A Look at All the Changes Implemented by Elon Musk at Twitter in his Time as Chief Twit

It’s been simply over 50 days since Elon Musk lugged a sink into Twitter HQ for his first day in his new function as proprietor of the platform, and since then, we’ve seen varied coverage modifications, workers cuts, exposes of inside paperwork, and extra.

However now, we could also be on the finish of the Elon as ‘Chief Twit’ experiment, with Musk tweeting out this ballot on Sunday afternoon:

The outcomes haven’t gone in Musk’s favor, and he has, to this point, caught to his phrase on abiding by ballot outcomes.

Which begs the query, ‘what has Elon really finished, in a coverage sense, at Twitter?’

Elon’s been very eager to tout his view on ‘free speech’, and the way the platform, underneath his possession, will permit extra varieties of feedback and content material.

However will it? Has he really modified something to make Twitter extra open?

Right here’s a glance again at all the main bulletins and coverage updates which have been applied to this point by Elon and his Twitter 2.0 staff.

1. Paid verification

Musk’s first massive announcement, after all, was his paid verification plan, by way of which individuals will have the ability to pay $8 per 30 days to get a blue checkmark, to allow them to digitally cosplay as celebrities within the app.

Musk initially wanted to charge $20 per month, earlier than realizing that was too excessive for regular people who don’t have billions of {dollars} in discretionary spend. So he lowered it to $8, or $96 each year to maintain your blue tick – although iOS subscribers have to pay $11 per month as a result of Elon doesn’t need to pay Apple’s 30% in-app buy tax out of his personal pocket.

Look, this can be a pretty flawed, self-serving scheme, which affords little of worth for customers, and numerous worth for Twitter, by way of direct income, and as some technique of verifying human customers (as a result of, a minimum of in principle, bots can’t pay). Musk has needed to revise this system to counter impersonation scams, which took off as soon as it was launched, however even now, there’s not numerous motive for individuals to pay up – particularly when most users don’t ever tweet, so the advantages, for almost all, actually aren’t well worth the cash.

However some individuals can pay, and Elon’s engaged on extra incentives, like precedence itemizing of replies and in search (once more, irrelevant in case you don’t tweet), whereas he’s additionally flagged a new system by way of which paying subscribers will have the ability to downvote different accounts, so as to decrease their tweet publicity.

Once more, Elon’s largest followers can pay, as will those that’ve been determined for a blue checkmark since perpetually.

Will that be sufficient to generate important earnings or worth from this system?

Truthfully, I doubt it, and Twitter’s most up-to-date makes an attempt to limit customers from posting links to their Mastodon accounts doubtless counsel that Twitter Blue take-up hasn’t been what Elon anticipated or hoped. 

However we’ll quickly discover out, with Twitter Blue within the means of being rolled out to extra areas.

2. Account reinstatements

A giant sign of his intentions to make Twitter extra free and open was Musk’s announcement that he would reinstate the profiles of users that had been previously banned from the app. Effectively, it was much less an announcement, and truly a ballot amongst customers, which has grow to be Musk’s go-to circuit-breaker for large choices.

During the last month, Twitter has gone about re-instating some 60,000 accounts, belonging to those that had beforehand damaged the platform’s guidelines – as a result of Musk needs to begin off new, with a clear slate.

All of those profiles nonetheless must play by the platform guidelines, however a number of the app’s largest offenders of occasions previous at the moment are again and tweeting once more.

And about these guidelines…

3. Updating Twitter’s Guidelines and Laws

Right here’s the factor – for all of Musk’s speak of updating Twitter’s method, and making the platform extra open to extra sorts of speech, Twitter itself has repeatedly informed advert companions that its insurance policies haven’t modified.

As Twitter shared in blog post on November 30th:

“None of our policies have changed. Our approach to policy enforcement will rely more heavily on de-amplification of violative content: freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.”

Once more, Twitter has not modified any of its insurance policies as but, and whereas Musk retains speaking about permitting extra speech, and pointing the finger at previous administration for his or her perceived bias, Twitter’s guidelines round content material, and what’s and isn’t allowed within the app, are precisely the identical.

Some have advised that Musk has taken stronger action against child sexual abuse material, although specialists say that those changed haven’t had much impact, whereas Twitter has additionally stopped enforcing its COVID misinformation policy, an space the place Musk has robust opinions.

However functionally, the Twitter you’re utilizing proper now’s no extra free or open than the one managed by Parag Agrawal on the identical time final 12 months.

Twitter is relying extra on automation, as a result of Musk cut a huge amount of its moderation staff, so there are doubtless extra errors in enforcement. However once more, as the principles are written, because the insurance policies are set, Elon Musk has finished nothing to replace Twitter’s method to what’s and isn’t allowed within the app.

