Twitter started out as a social media website that anyone could join for free. According to Wikipedia, the first Twitter prototype was developed by Jack Dorsey and Florian Weber.
Dorsey explained the origin of “Twitter” titled as: “…we just came across the word “twitter”, and it was just perfect. The definition was “a short burst of inconsequential information,” and “chirps from birds”. And that’s exactly what the product was.”
I have fond memories of using Twitter, back when it was new. At the time, there were a lot of podcasters on it, who would listen to episodes of each other’s shows. Sometimes, there would be “round tables” where a bunch of podcasters got together and recorded an episode.
In early 2022, Elon Musk started talking about buying Twitter. After acquiring it, he fired the top three Twitter executives. A week later, he began laying off the company’s approximately 7,500 employees.
A week after that, Mr. Musk revamped Twitter Blue and increased its price to $8 per month and adding new features — including the blue checkmark.
It seems to me that this was the start of Musk’s attempt to make money off of Twitter (now called X) on the tweets and wallets of the people who are still on the platform.
I have fond memories of using Twitter, back when it was new. At the time, there were a lot of podcasters on it, who would listen to episodes of each other’s shows. Sometimes, there would be “round tables” where a bunch of podcasters got together and recorded an episode.
In early 2022, Elon Musk started talking about buying Twitter. After acquiring it, he fired the top three Twitter executives. A week later, he began laying off the company’s approximately 7,500 employees.
A week after that, Mr. Musk revamped Twitter Blue and increased its price to $8 per month and adding new features — including the blue checkmark.
CNBC reported (September 28, 2023) what amounts to a list of the terrible choices that Mr. Musk has made.
- In recent weeks, Musk has threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish-led organization, alleging that they tried to “kill” his social network. Musk has blamed the ADL, rather than his own business decisions, for a 60% drop in revenue at X and said he had “no choice” but to file a defamation lawsuit against the group.
- CNBC noted that Elon Musk/X have not filed the lawsuit against the ADL.
- CNBC reported that Mr. Musk gave “amnesty” to previously suspended accounts – a move that online safety and hate speech experts strongly criticized. Under his management, the platform restored the account of former President Donald Trump, who was previously banned by Twitter for encouraging the Jan. 6 2021, Capitol insurrection. Mr. Musk also restored the accounts of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and neo-Nazi website founder Andrew Anglin.
- Elon Musk eliminated Twitter’s “blue check” system of verification, which helped users to identify authentic accounts belonging to public figures.
According to CNBC, users who pay a fee can show a blue subscriber badge next to their names. Those who pay see their posts prioritized in other’s feeds. Those who don’t pay are relegated to lower levels of amplification for their posts or may see lower engagement on the platform.
And now, Elon Musk has repeated his belief that turning users into paid subscribers would make it cumbersome and unaffordable to deploy bots on the platform.
Variety reported that Musk may filp the switch to make X — the social network formerly known as Twitter — an entirely subscription-based platform.
According to Variety, Musk didn’t mention timing of his plan to charge X/Twitter users, nor did he say exactly how much it would cost other than to say a monthly fee of “a few dollars or something” would deter the creation of bot accounts. According to Musk, X has 550 million monthly active users who create 100 million-200 million posts daily on the social network.
Additionally, (and I find this really amusing) those who have purchased X Blue have been given the ability for subscribers to hide the check-mark from public view.
Oh, and one more thing: NBC News reported: “Twitter is trying to obtain licenses to become a money transmitter across the U.S. currently. According to public records, it has already obtained permission to do so in 8 states.”
Personally, I’ve gotten to the point where opening Twitter/X makes me feel sick. I’ve been trying to avoid the worst parts of it by blocking the accounts that post misinformation. Blocking works for now — but who knows if or when Elon will remove that. Reporting hasn’t done anything in quite some time.
I’ve watched several of the people I follow on X post that they are leaving it for Blue Sky, Threads, or Mastodon.
I have no interest in giving Elon Musk, who makes reckless decisions without considering the consequences of his actions, access to my bank account, to my credit card numbers, or anything else. Why does a billionaire need to separate people from their money? It feels sketchy, and I’m not going to stick around to take part in that.