Twitter Updates Since Elon Musk Took Over
It’s been less than a month since Elon stepped foot into Twitter HQ, sink in hand, and yet the landscape of the platform has already seen some drastic changes. With frequent new updates (both impending and already rolled out), we’ve summarised the most important ones here for you to keep up-to-date.
What has changed?
- The Twitter homepage: Logged-out Twitter users visiting Twitter.com will now be redirected to the Explore page that shows trending tweets and news stories. Previously, it would show only a sign-up form.
- Twitter’s paid subscription feature ‘Super Follows’ has been renamed ‘Subscriptions’
- Musk has discussed using Starlink, his satellite-based internet service at SpaceX, to make Twitter available in countries where it is currently hard to access.
- In a Twitter thread by Calacanis, who co-hosts the ‘All-In’ podcast that Musk was a guest on, Calacanis said he met with Yoel Roth (Twitter’s head of safety) and has relayed information that Twitter is banning accounts involved in a ‘trolling campaign’ of racial slurs and will be laser focussed on identity and safety in the coming weeks.
- There will soon be an $8 monthly fee for the Twitter Blue tick, with Musk calling the old method a ‘Lords and peasants system’.
- One of the worlds largest advertising companies, IPG, has advised clients to suspend Twitter adverts for a week whilst waiting for more clarity on Twitter’s plans for ads on the platform.
- Will Vine come back? Vine was a short-lived platform back in the early 2010s, similar to TikTok, which focused on short-form videos of 6 seconds, which accumulated 200 million users. However, it was axed by Twitter without an explanation. As Gen Z’s becoming more accustomed to video content with the rise of the TikTok empire, there is still potential for the much-anticipated return of this platform. Vine was the original TikTok for many of the Millenials, and some may say it was way ahead of its time.
- Musk announced that advertising will account for less than 50% of revenue under his ownership. This will be a big change considering the current ad revenue of Twitter stands at 90%.
- Elon has dissolved Twitter’s board of Directors and appointed himself CEO, or ‘Chief Twit’ (as referred to in his Twitter bio). The company is still facing mass layoffs, including software engineers whose code is being evaluated to see if it is up to scratch with that of Elon’s other companies.
- That said, the company is also trying to rehire the employees it laid off say sources.
- Elon vows not to turn Twitter into a ‘free-for-all hellscape’ where anything can be said; this comes as a relief considering the push for free-speech that many were concerned would turn Twitter into a platform for controversial and offensive posts. Standing by his word, Elon recently met some of the civil rights leaders and tweeted saying ‘Twitter will continue to combat hate and harassment and enforce its election integrity policies.’
Whilst there is still a wide scope of changes yet to be made or even announced by the new Twitter CEO, one thing is for sure; if Elon’s first few weeks in charge are anything to go by, Twitter will see a complete overhaul, that will perhaps see other social media platforms follow suit in this new landscape. As we can already see Meta is expected to lay off thousands as well.
The future of the platform for individuals and advertisers remains to be seen, but as it continues to develop, it is a reminder for brands to diversify their presence and have a multi-channel strategy.
