It’s hard keeping up with everything that happened in a year since Musk planned to join the platform in April 2022, right? Well we’re here to give you tea on all the important parts of it, so grab a bowl of popcorn and keep on reading.
27th October, 2022, that’s when Elon Musk, one of the richest men on the planet, bought the social media platform Twitter for $44 billion after weaving through a months-long takeover deal.
A series of tumultuous events took place following Musk’s takeover.
Mass Lay-offs
Upon becoming the CEO, he leveraged his position by firing former CEOs, chief officers, executives, and all the board members. Not only that, around 3700 employees which is almost 50 percent were laid off by Musk.
Revamping The Verification System
One of the most significant changes Elon Musk made to Twitter in hopes of boosting dwindling earnings post-acquisition was a complete overhaul of its verification system.
In December 2022, Musk rolled out Twitter Blue, a subscription service where anyone can buy a verification badge for $8 a month. Along with that, he introduced gold & gray ticks, each having a different meaning. A blue tick on Twitter is for verified individuals, a gold check mark indicates a company/organization, and a gray check mark for governments and government entities.
Twitter Blue comes with its own pros and cons.
On one hand, for businesses and brands, this can be a boon. Why would they pay for the blue tick? Well, the benefits of the blue ticks from pre-musk twitter still remain the same, and now you can tweet up to 4,000 characters and upload longer videos. You’ll eventually see fewer ads, And starting April 15, only verified accounts will be able to vote in polls. Musk also says that verified accounts will soon get importance in search, and only verified accounts will be shown in the new For You tab which makes it easier for brands to reach out to relevant audiences by becoming more visible. . All in all, there will be much cleaner content on the platform.
On the other hand, for random individuals like you and I, this has been a not-so helpful feature. It is no longer a mark of authenticity as the same mark has been put up for sale starting at $8.
It’s safe to say that the blue mark is nothing but a status symbol for people like us, who, no offense, but come to just verbal-vomit on the app.
Drop In Advertisers
On the commercial front, Musk’s leadership has put Twitter’s primary source of income in jeopardy as 500 high-profile advertisers have suspended their campaigns since he took over, largely due to worries about Musk’s general unpredictability and the rise in what researchers call a “unprecedented” rise in hate speech on the platform. According to Reuters, between the time Musk took over until the end of 2022, Twitter’s top 30 advertisers reduced their expenditure by an average of 42 percent.
Rise Of Dogecoin
Elon Musk is a big fan of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke but has since gained popularity among crypto enthusiasts. Since he started tweeting about Dogecoin, its value has skyrocketed, and many people have become interested in the cryptocurrency. And as if that wasn’t enough, just a few days ago, Musk replaced the iconic blue bird in its logo with the dogecoin logo. And nobody seems to know why. But some say that might be related to the $258 lawsuit against Musk by Dogecoin investors. What do you think?
Anyway, the blue birdie is now back and we hope it doesn’t go away again!
Stricter Content Regulation
Musk has been known to tweet controversial statements and jokes, some of which have gotten him into trouble. Something on the positive side is that in response, Twitter has become stricter with its content policies, cracking down on hate speech and misinformation on the platform. This change has been welcomed by many users who were concerned about the spread of harmful content on Twitter.
Additionally, in terms of content metrics, those who paid for check marks would be boosted by Twitter’s recommendation algorithm and be eligible to appear in people’s “For You” newsfeeds, Mr. Musk said recently.
To conclude, Twitter which had once been a platform for people to share news, gossip, memes or just random tweets, without new updates changing the platform literally every other day, is now slowly becoming a degraded platform, thanks to Musk!
With its declining user base, broken and tweaked algorithms, and app glitches every now and then, and of course the controversies, it is predicted that if this continues then celebs and also people like you and I, will leave the platform in mass numbers.
Well, we hope we’ve caught you up on all the drama that’s happened on twitter so far. Let us know what you think about these crazy updates in the comments below.
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