Space Industry and Business News
INTERNET SPACE
A year after Musk's Twitter takeover, X remains mired in turmoil
A year after Musk's Twitter takeover, X remains mired in turmoil
By Glenn CHAPMAN
San Francisco (AFP) Oct 26, 2023

A year ago Elon Musk purchased X, formerly known as Twitter, taking the platform on a journey that has resulted in lost money, advertisers and trust.

Musk closed the $44 billion deal on October 27, 2022, facing a lawsuit that held him to terms of purchase he was keen to escape.

Here is a look back at Musk's first year as owner of the platform.

- Family feeling gone -

In the days after his purchase, 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, who wrote online about her experience, said Musk replaced the company's family atmosphere with a climate of fear.

She described Musk as audacious but "moody," surrounding himself with "yes men" and making decisions on instinct.

In July, Musk did away with Twitter's globally recognized bird logo and changed the platform's name to X.

- Misinformation -

In the months following his takeover, Musk gutted content moderation, restored accounts of previously banned extremists, and allowed users to purchase account verification, helping them profit from viral -- but often inaccurate -- posts.

Musk defended such changes in the name of free speech.

He disabled features put in place to prevent users from being duped by false claims and put in new systems that encourage their spread, according to nonprofit fact-checking website PolitiFact.

Steps taken by Musk at X "have sparked increased sharing of misinformation and hate speech," PolitiFact said Monday in a report, echoing an array of groups tracking toxic content on social media.

The fast-evolving Israel-Hamas conflict has been seen as one of the first real tests of Musk's version of the platform during a major crisis. For many experts, the results confirm their worst fears: that changes have made it a challenge to discern truth from fiction.

"It is sobering, though not surprising, to see Musk's reckless decisions exacerbate the information crisis on Twitter surrounding the already tragic Israel-Hamas conflict," Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the watchdog Free Press, told AFP.

This month the European Commission announced an investigation into X for alleged dissemination of bogus information and terrorist content regarding the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

X chief executive Linda Yaccarino has signaled that the platform is serious about trust and safety, but researchers have voiced pessimism, saying the site has abandoned efforts to elevate top news sources.

- Money matters -

Over the past year, the platform's advertising business partially collapsed as marketers soured on X.

Insider Intelligence forecasts that X will finish 2023 with $2.98 billion in ad revenue, compared to $4.14 billion in 2022.

Musk early this year said the company's value had more than halved to $20 billion, and some estimates place it even lower.

Musk 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.

And 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. Industry analysts said it would make X even less appealing to advertisers.

"X's wounds are almost entirely self-inflicted," Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg told AFP.

"Musk's treatment of the platform as a technology he could remake in his vision, rather than as a social network powered by people and ad dollars, is the single largest cause of advertiser exodus, user decline and loss of its place as a central hub for news."

While speaking at a recent tech conference, Yaccarino estimated the number of daily active X users at 225 million, a drop of more than 10 percent from when Musk bought the company.

Twitter quitters have become a diaspora of sorts, spread across Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads and other platforms in search of a new social media home.

- Right-wing tilt -

Extreme right-wing content has meanwhile flourished at X.

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, known for radical conservative opinions, 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.

Related Links
Satellite-based Internet technologies

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
INTERNET SPACE
French IT group Atos slides on nationalisation call
Paris (AFP) Oct 23, 2023
Shares in French IT consultancy group Atos slumped more than 10 percent on Monday after some lawmakers proposed temporarily nationalising the firm in whole or in part on national security grounds. A week after Bertrand Meunier stepped down as chairman amid growing opposition to splitting up the firm and sale of part to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, Atos shares tumbled 13 percent to fall to an historic low of 3.97 euros. The stock recovered slightly, but remained almost 50 percent off its y ... read more

INTERNET SPACE
Goddard engineers improve NASA Lidar tech for exploration

Revolutionary atomic sensor redefines radio wave antenna

Increasing transparency in critical materials price, supply, and demand forecasts

Sony says 'Spider-Man 2' videogame sales set record

INTERNET SPACE
DARPA Selects Teams to Boost Supply-and-Demand Network Resiliency

Northrop Grumman to Create Constellation of Connectivity for Air Force Research Laboratory

Aalyria and Second Front partner to expedite availability of spacetime for government use

US Army contracts Comtech for communication and engineering support services

INTERNET SPACE
INTERNET SPACE
Satnav test on remote island lab

Trimble and Kyivstar to provide GNSS correction services in Ukraine

Galileo becomes faster for every user

Present and future of satellite navigation

INTERNET SPACE
ATHENA sensor increases aircraft survivability with advanced capabilities

Pentagon: China increasing harassment of U.S., ally aircraft in Indo-Pacific

Philippines orders three new military transport planes

easyJet signs up to Airbus' pioneering carbon removal solution

INTERNET SPACE
Taiwan's TSMC reports profit drop in third quarter

From a five-layer graphene sandwich, a rare electronic state emerges

Tech giants Foxconn, Nvidia announce they are building 'AI factories'

US tightens curbs on AI chip exports to China

INTERNET SPACE
Chinese satellite cluster utilizes InSAR technology for advanced terrain mapping

Signatures of the Space Age: Spacecraft metals left in the wake of humanity's path to the stars

Monitoring African copper and cobalt mining emissions from space

Planet's Pelican tech demonstration satellite ready for launch

INTERNET SPACE
Thai government pledges action as Bangkok pollution spikes

'Til trash do us part: Taiwan couple embraces garbage wedding shoot

Dutch criminal probe against US firm DuPont over 'forever chemicals'

Hong Kong sticks a fork in disposable plastic products

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.