Musk takes over @x username without paying
Musk takes over the @x Twitter account without paying its owner as part of the app’s ongoing rebrand. The user. a photographer in San Franscisco, said he had been offered some X merchandise and a meeting with the company’s management, but was not offered any financial incentive. He stated:
They just took it essentially – kinda what I thought might happen. They did send an email saying it is the property of ‘x’ essentially.
X: no verification unless companies buy ads
X (formerly known as Twitter) warns companies on the site that they will lose their verification badges if they have not spent at least $1,000 on advertisements over the past month or $6,000 in the preceding 180 days. The yellow check marks will reportedly start disappearing on August 7.
Musk: Bronny James cardiac arrest may be vaccine related
Referring to Bronny James’ cardiac arrest, Musk says:
We cannot ascribe everything to the vaccine, but, by the same token, we cannot ascribe nothing. Myocarditis is a well known side-effect
We cannot ascribe everything to the vaccine, but, by the same token, we cannot ascribe nothing.
Myocarditis is a known side-effect. The only question is whether it is rare or common.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2023
Twitter briefly adds a Community Notes fact check to the tweet, however, it was removed later that day.
Studies show that the risk of myocarditis is significantly higher after an actual Covid infection than with the vaccine. Among adolescent boys, the risk of myocarditis following a Covid infection was approximately twice that of the risk following the second vaccine dose.
Musk rebrands Twitter as X
Musk confirms Twitter’s rebrand by changing the apps’s logo from the bird to X, which he describes as ‘minimalist art deco,’ He also changes his Twitter bio to ‘X.com’, which redirects to what used to be twitter.com, and his profile picture to X, In a late night email, Musk writes to Twitter employees confirming the changes.
We are indeed changing to X…This is my last message from a Twitter email.
Going with minimalist art deco on the upper right.
Probably changes later, certainly will be refined.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2023
In a Twitter Space – an audio livestream on the platform –Musk said the changes ‘should have been done a long time ago’ and that he was ‘sorry it took so long.’ Musk also said that posts made under the site’s new identity would be called ‘X’s.’
Musk: Twitter logo will change to X
Musk says Twitter is planning to change its logo, Larry the Bird, which has been in place since creation of the company in 2006, to an X. Along with the logo change, the domain for the social media site will become X.com, and Twitter will become a subsidiary of Musk-owned X-Corp.
And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds
And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Musk then asked for logo suggestions:
If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow
If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Thousands of users replied before Musk posted a short video of an X with a flickering background.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Musk: Twitter’s ad revenue down ~50%
Musk says Twitter has a “negative cash flow” and its advertising revenue has declined by about 50% amid a “heavy debt load” as competition between Twitter and Threads intensifies. This comes just as Twitter began paying content creators for posting advertisements. Some users are reporting payouts of over $100,000, and Musk himself says Twitter will pay creators $5 million through its first block of payments. It is unclear, though, which kinds of posts or which users are eligible for advertising payments, and some users have criticized the platform’s payout program.
We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load. Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else.
We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load. Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2023
Twitter threatens legal action over Threads
Twitter threatens to take legal action over Threads, with an attorney from Twitter describing it as a “copycat” and claiming that it is developed by former Twitter employees using the company’s trade secrets. The attorney writes:
Twitter has serious concerns that Meta Platforms has engaged in systemic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property. The company plans to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights.
Meta declines to comment on the letter, but director Andy Stone responds on Threads:
No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.
Yaccarino: Twitter ‘often imitated’ but never duplicated
After the release of Threads, Yaccarino tweets that the Twitter community is “often imitated,” but never duplicated. Many Twitter users have taken to the platform to point out similarities between Threads and Twitter, with Zuckerberg himself even taking several shots at Twitter.
YOU built the Twitter community. And that’s irreplaceable…This is your public square. We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.
On Twitter, everyone's voice matters.
Whether you’re here to watch history unfold, discover REAL-TIME information all over the world, share your opinions, or learn about others — on Twitter YOU can be real.
YOU built the Twitter community. 🙏👏 And that's irreplaceable. This…
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 6, 2023
Musk sues lawyers who represented Twitter against him
Arguing that the bill is too high, Musk sues the lawyers who represented Twitter (now “X Corp”) in its suit against him for trying to abandon his $44 billion takeover offer in 2022. (Filed in the Superior Court of California, the case is X Corp. v. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz [CGC-23-607461].) Hoping to get back part of the $90 million Twitter paid Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (WLRK), X Corp alleges that the law firm tried to “fundamentally alter its fee arrangement” toward the end of its representation of Twitter in order to get an “improper bonus payment in violation of its fiduciary and ethical obligations to its client.” The complaint says that the board had been surprised about the fees and alleges that the firm was “at the center of a spending spree” by Twitter’s departing executives. It says those executives:
ran up the tab at Twitter by, among other things, facilitating the improper payment of substantial gifts to preferred law firms like Wachtell on top of the firms’ full hourly billings by designating tens of millions of dollars in handouts to the firms as ‘success’ or ‘project’ fees.
