If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It: Elon Musk Changing Twitter for the Worse

Toward the end of October 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter. With this purchase, Musk had big goals for the platform, including decreasing its dependence on advertising, quintupling its revenue by 2028, and creating a better experience for its users. Musk was inspired to make the purchase after wanting to create a platform built on the principle of free speech, feeling that Twitter did not do enough in this regard. The acquisition would also further his goal of creating “X,” an “everything” app. Musk has shared that “X” will have similar functions to WeChat, an app that has messaging, video calls, photo sharing, video games, ride services, food delivery, banking, and shopping. In early April, Musk filed Twitter under X Corp. and tweeted “X” this past Tuesday. He marked his purchase of Twitter by tweeting, “the bird is freed.” 

Over his reign as CEO, Musk has made changes in order to create more transparency on the app and allegedly give power back to the users. These changes have had varied responses among users and, personally, I am not a fan. As an avid Twitter user, I’ll be ranking and sharing my opinions on the new Twitter. So, let's dive into some of the major changes Musk has made thus far:

Twitter Blue

Rating: 4/10

Twitter Blue is a subscription service that grants its subscribers a blue verification checkmark. This service also gives users the ability to edit their tweets 30 minutes after posting, extends their word limit from 280 to 4,000, and reduces the amount of ads users see by 50%. Before Twitter Blue was released, verification marks were reserved for official brand accounts, celebrities, and politicians. The blue check confirmed that the tweet was coming from the actual figure or brand the account represented. The launch of Twitter Blue, however, did not accomplish the verification it claimed to. Many users created parody accounts through Twitter Blue, acting as brands or celebrities such as Eli Lilly, O.J. Simpson, and President George Bush. The parody account for Eli Lilly (a pharmaceutical company), tweeted that insulin would be free, causing the brand to clarify any confusion and lowering the company’s stock. Aside from Twitter Blue acting as a cash grab for Musk, its purpose remains unclear, as there doesn’t seem to be a reason why an average person would need a verification mark for their account. The extra features given to Twitter Blue subscribers are not necessities for the average user. There are not an overwhelming amount of ads on the platform, and all of the ads are easy to scroll past. Instead of paying for a larger character count, users are able to create threads for free. The Twitter Blue verification seems to be more of a symbol that a user is part of the Elon Musk fan club.

Reinstating Previously Banned/Suspended Accounts

Rating: 2/10

Since taking over, Musk has reinstated multiple – mostly conservative – accounts that were banned under the rule of past CEOs. Some of these accounts include Donald Trump, Andrew Tate, Kanye West, Kathy Griffin, and Jordan Peterson. These decisions were largely controversial due to the reason the accounts were banned in the first place. Trump was banned for inciting violence, and West was banned for his antisemitic comments. Accounts such as these had clear reasoning for being taken off the platform. While I understand there is a tricky line between censorship and content moderation, accounts sharing these types of messages should not be amplified by the platform’s CEO. By reinstating these users, Musk has sent the message that he approves of the messages these accounts spread and is not bothered by their consequences.

View & Bookmark Count

Rating: 5/10

In a struggling attempt at transparency, Twitter now displays the view and bookmark count of every tweet. View counts were previously available to the poster within the tweet’s metrics. Now, they are available to everyone. While I don’t care how many views someone else’s tweet has gotten, it can be pretty embarrassing to realize that a tweet has received millions of views but only a few thousand likes. Twitter took it a step further and added bookmark counts to each tweet as well, showing users how many times a tweet has been saved into someone’s bookmarks. These metrics have become eyesores on the app, cluttering users’ screens. Tweets used to display retweets, quotes, and likes very pleasantly in one row. Now, tweets display retweets, quotes, likes, views, and bookmarks across three rows underneath the post. These added metrics could have just been made available to the original poster, especially since they could already see their view counts.

Feed Curation – For You vs Following Pages

Rating: 1/10

Twitter has paid homage to TikTok through its introduction of For You vs Following pages. Like TikTok, the For You page is meant to provide tweets based on past activity. The home page on Twitter used to work in a similar manner, showing tweets based on the content you’ve liked and interacted with as well as showing tweets based on the actions of people you follow. In the past, though, Twitter would explain why a certain tweet was on your timeline by saying “because you liked ___” or “[user you follow] liked this.” While the For You page shows (roughly) the same kinds of tweets, there is no longer any indication about why certain posts are shown to you. It feels like a collection of tweets that I might like mixed with tweets that are seemingly there for no reason. This makes the For You page feel unorganized and like it isn’t actually made for me. 

Throughout the change in CEOs and the modifications Musk has made to the app, my Twitter experience has personally changed for the worse. Before Musk’s reign, I had no issues or irritations with the platform, but his alterations have made the app less fun to use. In the spirit of change, Musk should focus more on the algorithm – it has the potential to be as personalized as TikTok but currently falls short. Despite his ambitious goals for the platform, Musk seems less focused on the enjoyability of the app and more focused on small, petty changes to appeal to the hard-core Musk fanatics.