When Elon Musk brought his ‘Technoking’ persona to Twitter by purchasing a large portion of their publicly traded shares, many hoped he would simply be a quiet shareholder. Maybe help drum up some new users or advertising activity. Many who owned shares were hopeful that they may someday rub elbows with him at some Twitter event. While many workers were fearful of their jobs, Elon was quiet about his plans.
Suddenly, that all shifted. He was going to take over Twitter. By hook or by crook, he knew what was best for the organization, and he would do what it took to restore it to its former glory. Buying out the company completely, he quickly shifted from just being offered a seat on the board to outright running the whole thing. Now a year later, things have changed a good bit in some areas, and in some, nothing changed.
The biggest change has been the name and logo. No longer represented by a bird or called “Twitter” the brand is simply known as “X” for its mononym. This single letter is the crowning achievement of something Musk set out to accomplish years ago. He wanted to see this as the name for his brand. He believed it should become the place for any and everything media, and paid homage to the classic “X marks the spot” phrase commonly attributed to pirates.
Initially, he came forth with the idea of X (at that time Twitter) being a town-square-like environment. Complete with absolute free speech as part of the cornerstone of his beliefs, he would not consider the idea that some speech needed to be limited. After accounts tracking the moves of his private jet’s tail numbers and flight plans, as well as the massive amount of child porn on the site, quickly made him change his mind.
As much as free speech is a cornerstone for the American people, it has moments and parts where it needs to be reined in just a bit. This is where the idea of making it illegal to yell “fire” in a crowded theater comes from. Without some framework and ground rules, it can get too murky too quickly. This is also why the number of rules and how they are applied is also incredibly limited.
By tripping over his own words to adjust this, Musk has lost a lot of followers and fans of the app. As celebs and liberals leave in droves, they are taking advertisers with them. With some reports that income and profits for the company are down as much as 70% from just a year ago, Musk has to know something needs to change. Mind you, he makes more than enough money in other ventures, he can continue paying for X and not bat an eye at the losses.
Without these ads on the app, many are finding it to be a mixed bag. Especially as many companies are now running bots and paid “news” articles to help push their wares. This is where Musk performed one of his greatest changes to date.
No longer are news articles given an automatic blurb about them from the intro of the link. Instead, users are expected to add in their own bits and encourage people to open the external link. This makes targeting bots and other deceptive accounts to prevent them from reaching tons of other accounts more simplified and easier to accomplish.
The other big change to happen has been the overall revolt against the platform.
With liberals dominating Facebook and Instagram through targeted hashtags and postings, they have been able to reach their core audience with ease. X made them start to work for it by refining the algorithm to extensively market accounts and posts to people who are looking for that information. This meant you were less likely to see fake news and bad information unless you went looking to get it.
After a year, a lot has changed for X. People are no longer able to go “viral” with a simple message. It takes work and some dedication to get it to the right people, and it won’t be easy or quick. Ever since Elon took over, we haven’t seen the flood of “celebs” trying to hawk things like they used to. Despite what the liberal left would have you believe, maybe Elon was exactly what X needed to get going the right way.
