berenson were among those who received the documents, which they used to create a series of Twitter threads.

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Elon Musk initially planned to appoint a new CEO to oversee Twitter, starting the process of searching for his successor in November 2022. He stated that he would eventually step down as CEO.

Musk conducted an open-access Twitter poll on December 18, 2022, asking users whether he should resign from his position as Twitter CEO. The poll resolved to "yes" after 57.5 percent of 17.5 million users voted in favor of him stepping down.

After the poll, Musk announced he would step down as CEO as soon as his replacement was selected, but would continue to lead Twitter's software and server teams.

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Musk made an unsolicited and non-binding offer to purchase Twitter for $43 billion on April 14, 2022.

The offer was made to Twitter's management, but was described as a hostile takeover attempt due to the implied threat to purchase outstanding stock if management declined. The board responded that it would "carefully review the proposal".

Musk aimed to make Twitter a "platform for free speech around the globe" and hailed free speech as a "societal imperative for a functioning democracy". He insisted that he made the offer to make a difference, not to increase his wealth.

The price of $54.20 per share is believed to be a reference to 420, a slang term in cannabis culture for marijuana consumption. This subtle hint added to the intrigue surrounding the takeover bid.

Twitter's board of directors announced a "poison pill" strategy on April 15, which would allow shareholders to purchase additional stock in the event of a hostile takeover. The plan expired on April 14, 2023.

Musk secured financing for the potential takeover from a group of banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Barclays. The funding included $7 billion of senior secured bank loans and $6 billion in subordinated debt.

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Musk conducted an open-access Twitter poll asking whether he should resign from his position as Twitter CEO, which resolved to "yes" after 57.5 percent of 17.5 million users voted in favor.

The poll was conducted on December 18, 2022, amid growing public discontent surrounding the ElonJet and Mastodon controversies.

Musk announced he would step down as CEO as soon as his replacement was selected, but would continue to lead Twitter's software and server teams.

On April 11, 2023, he told the BBC that he had stepped down and appointed his dog as CEO.

Here's a summary of the key dates:

Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter was completed on October 28, 2022, after a tumultuous few months. He became the new owner and CEO, taking Twitter private and merging it into X Corp.

Musk's goal was to transform Twitter into X, an all-encompassing app inspired by WeChat. He fired several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, and renamed several features to remove references to bird-oriented terminology. Musk ordered Twitter employees to revamp multiple aspects of the program within one week, enlisting employees from his other companies and investors to meet these deadlines.

X Corp. is not solely owned by Musk; it is wholly owned by X Holdings Corp. (XHC), a company with investors that include entities linked to Bill Ackman, Larry Ellison, Marc Andreessen, and Sean Combs. Over 20 Fidelity-associated funds, trusts, and pools are also investors in XHC.

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In April 2022, Elon Musk initiated the acquisition of Twitter, Inc.

Musk's goal was to transform Twitter into X, an all-encompassing app inspired by WeChat.

He became Twitter's largest shareholder with a 9.2 percent stake before making an unsolicited $44 billion offer on April 14.

The offer was initially resisted by Twitter's board but accepted on April 25.

Musk attempted to terminate the deal in July, citing Twitter's failure to address spam bot accounts.

Twitter sued him, but Musk reversed his decision and completed the acquisition on October 28.

As the new owner and CEO, Musk took Twitter private, merged it into X Corp., and fired several top executives.

He renamed several features to remove references to bird-oriented terminology and ordered Twitter employees to revamp multiple aspects of the program within one week.

Musk enlisted employees from his other companies, including Tesla, the Boring Company, and Neuralink, to meet the deadlines.

Many staff members were told to work longer hours to meet the tight deadlines.

The acquisition was completed despite Musk's initial attempt to terminate the deal.

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The corporate value of a company can fluctuate significantly over time. One notable example is when Musk acquired a company, which initially valued itself at about $19 billion, a whopping 55% lower than Musk's purchase price.

The valuation continued to drop, with Fidelity estimating the company to be down 65% from its purchase price in October 2023. This is a significant decline in a relatively short period.

By October 2024, Fidelity estimated the company's value to be down 79% from Musk's original purchase price, a 24% decrease from their earlier estimate just two months prior. That's a substantial drop in a short time.

In a surprising turn of events, Musk was reportedly in talks for a new round of financing at a $44 billion valuation in February 2025. This valuation is almost back to what it was at the time of purchase.