Twitter: Rate limits are to eleminate bots
Twitter says recent rate limits on Twitter are implemented to detect and eleminate bots and only a small percentage of users are affected:
To ensure the authenticity of our user base we must take extreme measures to remove spam and bots from our platform. Any advance notice on these actions would have allowed bad actors to alter their behavior to evade detection.
The company says these actions intend to prevent data scraping from users and state that the restrictions are temporary:
Currently, the restrictions affect a small percentage of people using the platform, and we will provide an update when the work is complete. As it relates to our customers, effects on advertising have been minimal.
Twitter users complain after Musk limits numbers of posts they can read
Musk says that, due to AI companies scraping Twitter for data, rate limits will be placed on users that will only allow them to view a restricted number of tweets. Initially, Musk sets the limits to 6000 posts/day for verified accounts, 600 posts for unverified acounts and 300 posts/day for new unverified accounts. Six hours later he later updates the rate limits to 8000 posts/day for verified users, 800 for verified, and shortly thereafter increases it to 10,000 for vervified users and 1000 for unverified.
To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits: – Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day – Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day – New unverified accounts to 300/day
Now to 10k, 1k & 0.5k
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
Many users, who were not aware of the change, complained that they could not access tweets and were seeing a ‘rate limite exceeded’ message instead.
I was on this site for 5 mins and got this.
Thanks for my time back. I might be done. pic.twitter.com/1L0oFK5oJk
— Steve Cavendish (@scavendish) July 1, 2023
Zuckerberg accepts Musk’s ‘cage fight’ challenge
In response to a conversation about Zuckerberg’s Meta launching a ‘sane’ version of Twitter, a Twitter user warns Musk that he should ‘be careful” because the Facebook CEO “does the ju jitsu now”. Musk responds:
I’m up for a cage match if he is lol
I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options.
At least it will be “sane”. Was worried there for a moment 😅.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023
I’m up for a cage match if he is lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023
Zuckerberg replies on his verified Instagram account:
Send me location
Musk responds that the match should be in Vegas Octagon, while also mocking his lack of athletic skills.
Vegas Octagon. I have this great move that I call “The Walrus”, where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing
I have this great move that I call “The Walrus”, where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2023
Zuckerberg is an aspirational MMA fighter who is already winning Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. He also claims to have recently completed the gruelling “Murph Challenge” workout in just under 40 minutes. Previously, Musk challenged Vladimir Putin to ‘single combat’.
Musk: Twitter ‘didn’t have a choice’ but to obey Indian government
In response to Dorsey’s claim that the Indian government asked him to block Twitter accounts covering the 2020-21 farmers’ protests, Musk says Twitter had no choice but to obey. The platform has to follow the laws formulated by governments, he says, or else they will shut it down. But, Musk adds that even though Twitter has to comply with regulations imposed by different governments, it will strive to ensure that users continue to have access to a platform with “the freest speech” possible.
Twitter didn’t have a choice, but to obey local government laws. We cannot apply America to Earth. There are different rules and regulations for different forms of governments, and we will do our best to provide the freest speech that is possible under the law.
Musk: ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ considered ‘slurs’ on Twitter
Replying to a user who claimed to have been targeted by pro-trans activists, Musk says the words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ – which are used by transgender activists to label people who are not transgender – are now ‘considered slurs’ on Twitter. He considers their repeated use against others “targeted harassment” (though users may call themselves “anything” they want) and warns that people who use them that way will face account suspensions “at minimum.” Commenting on a poll in which the majority of respondents said they consider “cis” a slur, Musk also says that “people overwhelmingly reject” the term.
Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.
The words “cis” or “cisgender” are considered slurs on this platform.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023
Musk suspends ExplainThisBob
Musk suspends a meme Twitter account linked to the cryptocurrency Bob Token, saying it could be a “scam crypto account.” Some Twitter users who hold Bob Token (BOB) and those utilizing the @explainthisbob reply bot voice their opposition to the suspension, and some in the crypto community who disagree with Musk’s decision created a hashtag “FREEBOB,” demanding a reconsideration of the suspension. BOB’s value is down by 30% following the suspension. Musk:
This sure looks like a scam crypto account. If so, it will be suspended.