Or he hadn’t, till final weekend.

4. No Doxxing

Elon Musk has, nonetheless, introduced one significant policy shift:

“When someone shares an individual’s live location on Twitter, there is an increased risk of physical harm. Moving forward, we’ll remove Tweets that share this information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended.”

After an incident through which his younger son was confronted by a stalker, Elon determined to take decisive motion in opposition to any Twitter account that shares reside location information, so as to keep away from potential hurt.

Twitter’s new rules state that customers can now not share live location info of any form, ‘including information shared on Twitter directly or links to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes’. Which, technically, guidelines out just about all live-streams, as you’d be sharing the reside location of anyone featured within the video.

Which may grow to be an issue within the case of civil unrest, and governments desirous to get rid of adverse protection because of such. Say, for instance, a person is sharing footage of protests in Hong Kong, and the Chinese language Authorities calls on Twitter to close the stream down because of this rule.

It’s not precisely what the replace is meant for, however it might be used on this method.

What’s most attention-grabbing right here is the truth that Musk has drawn the road at private security. In Musk’s view, reside location info shouldn’t be shared, as a result of it may result in actual world hurt. Which most would agree with, and with that being the parameter, it’ll be attention-grabbing to see if future coverage choices on the app are made with this in thoughts.

That, at core, is the important thing logic that Twitter’s moderation staff has all the time labored from – ‘what are the chances of this tweet causing actual harm in the real world?’

Musk and Co. need to demonize Twitter’s past decisions, and body them as politically biased, however it’s attention-grabbing to see that Musk is now coming round to seeing that base logic.

Perhaps that can colour his future modifications. Most likely not.

5. Banning Hyperlinks to Different Social Apps

Twitter additionally banned links to selected competing social platforms for a couple of hours on Sunday, earlier than reversing course fairly rapidly because of large backlash.

This was dumb coverage, which Twitter seemingly acknowledged by eradicating all references to it fairly quick. Primarily, Twitter sought to ban all hyperlinks to Fb, Instagram, Mastodon, Fact Social, Tribel, Nostr and Publish.

Why these apps? Why not YouTube, or TikTok?

I am guessing its as a result of Elon noticed customers tweeting hyperlinks to those various platforms the place customers may observe them, as they seemed to leap ship from Twitter. Mastodon is the obvious wrongdoer right here, however I am additionally guessing that Elon has been in touch with Meta, and that that assembly didn’t go properly, therefore the inclusion of IG and Fb.

Nostr is a favorite of former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey, and Publish is just about a carbon copy of Twitter.

Why not YouTube? Effectively, YouTube’s mother or father firm, Google, may return fireplace by refusing to index tweets in Google Search, which might be an enormous downside for Musk and Co.

Why not TikTok? Elon’s different firm, Tesla, is pretty reliant on the Chinese market.

Like Elon’s different modifications, this one appeared fairly shaded by private bias. And on condition that it was doubtless in violation of EU rules, and will have led to antitrust and different penalties, it is smart for Twitter to maneuver on and faux that it by no means occurred.

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And regardless of all of the noise, that’s really it. Twitter hasn’t really applied many modifications in any respect – which is smart if you additionally think about the workers cuts, and the impression these have had on the platform’s capability to function.

Twitter has hinted at ad-reduced and ad-free subscription tiers, it’s exploring longer tweets and longer video uploads. It’s accelerating the roll out Community Notes, as a method to offer extra, user-sourced perspective on divisive tweets, whereas it additionally works on new ad placement controls, whereas Musk has additionally hinted at bringing back Vine.  

However for all of the noise, for all of the media protection, for all of the dialogue that Musk has generated in his time as ‘Chief Twit’, he hasn’t really modified something a lot. Like, in any respect.

Which as soon as once more underlines Elon’s true ability and power – he’s very, excellent at producing media consideration, and primarily proudly owning the media cycle, by way of simply his tweets.

Tesla has by no means had an promoting division for that reason, as a result of they don’t want one, with Elon all the time in a position to exit, say one thing outlandish, and produce the media to him, like pigeons scrambling for scraps.

Which may be Elon’s most useful trait, and for a social platform, which depends on getting individuals to come back and listen to the newest, that, a minimum of in principle, might be very precious.

The problem for Elon then is that he must hold developing with controversial issues to say, so as to hold triggering mass protection, bringing extra individuals to the app.

Which may be working so far, however as Elon continues to stoke political division, and skirt the sides of social platform rules, it does look like, finally, it is going to come to a head.

Which can be why now is an effective time for Elon to step away, if he does so, although regardless of him stepping again, that also doesn’t suggest he will not be in command of the app. 

Elon taking a backseat is smart, if he does it. And his previous historical past doesn’t counsel that he is overly nice at taking a extra passive function at his corporations.