Since Elon Musk took management of Twitter in late October, confusion over what’s, and what’s not allowed on the platform, even what a verified account is, has run rampant. Guidelines and insurance policies can change every day, and even hourly. Little of what’s transpired at Twitter in virtually two months underneath Musk’s management has something to do with what was initially his greatest criticism in regards to the platform: the scourge of bots, or spam accounts.
Right here’s a rundown of a few of the occasions, coverage modifications and confusion that has been an indicator of Musk’s Twitter.
Oct. 27: Musk takes management of Twitter and fires the CEO, chief monetary officer and the corporate’s high legal professional.
Oct. 28: Some accounts recirculate long-debunked conspiracy theories in an try to “take a look at” whether or not Twitter’s insurance policies on misinformation had been nonetheless being enforced.
Oct. 30: Musk tweets a hyperlink to an unfounded rumor in regards to the assault on Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. He later deleted the tweet.
Oct. 31: Musk fires Twitter’s board of administrators and makes himself the board’s sole member.
Nov. 3: Normal Mills and Audi pause adverts on Twitter. Different advertisers categorical issues about content material moderation underneath Musk and whether or not staying on Twitter may tarnish their manufacturers.
Nov. 5: Twitter publicizes a $7.99 per-month subscription service that features a blue verify simply forward of U.S. midterm elections, beforehand given solely to verified accounts.
Nov. 6: After a raft of bogus “verified” accounts start posting on the platform, Musk says Twitter will droop any impersonation account that fails to clarify it’s a parody account.
Nov. 7: Musk urges “independent-minded voters” to vote Republican within the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.
Nov. 9: Musk seeks to reassure huge corporations that publicize on Twitter that his chaotic takeover of the social media platform gained’t hurt their manufacturers, acknowledging that some “dumb issues” may occur within the quick time period. Musk creates an “official” label for high-profile Twitter accounts, and abolishes it hours later.
Nov. 10: The Middle for Countering Digital Hate discovered that the variety of tweets containing one in every of a number of completely different racial slurs soared within the week after Musk purchased Twitter.
Nov. 11: Twitter’s relaunched blue-check “verification” labels for anybody prepared to pay $8 a month was flooded by a wave of imposter accounts Twitter had accepted, together with a bogus Eli Lilly & Co. account that tweeted that insulin was free. Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, Musk’s personal corporations Tesla and SpaceX had been additionally impersonated, in addition to the accounts of assorted skilled sports activities and political figures.
Nov. 13: Musk additional guts the groups that battle misinformation on Twitter as outsourced moderators are let go.
Nov. 17: Democratic senators ask federal regulators to analyze any attainable violations by Twitter of consumer-protection legal guidelines or of its data-security commitments.
Nov. 19: Donald Trump’s account is reinstated, reversing a ban that has stored the previous president off the social media web site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The choice was based mostly on the outcomes of a ballot Musk tweeted to followers.
Nov. 21: Twitter reinstates the non-public account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which was banned in January for violating the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation insurance policies.
Nov. 25: Twitter publicizes plans to revamp its premium service with completely different coloured verify marks, together with gold for corporations, grey for presidency accounts, and blue for anybody who pays for it.
Nov. 28: Twitter ceases enforcement of its coverage in opposition to COVID-19 misinformation on the platform.
Nov. 30: A high European Union official warns Musk that Twitter must beef up measures to guard customers from hate speech, misinformation and different dangerous content material to keep away from fines or perhaps a ban within the 27-nation bloc.
Dec. 10: Twitter once more makes an attempt to launch its premium service for $8 per 30 days for net customers, but it surely’s now $11 per 30 days for iPhone and iPad customers.
Dec. 12: Twitter dissolves its Belief and Security Council, the advisory group of round 100 unbiased civil, human rights and different organizations that the corporate fashioned in 2016 to deal with hate speech, youngster exploitation, suicide, self-harm and different issues on the platform.
Dec. 14: Twitter suspends an account that used publicly obtainable flight knowledge to trace Elon Musk’s non-public jet, regardless of a pledge by the social media platform’s new proprietor to stick with it due to his free speech ideas. The account is restored hours later with guidelines that impose new circumstances on all customers about sharing anybody’s present location, after which the account is suspended once more.
Dec. 15: The accounts of journalists who cowl Musk are suspended, amongst them reporters working for The New York Occasions, Washington Publish, CNN, Voice of America and different publications. The accounts are restored a day later after a Twitter ballot.
Dec. 19: Greater than half of 17.5 million customers who responded to a Twitter ballot created by Musk over whether or not he ought to step down as head of the corporate voted sure by the point the ballot closed. There was no quick announcement from Twitter, or Musk, about whether or not he would resign, although Musk stated that he would abide by the outcomes.
