As Blue Bird becomes ‘X’, a look at how Twitter changed under Elon Musk

1. Twitter Blue was arguably the biggest change Musk has brought in since the acquisition. The legacy verification blue badges were dropped and Musk introduced a payment verification system. The move sparked a huge outcry, with many expressing safety concerns and others angry at losing their blue badges.

2. Twitter then introduced gold and silver ticks for brands and government figures, respectively. In one of its many U-turns, the microblogging site earlier this year started issuing blue ticks again to celebrities for endorsing that they are not fake.

3. Another move by Musk that sparked outrage was his decision to reinstate several high-profile accounts that had been suspended by previous Twitter leadership. They included rapper Kanye West, who was accused of sharing anti-Semitic posts, influencer Andrew Tate, who is now in prison in Romania on charges of human trafficking, and former US President Donald Trump, who was accused of inciting the Capitol Hill riots.

4. Musk drew heavy criticism for massive layoffs at Twitter shortly after the acquisition. Nearly half of its workforce was laid off as a cost-cutting measure. The Twitter boss also issued an ultimatum to employees in a mail saying that employees would “need to be extremely hardworking and only exceptional performance would result in a passing grade”.

5. Twitter’s advertising business partially collapsed, amid major changes across platforms and inside its offices. Earlier this month, Musk acknowledged that Twitter’s advertising revenue had seen a decline of about 50 percent. Even before the acquisition, the microblogging site was facing problems and its popularity was not being translated into profits. Musk has said that Twitter remains cash flow negative due to declining advertising revenue and a heavy debt burden.

6. Looking for new ways to generate revenue, Musk has introduced payments and commerce through the platform. Musk has said that he wants Twitter to provide services such as peer-to-peer transactions as part of his vision of an “everything app” that facilitates payments as well as functioning as a social media platform.

7. According to rough estimates, the number of daily active users of Twitter is around 200 million. However, the site has faced a number of technical problems since the acquisition after Musk has been fine-tuning the platform. These changes include the “For You” and “Following” tabs.

8. Meanwhile, Twitter is facing competition. Earlier this month, Facebook parent Meta launched Threads, a text-based platform. According to estimates, the new platform linked to Instagram has already reached around 150 million users. However, the time users spend on Threads has decreased since its launch, according to data from market analysis firm Sensor Tower, reports news agency AFP.

9. As Musk moved to change Twitter’s name and logo, several influencers announced they would be leaving the platform. This is a new round of exits from the platform following the exodus that followed Musk’s acquisition.

10. Musk has already named Twitter’s parent company as X Corporation. They said yesterday, “If a good X logo is posted tonight, we’ll have it live around the world tomorrow.” He also stated that the new symbol should be “of course, Art Deco” style and that a post would be called “A X” under the site’s new identity.

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