Criticisms of X under Musk include concerns that hate speech and violence have been more likely to spread, especially with Musk’s move to change how the “block” and “mute” functions work. He has been accused of enabling cyberbullying by changing how these functions work. Yaccarino stepped down in July 2025, giving no reason for her departure.
It’s the best design and now with the AI built-in it’s extremely helpful and has become a great source for getting news both from alternative media as well as mainstream sources. Anything I have seen from CNN has come through X, I haven’t watched the news straight off the television in probably two years.Excellent app if you are an intelligent and informed person and want to actually learn/debate. If you want to post pictures of the awesome flan you just bought, Instagram is much better.
Others disagree with the X owner’s political beliefs and recent step into American politics as President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-lead and unofficial BFF. On January 15, 2009, a tweet by commuter ferry passenger Janis Krums broke the story of the successful water landing of US Airways flight 1549 on the Hudson River in New York City. A hastily snapped camera phone image of passengers disembarking the half-submerged aircraft established Twitter as a breaking news source. The following month, Twitter, Inc. was created as a corporate entity after an infusion of venture capital, and Dorsey became Twitter’s first chief executive officer (CEO). In 2008, Williams ousted Dorsey as CEO, and two years later Williams was replaced as CEO by Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo.
Service
Advertising revenue fell sharply after many companies withdrew their ads, and the Twitter identity was stripped from the service. She argues that X’s algorithms now “privilege divisive and misleading rhetoric” and suggests that users who post less controversial content have found a reduction in the views. Premium profiles are entitled to more privileges and prominence – and can make money from the engagement they get from other checkmarked profiles. From October, X changed its rules so that instead of basing revenue for individual accounts around ads, it now takes into account likes, shares and comments from other Premium accounts. Although Twitter continued to grow in popularity, it still wasn’t profitable, so the company introduced new features to increase user engagement.
I always really liked Twitter but it was annoying when it started turning ugly with so much angry trolling years ago. Then they implemented a bunch of controls to help make it sane and calm again. And that should be fine – I get that it’s a public forum and In don’t really care who owns the platform – but the good thing about it has always been my ability choose my follows and fine tune my feed. But no – logging in defaults to a generic feed that has all kinds of crummy loudmouth negative opinions from people formerly banned from the platform right up top. And it would be one thing if they were just using an analytic algorithm to lead me to this I might enjoy but they’re not. They’re putting things they know I’ll have to drive reactions which is just rude.
Unlike other sites that generated income through advertising or membership fees, Twitter had no obvious business model. But as the user base expanded, it became clear the service had outgrown its niche beginnings. Some X users tell me that they have recently decided to migrate to other social media platforms, including Bluesky, which started in 2019 as an experimental “de-centralised” social media site created by former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey. While few features outright changed when Twitter transitioned to X, there have been a significant number of changes since Musk took the helm of the app both before and following the rebrand. Likes have been hidden, the block function no longer prevents users from viewing your posts and the blue check debacle means that users can now pay to appear verified. Twitter, once one of the most recognizable names in social media, has been replaced by X.
Why did Elon Musk eliminate the Twitter name?
- Then they implemented a bunch of controls to help make it sane and calm again.
- “The purpose of my X account is to be the voice for the silent majority of the Western world,” its creator told me.
- It is racking up around 30 million views each day collectively among all of its posts, according to its creator.
- Sam Freeman, a former Meta employee who now works as an expert in Trust and Safety for a company called Cinder, believes that this will have a broader effect on other social media bosses too.
- That same month, it launched Moments, a curated feed of tweets organized by topic.
The site was influential in shaping politics and culture in the early 21st century. The successor to Twitter, X Corp., is a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings Corp., which is controlled by South African–born American entrepreneur Elon Musk. X does not have rules to de-monetise accounts over these kinds of posts, although it does allow users to add community notes to misleading or false tweets. And it does not allow “misleading media” like manipulated or synthetic videos that “may result in widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety or cause serious harm”. All of this matters because X might not have as many users as some other major social media sites, but it does seem to have a significant impact on political discussions.
