Media

This is how Twitter has changed during Elon Musk's time as CEO

During the two months the entrepreneur has served as CEO of the company, the platform has published the 'Twitter Files,' made massive layoffs and has become a recurring topic of conversation.

Elon Musk somete su puesto a un sondeo / Cordon Press.
File / Cordon Press
ROSANA RáBAGO SAINZ
December 19, 2022
22 minutes read

Elon Musk has become one of the most well-known men in the last two months. Since the owner of Twitter took over the social network, there has not been a day in which he hasn’t appeared among the Trending Topics of the company he acquired, sometimes for good decisions he made and others, for mistakes. This is the journey Musk had as CEO of Twitter:

Letter to advertisers

Once the difficult acquisition of the social network was formalized, Musk sent a letter to advertisers. In it, he assured that he was buying the company "to try to help humanity, which I love.”

According to the letter, "Twitter could not become a hell of freedom, where you can say anything without consequences.” That is why, he said, his main intention was to make the platform "warm and welcoming for everyone, where you can choose the desired experience according to your preferences.”

Arrival at headquarters

The first image of Musk at Twitter headquarters will be hard to forget. The businessman arrived carrying a sink. The image, which many thought was a reference to the cleanup he would spearhead, actually symbolized something quite different: his disbelief that he had succeeded in acquiring the company.

It was a play on words "entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!" symbolized the first step that Musk would undertake as CEO of Twitter.

"The bird is released"

On the day Musk took to Twitter, sink in hand, his Twitter profile made it clear that "the bird is released.” It didn't take long for him to start firing people, starting with the company's top executives. Parag Agrawal, former CEO; Ned Segal, former CFO; Sean Edgett, former General Counsel; and, Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's former Head of Legal Affairs and the person who suspended accounts such as that of former President Donald Trump, were all losing their jobs.

Musk justified these dismissals by hiding behind freedom of speech, a term he referred to in the open letter he published that day:

The reason I acquired Twitter is that the future of civilization needs to have a digital commons, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated healthily, without resorting to violence. Currently, there is a great danger that social networks will be divided into far-right and far-left echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.

Celebrities threaten to leave the social network

After Musk's arrival, many celebrities said they would leave the social network. Shonda Rhimes, Sara Bareilles, Tony Braxton, Mick Foley, and Alex Winters were some of the celebrities who left Twitter.

Musk, far from trying to keep them on the platform, again reaffirmed his commitment to free speech. In addition, he also assured investors and advertisers that he did not intend for Twitter to become a "hellhole for everyone" but that, on the contrary, his plans for the platform were to "honor the First Amendment rights of its users."

New Twitter hotline operator

Musk made it clear from the beginning that freedom of expression would be the core driver of Twitter. As a result, changes to the content moderation policy soon began to be implemented.

These changes affected personalities such as Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who was against Musk's decision to charge $8 a month to access the paid version of the platform, Twitter Blue. However, Musk did not admit the criticism and assured the politician that, although he took her opinion into account, she had to pay the established price.

Mass layoffs

The Washington Post reported that with Musk's arrival would come with significant staff cuts. On Friday, November 4, the screening began. In total, the company laid off 3,700 workers, cutting 75% of its workforce worldwide.

The way of communicating the layoffs was also original, although perhaps not the most appropriate. If they received an email on their account, it meant they no longer worked for Twitter. On the other hand, if the email was sent to their corporate account, the employee would continue to work for the platform.

However, Musk explained the reason for the mass layoffs. According to him, it was a measure he felt obliged to take because "the company [was] losing $4 million a day.” In addition, he explained, all those affected "were offered three months' severance pay, which is more than 50% of what is legally required.”

Kathy Griffin’s suspension

Comedian Kathy Griffin lost access to her Twitter account on November 7. According to Musk, the suspension, which took many by surprise, was because the comedian had impersonated the social network's owner, Elon Musk, by changing her profile picture to an image of the entrepreneur and her username to "Elon Musk."

This, according to the affected party, was in breach of the company's terms. and it was something he was unwilling to allow: "Going forward, any Twitter user who engages in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended. Previously, we issued a warning before the suspension, but now that we are implementing widespread verification, there will be no warning," Musk tweeted.

First failure with Twitter Blue

Twitter Blue was released on November 9 and brought its share of problems. The update allowed too many users to impersonate others. Without a clear verification system, many accounts, by simply subscribing to Twitter Blue, could impersonate other people or even companies or government institutions by paying only $8 a month.