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Twitter's policy changes have been quite notable. New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach. Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter. You won't find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from the rest of the Internet.

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In December 2022, Twitter dissolved the Trust and Safety Council responsible for Twitter's policies on hate speech, child sexual exploitation, and self-harm content. This move occurred while evidence showed an increase in hate speech following Musk's acquisition.

Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions. The words "cis" or "cisgender" are considered slabs on this platform.

Twitter adopted an updated zero-tolerance policy on "violent speech" on February 28, 2023.

Twitter under Elon Musk has seen a significant shift in content moderation. Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints, but no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.

The platform's approach to content moderation has been criticized, with Evan Hansen, a former director of curation at Twitter, stating that Musk believed the moderation team was biased towards liberal conversations. As a result, Musk fired approximately 50% of Twitter's 7,500 staff, including Hansen.

Twitter has relied exclusively on its Community Notes program to combat misinformation, but this approach has been met with failures in labeling misinformation. In fact, a European Commission study found that disinformation was most prevalent and received the highest relative engagement on Twitter, compared to other major social networks.

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ElonJet and journalists were suspended by Musk after a real-time location tracking issue.

Musk suspended ElonJet, a Twitter bot account, on December 14, for tracking his private jet in real-time.

The bot account was operated by Jack Sweeney, who had previously stated that Musk's commitment to free speech extended even to not banning the account following his plane.

Musk declared a ban on doxxing real-time location data, and Twitter followed suit by updating its policies page.

Twitter banned multiple journalists' accounts for violating the new doxing policy, which prohibits posting real-time location info of anyone.

Most suspended journalists were later reinstated, but found themselves unable to post new tweets until their policy-violating tweets had been taken down.

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Content moderation has been a major concern on Twitter since Elon Musk's takeover. Twitter's policy prohibiting COVID-19 misinformation was abandoned in November 2022, allowing for the spread of false information.

Algorithm changes promoted viral disinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, leading to significant gains in followers for media outlets affiliated with Russia, China, and Iran. This is a concerning trend that suggests Twitter's algorithms are not doing enough to combat misinformation.

In September 2023, Twitter relied exclusively on its Community Notes program to combat misinformation, but this led to failures in labeling misinformation. This program has become responsible for spreading misinformation as well as delays in fact-checking.

The European Commission has found that disinformation is most prevalent and receives the highest relative engagement on Twitter compared to other major social networks. This is a warning sign that Twitter needs to take action to comply with the Digital Services Act.

Verified users, also known as "superspreaders of misinformation", produced 74% of the most viral misinformation related to the Gaza war in October 2023. This is a disturbing trend that highlights the need for stronger moderation on the platform.

In August 2024, several Labour MPs in the United Kingdom reduced their use of Twitter or left the platform due to concerns about misinformation and hate speech under Musk's ownership. This is a clear indication that Twitter's content moderation policies are not meeting the needs of users.

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Posts on X are publicly visible by default, but senders can restrict message delivery to only their followers.

Users can post via the X website, compatible external applications, or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries.

Individual posts can be forwarded by other users to their own feed, a process known as a "repost".

Users can also "quote", a feature that allows users to add a comment to their post, imbedding one post in the other.

Users can "like" individual posts.

Users can group posts together by topic or type by use of hashtags – words or phrases prefixed with a "#" sign.

The "@" sign followed by a username is used for mentioning or replying to other users.

Hashflags are special hashtags that automatically generate a custom emoji next to them for a certain period of time.

Users can reply to other accounts' replies.

Users can hide replies to their messages and select who can reply to each of their posts before sending them.

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Content moderation on Twitter has been a topic of concern under Elon Musk's ownership. Musk formed a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints, but no major decisions or account reinstatements will happen before the council convenes.

Twitter's approach to content moderation has been inconsistent, with Musk defending the approach as "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach" in June 2023. However, he restricted the use of the terms "cis" and "cisgender" arguing they are slurs, and described the platform as having a liberal bias.

The platform's reliance on Community Notes to combat misinformation has been criticized, as it has led to failures in labeling misinformation and has even spread misinformation. A European Commission study found that disinformation was most prevalent on Twitter compared to other major social networks.

Twitter's workforce was reduced from 7,500 to 1,500 after Musk's takeover, making it difficult for the platform to manage content moderation. The platform's handling of hateful or misleading content has come under scrutiny, particularly in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel.

