Elon Musk announces a MAJOR change for Twitter that will affect every user – here’s what you need to know
October 27: Musk officially becomes the new owner of Twitter, tweeting “the bird has been set free.”
November 1st: Musk confirms plans to change the system of ‘Blue Tick’ authentication on Twitter, for a reduced subscription fee of $8 per month.
the 4th of November: Musk lays off half of Twitter’s workforce as a supposed cost-cutting measure, claiming he had “no choice.”
November 9: Musk launches ‘Twitter Blue’ subscription service that verifies accounts for a monthly fee.
November 11: The Twitter Blue service has been interrupted as accounts purchase verification and use it to impersonate brands and public figures.
November 12: Musk fires 80 percent of Twitter contractors without warning.
November 15: Musk fires employees who posted negatively about him on business messaging app Slack. The lawsuit between Musk and Twitter is dismissed.
November 16: Twitter staff are told they must sign a pledge to remain in their positions where they would be required to work “long hours and high intensity” or receive three months of severance pay, which would result in a mass exodus.
November 18: A news ticker was projected at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters describing Musk as a “space Karen,” “mediocre man child,” and “bankruptcy baby.”
November 23: A Twitter user reported that 5.4 million phone numbers and email addresses leaked onto the dark web before his account was suspended.
November 26: Financial Times revealed that 50 of the platform’s top 100 advertisers have paused their ads.
November 29: Platform game reported that Twitter is in the process of reinstating about 62,000 banned accounts that each have more than 10,000 followers.
12 December: Twitter Blue has relaunched with a new Blue Tick review process.
January 11: Twitter will begin automatically redirecting users to the “For You” tab (the algorithmic feed of tweets) every time they open the app.
February 8th: Twitter extends character limit to 4,000 for Twitter Blue subscribers in the US. Soon after, the site experiences technical difficulties.
12th of February: Musk orders staff to overhaul Twitter promotion algorithm after his Super Bowl tweet didn’t get enough impressions.
15 February: Twitter announces it will be removing SMS two-factor authentication (2FA) from Twitter’s free version — a decision that a security expert has labeled “absurd” and will lead to “so many accounts being hacked.”
February 25Twitter is revealing a new round of layoffs that reduced the workforce to under 2,000 — a sharp drop from the 7,500 employees when the billionaire first took over in October.
28th of March: Musk announces that it will prevent people from voting in Twitter polls or having their tweets appear in the For You tab if they don’t pay for Twitter Blue.
11 April: Musk gives an interview with the BBC at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, where he says he has been sleeping on the floor of the company’s offices. Musk also accused the interviewer of lying for failing to substantiate the allegations of hate speech on the platform.
21st of June: Musk says he’s “in for a cage match” fight with rival tech CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
July 1st: Musk announces limits on the number of tweets users can see per day: 600 for people not opted into Twitter Blue and 6,000 for Twitter Blue subscribers.
July 23: Twitter is officially rebranded as X.com, replacing the classic blue bird logo with an X
August 18: Musk announces that ‘block’ will be removed as a feature, except within direct messaging
August 31th: Musk reveals that audio and video calling will be introduced on the platform soon