The impersonation caused accounts such as Eli Lilly and Company or Tesla itself to be affected and, two days later, Twitter suspended its paid version until further notice. After this, Musk made a decision: any fake account had to include the word "parody" in its username and not only in its biography, as previously required.

Reinstatement of Donald Trump's account.

Musk began with his now customary polls by letting the public decide on one of the company's most controversial issues: reinstating Donald Trump's access to the social network. After an intense poll, in which a total of 15 million people participated, on Saturday, November 19, Trump’s Twitter suspension was lifted.


However, the former U.S. president also decided not to return to the platform that closed its doors after the events in the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and said that, although he was grateful, for the time being he would only keep his profile on Truth Social, his social network.

Musk finds T-shirts with the slogan "#StayWoke" in a closet

One of the most surprising moments took place on November 23. That day, Musk, exploring Twitter's headquarters, found a closet full of T-shirts with the slogan "#StayWoke" and, unsurprisingly, tweeted his discovery on the social network:

Brussels office closure

The departure of two of Twitter's top managers in Europe was a major blow for the social network, which led the company to close the Brussels office. The action served to ensure that the company refused to adapt to the European bloc's Digital Services Act. The new regulation, which went into effect the week before the closure of the offices in Brussels, introduced new rules to ensure the proper functioning of the technological giants with the excuse of keeping "users safe.”

Vara Jourová, vice president of the European Union, assured the Financial Times that the closure only served to further alert the body that was already concerned "at the news of such a large number of Twitter staff being made redundant in Europe.”

Thanksgiving Pardons

Musk let his softer side show on Thanksgiving Day and gave a second chance to accounts that the social network had suspended both before and after his arrival, including Kathy Griffin and other users who also lost their access to the social network.


The "general amnesty" proposed in the new poll received very wide acceptance with 72.4% of the votes in favor of giving those who had lost their account the option of recovering it.

The White House keeps an eye on Twitter

On November 29, during a press conference, the White House acknowledged that it had been keeping an eye on Twitter since Elon Musk had acquired it. The discovery was made following a journalist's question to Karine Jean-Pierre: "What is the best way to make this discovery? Aren't you worried about...? Elon Musk says more and more subscribers are coming online. Are you concerned about that?" Jean-Pierre's response was clear and forceful:

This is something we are certainly keeping an eye on. We are all monitoring what is currently happening. Look, we've always been very clear that when it comes to social media platforms, it's their responsibility to make sure that when it comes to misinformation when it comes to the hate that we're seeing, they take action. That they continue to take action.


The news continued to generate reactions throughout the following days. On December 1, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not clarify whether the Biden Administration would retaliate if the social network posted material that was damaging to the Biden Administration.

Twitter suspends Kanye West's account

Kanye West was one of those who got his account back when Elon Musk landed on Twitter. However, an unfortunate montage of a swastika star and a Star of David intertwined as a promotional image for his 2024 presidential campaign prompted Kim Kardashian's ex-husband’s account to be suspended again.

Despite having defended him before, Musk was unable to protect him this time and announced on his Twitter profile: "I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. The account will be suspended," the entrepreneur assured.

The first installment of the 'Twitter Files': censorship of the story on Hunter Biden

On December 3, Musk began what was already known as the Twitter Files. In the first of these, the businessman, with the help of U.S. journalist Matthew C. Taibbi, uncovered everything that had happened with the censorship on Hunter Biden's laptop.


In the thread, it was discovered that Twitter had manipulated information about the case, going so far as to publish false evidence about it. Moreover, the U.S. journalist said that to prevent the case from coming to light, methods that are only used "extraordinarily" in child pornography cases were employed.

Following this, investigations into the Hunter Biden case continued. First, they looked into the role of the FBI in the whole scheme; then, Congress stepped in and assured that it would question Twitter staff for censoring the story.

But the leaks continued and it was Yoel Roth’s turn, Twitter's former Chief Security Officer. He stated that they had meetings with the FBI and that during those talks, the government agency prompted them to censor the story. Eventually, Musk joined the retaliation and decided to fire Jim Baker, the company's top lawyer following what the Twitter owner described as “concerns about Baker's potential role in suppressing information important to the public dialogue."

Did Twitter interfere in the Brazilian elections?

Twitter's influence was not limited to the United States alone. Days after the first installment of the Twitter Files, Musk also began investigating whether Twitter interfered in the Brazilian elections.

Musk acknowledged, in response to a tweet posted by the Australian correspondent from Rebel News, Avi Yemini, that he had seen "a lot of concerning tweets about the recent Brazil election.” Moreover, the businessman assured, if the suspicions eventually turned out to be true, he did not rule out that "the Twitter staff gave preference to left-wing candidates.”