- But the profile responded by saying that they were “actually inciting safety”.
- In November 2020, Twitter introduced Fleets—temporary posts that disappeared after 24 hours—modeled after Stories on Snapchat (SNAP) and Meta Platforms’ (META) Instagram and Facebook.
- Now the profile, which calls itself a “Defender of Western values and culture”, has amassed 131,600 followers (a number that is rapidly growing).
- Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion at his original proposed price of $54.20 a share.
- I messaged dozens of other large accounts, who describe the growing influence they’re able to have on the site, often unexpectedly.
Best social media for actual engagement
Over the course of 2024, however, there have been another wave of alterations that appear to have transformed it further. The block function has been changed, meaning that if you block an account you won’t be protected from that profile viewing what you post. As you can imagine, many users have not been happy with Musk’s increasing efforts to disable popular features and paywall others behind the X Premium banner.
2022: Twitter as a public company
Billionaire Elon Musk has hailed Twitter as a bastion for freedom of expression ever since he acquired the social media site two years ago. But over the course of 2024, X, as it is now called, has evolved from what felt like a communal town square into a polarised hub where views and posts seem even more controversial. In March 2016, Twitter replaced its purely chronological timeline with an algorithmic feed that prioritized tweets based on popularity and user behavior. The company finally became profitable in the last quarter of 2017, when it reported 330 million monthly users. Even so, it posted positive earnings in only two of its eight years as a public company. Twitter started as a free SMS-based service with some social networking features and lacked a clear source of revenue.
I even get alerts whenever the company’s current rude owner posts another dumb opinion – one more thing I didn’t ask for and don’t want. Like used to be a good tool to find more accounts to follow organically. Now it’s some creepy fake privacy meant to separate people even more and cut non corporate funding avenues for support. Keep the corny new name if you insist but change the general interaction functionality back to like 2012 settings and I’ll love it again.
Whether the site is seen as an unvetted “town square” or a reliable source of information remains up for debate. It’s still unclear whether Musk’s vision of an “everything app” will materialize, whether such a service would face regulatory hurdles, or whether X can remain viable in its current form. After the acquisition, Musk disbanded Twitter’s content moderation team and reinstated many banned accounts, including the one belonging to President Donald Trump, which had been suspended after the U.S.
He predicts them “needing to have a more personal relationship with the incoming administration”, particularly if they feel increasing pressure over regulation and online safety. When Mr Musk first acquired Twitter, he avatrade review emphasised the need to house all political opinions and push back against censorship by social media companies and governments. Now the profile, which calls itself a “Defender of Western values and culture”, has amassed 131,600 followers (a number that is rapidly growing). It is racking up around 30 million views each day collectively among all of its posts, according to its creator.
And we’ll be showcasing thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. We’re starting small but thinking big, and we want to know what you think – you can send us your feedback by clicking on the button below. “I never really intended to become an influencer,” admits one profile called Andi, who says he’s based in New York. “But I figure since I have this platform I should try to use it to advance my own causes.” Certain profiles that have shared misleading takes on politics and the news, some of which have been accused of triggering hate, have recently shot to prominence.
What is X? The new Twitter explained
Twitter launched Spaces, a live audio feature, in May 2021 for accounts with more than 600 followers. Later that year, in November, Dorsey stepped down again and was replaced by chief technology officer Parag Agrawal. In June 2009, state media in Iran reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had secured an easy victory.
Hannah joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in English from Royal Holloway, University of London. She’s also worked and studied in the US, holding positions as a video production assistant and multimedia consultant at Washington College and has built websites and written content for Hometown Multimedia in Chestertown, Maryland. Musk also rebranded Twitter Blue to X Premium and expanded its features, offering users fewer ads, reply prioritisation, the ability to write and share Articles and access to X’s own Grok AI chatbot. We’ve created this guide to explain everything you need to know about X, including what it is, what’s changed and what happened to the bird app we knew and loved.
