In October 2022, Elon Musk purchased X, formerly known as Twitter, for $44 billion. This first year of ownership has seen Musk make significant changes to the platform, with mixed results.
Firing Executives and Laying Off Staff
Musk quickly fired executives who had been running Twitter and took the publicly traded company private. He also laid off most of the San Francisco-based company’s workers, cutting ranks to fewer than 1,500 from 8,000. Twitter employees were asked to commit unconditionally to their jobs and forego any notion of telecommuting. Former project manager Esther Crawford described Musk as audacious but “moody,” surrounding himself with “yes men” and making decisions on instinct.
Misinformation and Hate Speech
Musk has been criticized for gutting content moderation, restoring accounts of previously banned extremists, and allowing users to purchase account verification, which has led to the spread of viral, but often inaccurate posts. Musk has defended these changes in the name of free speech. However, they have sparked increased sharing of misinformation and hate speech, according to nonprofit fact-checking website PolitiFact. This has led to an investigation by the European Commission into X for alleged dissemination of bogus information and terrorist content regarding the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Ad Revenue and Money Matters
Over the past year, X’s advertising business has partially collapsed as marketers soured on the platform. Insider Intelligence forecasts that X will finish 2023 with $2.98 billion in ad revenue, compared to $4.14 billion in 2022. Musk has started charging for features once free at Twitter, such as blue tick marks originally intended as badges of authenticity, in an effort to make money from subscriptions. X recently started charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines for basic features such as posting messages in a trial aimed at reducing spam. Musk has suggested charging all X users, but the idea was widely panned.
Right-Wing Tilt
Extreme right-wing content has flourished at X under Musk’s ownership. Musk reinstated former president Donald Trump’s account and did away with a team devoted to fighting misinformation about elections. Former Fox news host Tucker Carlson launched a show on X after being fired from the television station. Catering to the more mainstream right, Musk hosted and streamed interviews with Republican US presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
SOURCE: Image Ref from HT Tech News
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