Twitter quietly makes a HUGE change to how you click on links – and users are absolutely baffled by the update
October 27: Musk officially becomes the new owner of Twitter, tweeting “the bird has been freed.”
November 1st: Musk confirms plans to change Twitter’s system of ‘Blue Tick’ verification, for a reduced subscription fee of $8 per month.
the 4th of November: Musk lays off half of Twitter’s workforce as an alleged cost-cutting measure, claiming he had “no choice.”
November 9: Musk launches the subscription service ‘Twitter Blue’ that verifies accounts for a monthly fee.
November 11: The Twitter Blue service has been disrupted as accounts purchase verification and use it to impersonate brands and public figures.
November 12: Musk fires 80 percent of Twitter employees without warning.
November 15: Musk fires employees who posted negatively about him on the 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 roles, which would require them to work “long hours and high intensity” or receive three months’ severance pay, resulting in a mass exodus.
November 18: A news sticker 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 were 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 advertising.
November 29: Platformer reported that Twitter is in the process of reinstating approximately 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 start automatically redirecting users to the “For You” tab (the algorithmic feed of tweets) every time they open the app.
February 8th: Twitter expands character limit to 4,000 for Twitter Blue subscribers in the US. Shortly afterwards, the site experiences technical difficulties.
12th of February: Musk orders staff to revamp Twitter’s promotion algorithm after his Super Bowl tweet didn’t get enough impressions.
15 February: Twitter announces it will remove SMS two-factor authentication (2FA) from the free version of Twitter – a decision that one security expert has labeled “absurd” and will lead to “so many accounts being hacked.”
February 25Twitter unveiled a new round of layoffs that reduced its workforce to under 2,000 — a sharp drop from 7,500 employees when the billionaire first took the helm 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 slept on the floor of the company’s offices. Musk also accused the interviewer of lying because he could not substantiate the allegations about 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 signed up for Twitter Blue and 6,000 for Twitter Blue subscribers.
July 23: Twitter is officially rebranded as X.com, with the classic blue bird logo replaced by 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 soon be introduced to the platform