For almost 16 years, Twitter stood as one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, but in October of 2022, a certain tech billionaire bought the platform and changed it forever.
Elon Musk needs little introduction in today’s day and age. CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and cofounder of PayPal and Neurolink, Musk is seen by many as a pioneer in the tech industry.
With the ownership of big companies like Blizzard/Activision, ZeniMax, and so many other tech and gaming companies changing hands in 2021-2022, it only seemed like a matter of time before yet another social media platform was pocketed by yet another billionaire.
Musk ended up buying Twitter for $44 billion USD, taking it from a public company to a private one, and declaring his intention to rebrand the platform from the once colorful blue bird to a cold and dark depiction of the letter X which he later followed through with in July 2023
However, the users of the platform at the time were clearly worried about this change of hands. Musk had made his intentions for the platform very clear, declaring that he’d unban several accounts that had previously been banned and removed from the platform for hate speech, and would also be changing the way that blocking on the website worked.
In September of 2024, Musk announced that “block as a “feature” will be deleted except for DMs” which caused many to immediately make their opinions clear on this matter.
Blocking on social media websites is a must for many, and a must have for all of the major platforms. Blocking allows people to stop harassment, prevent them from seeing things they’d rather not see, and remove unwanted interactions.
The amount of public backlash Musk received on his own platform was enormous, many stating correctly that this violates internet safety regulations, and make his platform less safe of an online space overall.
With its user base feeling less protected and with the site’s political affiliation becoming more and more clear, X saw a 30% decrease of users a month after its acquisition in 2023, then lost one fifth of its users in the US and one third of its EU since the change in blocking.
X users have begun fleeing to alternative websites like Bluesky, which saw an increase of over 2.6 million users in April 2024 (see below), and then an even further increase in users after the block change hit X, now sitting at 13.2 million users.
With users leaving twitter in droves, many have turned their attention to if X will even be able to stay on many phones to begin with, many pointing out that with burner accounts being a thing and X refusing to do much about harassment, they’d be leaving the website altogether.
Without a proper block function, stalkers and harassers are more likely to keep up with their activities, having less reason to stop now more than ever.
Many users were also quick to point out that Apple’s app guidelines have strict requirements around blocking features on social media apps, and that with how X is now, it’s in clear violation of those safety guidelines.
Apple clearly states that there must be the ability to “block abusive users from the service” and “must provide an in-app functionality for blocking users” which Google also has in their guidelines.
With the future of X’s availability on devices belonging to Apple and Google in question, Musk has also been unbanning several accounts that many deem controversial and even violate the laws in some cases.
An example of his unbanning of controversial accounts would be that of former president Donald Trump’s twitter account, who had previously been banned for “incitement of violence” after the Jan. 6 capital riot in 2021.
What’s more is that the unbanning also hit several Brazilian accounts in 2023 that had previously been banned by Twitter due to a court order. Brazil instantly took action, declaring that X remove the accounts once again or face legal consequences.
Twitter (now X) was unavailable in Brazil from Aug. 30 to Oct. 8 due to the Brazilian Supreme Court issuing an investigation and lawsuit against Musk and X-Corp (the new team behind X/Twitter).
The investigation began in April of 2024, shortly after Musk stated that he was going to reinstate the banned accounts, the target of the investigation being “dissemination of defamatory fake news and … obstruction, incitement and criminal organization,” Alexandre de Moraes, Brazilian Supreme Court member said.
The Brazilian Supreme Court demanded that X be removed from Internet Service Providers in the area. Musk and X corp ended up paying 5.2 million in fines, later getting X back up in Brazil.
Along with Musk’s acquisition of Twitter came a wave of layoffs as well, more than 80% of the workforce of around 8000 being fired and leaving the company with under 2000 workers, 500 of which are full time employees.
Now with less moderation, the website formerly known as Twitter has seen a massive uprise in hate speech, harassment, and other behavior the website once deemed ban worthy.
Racism, a once bannable offense on the site, has never been easier to find as the lack of moderation from what little of the team remains isn’t enough to quell the tide of racist sentiment that the site once moderated and kept in check.
Racism isn’t the only kind of hate speech that’s seen an uprising on the website though, as the amount of Anti-LGBTQ+ talk has also seen an incredibly massive leap in popularity.
From users talking about how these people are ‘sick’ to needing to be ‘put down’, the platform has never been a scarier place for minority groups.
What’s more the site’s current owner has made it clear that he sides with the hate speech that’s being pushed on his platform, stating that he himself is a “free speech absolutist” and that content like this “won’t be deleted unless it’s illegal.”
Musk’s actions on his own newly bought platform have severely changed its advertisers as well.
After a series of anti-semitic tweets from Musk, several big advertisers like Paramount, Disney, Warner Bros and more began pulling their ads from the site, stating that their ads were also appearing alongside ads that supported “#WhitePower” and “HeilHitler” among other things.
74 of the top 100 advertisers in America no longer run ads on X, many stating that the antisemitism and racism running rampant on the site as a main reason as to why’d they’ve pulled out.
Following the massive decrease in advertisers, Musk proceeded to make several posts about his belief in the “great replacement”, a racist conspiracy theory revolving around the belief that through immigration of nonwhite people, the “influence of white people will be diminished”.
The amount of changes stops here for now, but people fear that Musk will continue to take the site in an alt-right way, changing it from a website where people of all opinions gather to one where similar ideas are echo-chambered into a website who’s current population is more bot than human.