The second installment of 'Twitter Files': the existence of a "blacklist" to limit user reach

The Katie Hobbs' office was one of the main characters in the second installment of the Twitter Files. As revealed on December 5, Arizona Governor-elect Katie Hobbs’ administration asked Twitter to censor several tweets to silence her political opponents before the midterms.

Former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss was the person Musk trusted to publish the second batch of leaks about the Twitter activity before his arrival. This time the leak focused mainly on demonstrating the existence of a secret "blacklist" whose mission was to disadvantage certain users by limiting the visibility of their tweets.


Among those affected by this "blacklisting" were people such as the Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine, Economics, and Politics at Stanford University and a denier of some of the measures taken during the coronavirus pandemic; talk show host, Dan Bongino; or activist Charlie Kirk.

Donald Trump is the star of the third, fourth, and fifth installments of the 'Twitter Files'

Donald Trump was the clear star of both the third and fourth installments of the Twitter Files. In the third installment, and again with the help of U.S. journalist Matt Taibi, Musk revealed the details behind the censorship of the former Republican president:


This first part focused on the days leading up to what happened on Capitol Hill and, in it, explained how a "visibility filter" came to be used that affected any post made by Trump.

The fourth installment, also focused on Donald Trump, was written by journalist Michael Shellenberger and revealed how the platform modified part of its policies to censor Trump for life.


This time it explained the decisions made after what happened on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, and told how, since the 7th, "as pressure mounts, Twitter executives build the case for a permanent ban."

The fifth installment, by journalist Beri Weiss, focused solely on the removal of Donald Trump's account. To this end, the thread started on the morning of January 8, 2021, and shared internal posts in which it is clear that the staff assigned to assess the case evaluated the tweets where it was debated whether they could be censored as "incitement.” However, it was concluded that, at the time, Trump had not violated any of Twitter's policies.

Musk exposes Yoel Roth

Twitter's former Head of Security and Trust, Yoel Roth, became Elon Musk's target on December 10. That was the date when the entrepreneur decided to post an excerpt from Roth's doctoral dissertation done in 2016 while he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania. That writing, which Roth titled "Gay Data," was the proof Musk needed to suggest that the former Twitter employee was in favor of children accessing dating apps.

Twitter Blue returns to the market

After the fiasco of November 29th, the paid version of Twitter returned to the market on December 13. This time, the company announced there would be three types of check marks to verify identity: the gold check, intended for companies and the media; the gray check, reserved for government institutions and other institutions; and the usual blue check, which would be used by individuals, whether celebrities or not.

In addition, the paid version included other types of advantages such as viewing fewer ads, tweeting 1080p and longer videos, accessing the"reader mode" which includes support for users with dyslexia, or being among the first to enjoy the new character limit, which has been increased from 280 to 4,000 characters.

Dr. Robert Malone gets his Twitter profile back

On Monday, December 12th Dr. Robert Malone had his Twitter profile suspension lifted. The inventor of mRNA vaccines was one of the physicians most skeptical of the vaccination system that had been implemented in the country.


The scientist lost his account a year ago, as Twitter claimed at the time, for violating the social network's policies on alleged relative disinformation against Covid. However, after a thorough analysis, Musk concluded that there was insufficient evidence to suspend his account and therefore decided to reinstate it.

Musk dismantles Twitter's Trust and Safety Council

On December 13, Twitter's Trust and Safety Council was dismantled completely. On that day, the following announcement appeared on the website: "There is nothing to see here. This page does not exist. For your inconvenience, here is a picture of a poodle sitting on a chair.”

With this sentence, it was clear that the organization formed by 100 civil organizations that were supposedly completely independent, had ceased to exist. In a letter, Musk communicated his decision to dismiss Twitter's Trust and Safety Council:

Dear Trust and Safety Council Members,

As Twitter moves into a new phase, we are reevaluating how best to bring external insights into our product and policy development work. As part of this process, we have decided that the Trust and Safety Council is not the best structure to do this.

Our work to make Twitter a safe, informative place will be moving faster and more aggressively than ever before, and we will continue to welcome your ideas going forward about how to achieve this goal. We will also continue to explore opportunities to provide focussed and timely input into our work, whether through bilateral or small group meetings.

Your regional points of contact will remain the best people to contact to escalate concerns, please let us know if you need reconnecting. We are grateful for your engagement, advice and collaboration in recent years and wish you every success in the future.

With our best wishes,

Twitter.

In addition, on the same day, Elon Musk revealed that sexual abuse accounts had received up to 10 million likes on Twitter. The report, conducted by a cybersecurity data analyst named Andrea Stroppa, found that 95% of those accounts were created before Musk acquired the company.