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Here is a summary of the changes to Twitter's content moderation policies:

The platform's approach to content moderation has hurt its business, with advertisers pulling out due to concerns about brand safety and the spread of misinformation. The European Union has even warned Twitter about the spread of disinformation on its platform.

Twitter's CEO, Elon Musk, conducted an open-access poll asking if he should resign, and 57.5% of 17.5 million users voted yes.

Musk's decision to step down as CEO was influenced by the poll results, which he claimed to abide by. He announced on December 20, 2022, that he would step down as soon as his replacement was selected, but would continue to lead Twitter's software and server teams.

One of the more bizarre changes made to Twitter under Musk's leadership was an auto-response to any email to Twitter's press email address - a single poo emoji. This change was a departure from the usual professional tone expected in such communications.

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The change in Twitter's tone was not limited to emails, but also reflected in Musk's own communication style. He responded to unfounded theories about the poll being influenced by bots with a simple "interesting", and later joked about appointing his dog as CEO.

Twitter's new owner, Meta, has taken a different approach to content moderation, opting not to take on the "headache" associated with it. This is evident in Meta's app, Threads, which focuses on a different type of content and user experience.

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Twitter's monetization strategy under Elon Musk has been aggressive, with the company cutting off third-party clients from its API in January 2023 and introducing a paid tier for developers.

In February 2023, Twitter announced it would be removing the free tier of its API and replacing it with a basic paid tier, excluding "good content" bot accounts.

To curb data scraping and system manipulation, Twitter implemented temporary limits on user activity, including a 6000 post limit for verified accounts and 600 post limit for unverified accounts.

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These limits were later increased and decreased multiple times, with thousands of users reporting issues to the website Downdetector.

Twitter also began charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines an annual fee of $1 in October 2023 to use basic features like posting and replying to tweets.

This fee was introduced as part of a pilot program to curb the onslaught of bots on the platform.

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Twitter's aggressive monetization has led to a series of changes that affect users and developers alike.

In January 2023, Twitter cut off many third-party Twitter clients from its API, retroactively updating its developer agreement to bar developers from creating products similar to Twitter's own app.

This move was followed by the announcement that the free tier of its API would be removed and replaced with a basic paid tier, excluding "good content" bot accounts.

Temporary limits were applied to address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation, limiting verified accounts to 6000 posts/day and unverified accounts to 600 posts/day.

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New unverified accounts were further limited to 300 posts/day, and Twitter temporarily blocked unregistered users from viewing tweets or profiles.

In July 2023, Twitter implemented temporary limits to the number of tweets a user could see per day, with different limits for verified and unverified users, and newly created users.

Thousands of users reported Twitter issues to the website Downdetector, and the limit was increased again soon after.

Twitter also limited the number of direct messages (DMs) that unverified users could send per day.

As part of a pilot program, X began charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines an annual fee of $1 to use basic features such as posting, replying, and quoting tweets in October 2023.

This fee is intended to curb the relentless onslaught of bots, which can easily pass "are you a bot" tests.

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Elon Musk's tweets have been artificially boosted by Twitter's algorithm, with a factor of 1,000 applied to his posts after a meeting with engineers and advisors in February 2023.

This was done after a Google Trends chart showed a decline in public interest in Musk's tweets following his acquisition of the platform. Twitter employee James Musk, Elon's paternal cousin, sent a message to the company's engineers about the issue, citing a comparison with US President Joe Biden's tweet.

The boost was applied after the Super Bowl LVII, and many users observed an overwhelming promotion of Musk's posts in the "For You" tab. The boost was later lessened to a smaller factor following criticism.

A computational analysis published on November 1, 2024, found potential algorithmic bias on Twitter in favor of Republican Party supporters. This bias was identified as a system-wide "structural break" on the platform around July 13, 2024, which coincides with Elon Musk's endorsement of Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election.

Elon Musk and other Republican commentators saw increased visibility for their tweets after this date, according to the researchers behind the study. This could imply an algorithmic adjustment, which the European Commission requested to see Twitter's internal documentation about in January 2025.

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The Twitter Files, a series of internal documents, were released by Elon Musk in December 2022, after he acquired Twitter. These documents showed Twitter's policy team handling difficult decisions effectively.

Some technology and media journalists observed that the documents mainly showed Twitter's policy team handling difficult decisions effectively. In contrast, some conservatives argued the documents revealed a liberal bias within Twitter.

The release of the Twitter Files was followed by a dispute between Twitter and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over hate speech on the platform. The ADL had accused Twitter of not doing enough to address hate speech.