This sure looks like a scam crypto account. If so, it will be suspended.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 18, 2023
Music publishers sue Twitter for $250m, citing Musk’s lax copyright stance
The National Music Publishers’ Association sues Twitter, on behalf of firms including Sony Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management and Universal Music Publishing Group, in a US federal court in Tennessee, for more than $250m over bulk copyright infringement, citing Elon Musk’s tweets to argue that the company has deliberately stopped enforcing the rules. The suit says Twitter has not paid for a blanket licence allowing its users to upload copyrighted material, unlike TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat. in 2023, The New York Times reported that talks had stalled over the $100m price tag and fallen apart since Musk bought the site. The suit names 17000 songs as having been infringed:
Twitter’s policies demonstrate that Twitter views itself, not the law, as the arbiter of what content is permitted on the Twitter platform. Despite claiming to take down tweets in response to an infringement notice within hours or minutes, Twitter routinely waits much longer before acting, if it acts at all. There are thousands of instances where Twitter waited 30 days or more to remove or disable access to the content identified.
According to the suit, Musk said copyright “goes absurdly far beyond protecting the original creator” and “overzealous” application of copyright laws “is a plague on humanity”. The plaintiffs:
This statement and others like it exert pressure on Twitter employees, including those in its trust and safety team, on issues relating to copyright and infringement
Yaccarino sends first memo to Twitter employees
Yaccarino sends her first communication to Twitter employees. In a 320-word memo, she writes that Twitter is “on a mission” to become a “global town square for communication” and says that the “success of Twitter 2.0 is all of our responsibility.” She also mentions thinking “big,” starting from “first principles,” and “building something new from the ground up.”
From space exploration to electric vehicles, Elon knew these industries needed transformation, so he did it. More recently it has become increasingly clear that the global town square needs transformation — to drive civilization forward through the unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue about the things that matter most to us.
Hello Twitter.
People keep asking me: Why Twitter?
So, I’ll tell you. 👇— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) June 12, 2023
Musk invites liberal TV hosts to Twitter
In a pinned tweet, Musk invites liberal television hosts (Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon and “others”) to bring their shows to Twitter to try and balance out Tucker Carlson’s presence on the platform. (This is the second time he has invited Lemon to start a show there.)
It’d be great to have @maddow, @donlemon, & others on the left put their shows on this platform. No exclusivity or legal docs required! You will receive our full support. The digital town square is for all.
It’d be great to have @maddow, @donlemon & others on the left put their shows on this platform. No exclusivity or legal docs required!
You will receive our full support. The digital town square is for all. https://t.co/v1Yse6TQ6u
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 8, 2023
Twitter’s U.S. ad sales drop 59%
According to an internal presentation obtained by The New York Times, Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May was $88 million, down 59% from a year earlier. The document says the company has regularly fallen short of its U.S. weekly sales projections, sometimes by as much as 30 percent. The company has forecast that its U.S. ad revenue this month will be down at least 56 percent each week compared with a year ago, according to one internal document. Neither CEO Yaccarino nor Musk commented on the report.
According to staff interviews, Twitter’s ad sales staff is concerned that advertisers may be spooked by a rise in hate speech and pornography on the social network, as well as more ads featuring online gambling and marijuana products. In one week last month, four of Twitter’s top 10 U.S. advertisers were online gambling and fantasy sports betting companies, according to one presentation. Twitter has also started allowing ads for cannabis accessories, including “bongs, vapes, rolling paper,” as well as erectile dysfunction products and services, according to internal emails.
Former employees say some of Twitter’s biggest advertisers — including Apple, Amazon and Disney — have been spending less on the platform than last year, and that large specialized “banner” ads on Twitter’s trends page that can cost $500,000 for 24 hours and are almost always bought by large brands to promote events, shows or movies, are often going unfilled.
Irwin confirms resignation
Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, confirms her resignation from the company in a pair of tweets. She does not say why she resigned, but the move comes just after Musk criticized Twitter’s handling of tweets about a documentary that questions transgender medical treatment for children and teens. Irwin says “one or two people noticed” that she left Twitter the day before and notes speculation about whether she was fired or quit. She also jokes about posting 24 tweets to explain her departure.
In all seriousness, I did resign but this has been a once in a lifetime experience and I’m so thankful to have worked with this amazing team of passionate, creative and hardworking people. Will be cheering you all and Twitter as you go!
Just kidding folks. 😂 There’s no thread. In all seriousness, I did resign but this has been a once in a lifetime experience and I’m so thankful to have worked with this amazing team of passionate, creative and hardworking people. Will be cheering you all and Twitter as you go!
— Ella Irwin (@ellagirwin) June 3, 2023