Twitter suspends account that tracked Musk’s flights and other accounts of journalists who criticize the entrepreneur

Elon Musk has always been a very private person, so it came as no surprise when he decided to suspend Jack Sweeney’s account, a young college student who tracked his private flights in real-time.

Under the name @ElonJet the 20-year-old programmer was tracking the movements of Musk's private plane and, despite Musk's assurances that he “would not block” access to the account, he changed his mind last week and, since then, the account appeared as "permanently suspended.”

On the same day, several journalists critical of Musk's management also found it impossible to access their profiles. Under the excuse that all of them were committing doxing, the entrepreneur was blocking the profiles of Donie O'Sullivan, a correspondent for CNN; Ryan Mac, a technology reporter for The New York Times; Drew Harwell, a reporter for Washington Post; Micah Lee, of The Intercept; Steve Herman, a correspondent for Voice of America; Matt Binder, columnist for Mashable; Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's anchor; or Aaron Rupar, Vox's expert journalist.

Society reacted against the suspension of the journalists and a day later, Musk decided to reinstate them on Twitter. Jack Sweeney's account, which is still suspended indefinitely, was not as fortunate.

FBI's relationship with Twitter featured in the sixth and seventh 'Twitter Files' installments

Elon Musk's leaks came roaring back on December 17. On that day, journalist Matt Taibi published the sixth installment of the Twitter Files focused on the relationship between the FBI and Twitter.


The thread explained how the government was collecting, analyzing, and even flagging social media content. It came to appear that the communications company was a "subsidiary" of the FBI. Faced with this, the government company was forced to confirm that there was indeed such a relationship between Twitter and the FBI, attempting to normalize it, as seen in the statements made by an FBI spokesman to Fox News Digital:

The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them.

But Elon Musk had not disclosed everything about the relationship between the FBI and Twitter and, Matt Taibi unveiled the rest of the story on Sunday, when he said that the FBI acted as an intermediary between the social network and certain domestic Intelligence agencies "who seemed upset" following the publication of a Twitter report that claimed it did not see "much recent activity by official propaganda actors on its platform."

Musk polls the Twitter community on his tenure as CEO

This Sunday, just after witnessing the World Cup final, Elon Musk again conducted a new poll in which he let voters decide whether he should continue as CEO of the company.


With an astonishing turnout of 17,502,391 registered votes, the results are clear: 57.5% of citizens are in favor of Elon Musk stepping down as CEO of the platform while 42.5% want him to continue leading the company. Although in the tweet he assured that the results will be decisive in his decision, Elon Musk has not yet made any announcements on the matter, he did post one last message while the voting continued: "As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.”

Seventh installment of 'Twitter Files': FBI and content censorship on Hunter Biden

Hours after the survey, Musk was back at it again, this time accompanied by Michael Shellenberger and published the seventh installment of his Twitter Files. This time, he focused on the FBI's role in censoring information about the investigation of Hunter Biden's laptop.


As published in the new release, the government agency managed to preempt the New York Post's publication in 2020 and pressure Twitter to post non-existent information about foreign hacking instead, proving the FBI was already aware that the story was about to see the light of day. Even so, the Bureau decided to tell the social network's executives that the Hunter Biden story was part of a Russian hack.

More changes on Twitter Blue

On Dec. 19, the paid version of Twitter rolled out a new update. Gold verifications of companies would be accompanied by a blue square with the Twitter logo. The new program, part of Twitter Blue for Business, allows companies to distinguish their brands and key employees on Twitter and therefore combat impersonation:

Eighth installment of the "Twitter Files": platform helped cover up military operations

Journalist Lee Fang published the eighth installment of the "Twitter Files," which revealed how the social network helped cover up certain military operations and influence public opinion prior to Elon Musk's arrival.


Fang, in this new installment, went one step further and publicly shared a document in which the platform assured Congress of its faithful "pledge to rapidly identify and shut down all state-backed covert information operations & deceptive propaganda." However, the journalist shows in the thread that this was not true. In 2020, several high-level Twitter executives were aware of the existence of secret military propaganda accounts.

Elon Musk confirms he will step down as Twitter's CEO

Two days after polling users on whether or not to step down as CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk confirmed his coming resignation. On Tuesday, Dec. 20, the entrepreneur tweeted that he will officially leave the role, which he has held for two months, as soon as he finds "someone foolish enough to take the job."


At the moment, it is not known which candidates Musk is considering to lead Twitter in his place. What he did assure in the tweet is that he will remain in charge of the software and server teams.

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