Twitter users reported seeing a tweet promoted by Twitter's ad platform containing the white supremacist slogan known as the "fourteen words". This sparked a backlash from many right-wing users, who accused the ADL of censorship and bias.

Musk then threatened to sue the ADL, blaming the organization for the company's loss of revenue that resulted in billions of dollars.

The Twitter Files are a series of internal documents from Twitter, Inc. released between December 2022 and March 2023.

These documents were made available to journalists by CEO Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter on October 28, 2022. He provided the documents to a group of journalists, including Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, Michael Shellenberger, David Zweig, and Alex Berenson.

The journalists, led by Taibbi and Weiss, published the details of the files through a series of Twitter threads.

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Twitter's dispute with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) began with a community note falsely accusing Jewish lynching victim Leo Frank of rape and murder.

The note appeared on tweets by the ADL and its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in August 2023, which was later characterized as part of a pattern of Twitter's features rewarding antisemites.

A dialogue between Greenblatt and Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino about addressing hate speech on the platform sparked a backlash from right-wing users, who accused the ADL of censorship and bias.

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The "#BanTheADL" hashtag campaign trended on Twitter, and users reported seeing a tweet promoted by Twitter's ad platform containing the white supremacist slogan known as the "fourteen words".

Musk then threatened to sue the ADL, blaming the organization for the company's loss of revenue, which he claimed resulted in billions of dollars.

Musk's response to an antisemitic tweet in November 2023, which supported the white genocide conspiracy theory, further escalated the dispute.

He replied that the tweet "said the actual truth", affirming white nationalism, and saying it was "super messed-up" that white people are not "allowed to be proud of their race".

The White House issued a statement condemning Musk's tweet, calling it "indisputably dangerous" and an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate".

Musk's comments at the DealBook Summit later that month only added fuel to the fire, as he told advertisers to "go fuck yourself" and called for the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger, to be fired from Disney.

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Twitter under Elon Musk has been met with a diverse range of reactions. Commentators have described it as a "free speech free-for-all", and some even call it a "free-for-all hellscape".

Conservatives in the United States have been celebrating the purchase, with some seeing it as an opportunity to reshape American political discourse. Fox News host Tucker Carlson argued that Musk's approach would have a significant impact.

Some commentators, like Shapiro, have expressed hope that other social media platforms will follow Musk's lead and implement similar policies. He even called on Musk to reverse the suspension of Peterson from Twitter.

Others, like Matt Walsh, see the purchase as a chance to rally opposition against what he calls the "trans agenda".

Twitter's first year under Musk's ownership was marked by a stark shift toward conservatism, with many publications citing data from the University of Washington to support this claim.

Journalists from The Washington Post, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Verge, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and Slate all reflected on Twitter's decline, with some labeling it a "disaster" and others lamenting the increase in misinformation and hate speech.

Musk has largely dismissed this negative commentary, but the numbers don't lie: Twitter lost $24 billion in equity value, a "vaporization of wealth" that's hard to parallel outside of economic or industry-specific crashes.

The Wall Street Journal opined that the $13 billion Musk borrowed to buy Twitter was "the worst merger-finance deal for banks" since the 2008 financial crisis.

Musk's takeover of Twitter was followed by a radical shift in the platform's direction, including the rebranding of Twitter as X, an "everything app" that aims to handle messaging, social networking, audio, video, payments, and online shopping.

The rebranding move was met with criticism, with former Twitter executive Bruce Daisley stating that Musk destroyed a business that was in "brand heaven" and had a top-tier brand.

Linda Yaccarino, X's new chief executive, reported that the social network now has between 200 million and 250 million users, although visits to X dropped 10% on the prior month to 5.8 billion in September.

Advertisers are fleeing Twitter in droves due to concerns over brand safety issues.

The platform's huge staff cuts in its trust and safety teams have left many advertisers wary of the risks.

Musk himself tweeted that advertising revenue was down around 50% in June, with the company struggling with "negative cash flow".

Advertisers are now reassessing their relationship with Twitter, weighing the benefits against the increased risk and diminished functionality.

Navarra, a global company executive, says his clients are actively reviewing their presence on the platform, with many already pausing their advertising efforts.

With fewer guardrails and protections in place to manage toxic and risky content, it's no wonder advertisers are getting cold feet.

Here are some key statistics highlighting the decline of Twitter's advertising revenue: