The entire story of Twitter / X under Elon Musk

Alan Rosa, former head of security for Twitter, filed a lawsuit against X, Elon Musk, and company adviser Steve Davis, alleging that he was wrongly fired for protesting Musk-led cost-cutting measures. Lawyers for Rosa wrote in the complaint that the cuts hampered Twitter’s ability to comply with the regulatory demands of the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission.

The lawsuit alleged that Musk hired Steve Davis as an adviser and gave him broad authority, with which he immediately “began cutting Twitter’s products and services that supported and complied with the Twitter FTC Consent Decree.” Twitter had settled with the FTC over its inappropriate use of users’ personal information only a few months before, prompting the decree. Rosa’s suit complains that Davis and Musk were both “dismissive” of the decree.

Elon Musk took the stage at the DealBook conference on Wednesday evening with nervous laughter and a cascade of jokes about himself and his companies. But the interview quickly turned to the more serious subject of Musk’s recent antisemitic posts on X (formerly Twitter) and whether his company can survive the advertiser boycott. On that matter, Musk seemed alternatingly apologetic and defiant — acknowledging his mistakes, then doing everything in his power to push advertisers away.

“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise,” Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.” He singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who discussed not wanting Disney to be affiliated with Musk while onstage earlier in the day. “Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience.”

Flipboard is the latest company to end its presence on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. In a Medium post published Tuesday, the company said it would no longer be “actively monitoring or posting updates on X,” save for the occasional retweet. Instead, Flipboard will be refocusing its efforts on Mastodon and other open social platforms.

The reasons for Flipboard’s departure from X appear to be two-fold: X’s more lax moderation policies under Elon Musk’s leadership, which has led to a sharp spike in hate speech and misinformation; and Flipboard’s goal of working with federated social media services. Over the past several months, Flipboard has joined a growing list of companies, including Mozilla, Tumblr, and Medium, that are using the ActivityPub protocol to integrate with federated platforms.

X, formerly Twitter, has followed through with owner Elon Musk’s threat to sue the left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters. Media Matters reported last week that X “has been placing ads for major brands” like Apple and IBM “next to content that touts Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.” Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have dubbed the report unrepresentative of X’s general user experience. Several companies nonetheless pulled ads after that report and Musk’s direct endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory — and Musk’s lawsuit claims Media Matters is legally liable for X’s loss.

Nearly simultaneously, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into Media Matters for “potential fraudulent activity.” Musk posted the news on his X account, stating that “fraud has both civil and criminal penalties.” Musk had previously responded to a tweet by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller that suggested conservative attorneys general (like Paxton) look into fraud charges.

Last week, Elon Musk appeared to endorse antisemitic conspiracy theories and posted about supporting white pride on his social platform X, formerly Twitter. Musk’s tweets were then highlighted by a Media Matters article that found advertising from major companies had shown up next to pro-Nazi content. Major advertisers then halted their ad spends on the platform. To address the controversy, CEO Linda Yaccarino sent a memo titled “Our Work Is Meaningful,” reiterating her commitment to X.

As pressure mounts for the company to distance itself from supporting antisemitism, Forbes reported that advertisers are urging Yaccarino to resign as well. A former NBCUniversal chairperson with close ties to the ad industry, Yaccarino had been brought into Musk’s company to restore relationships with the companies that make up the majority of X’s revenue. Advertisers were already concerned their paid content would show up next to antisemitic or otherwise bigoted posts, but they’re especially worried now, when the platform’s owner seems to be actively stoking conspiracies about the Jewish community.

Apple has reportedly followed IBM by pulling advertising from X, formerly Twitter, after the platform’s owner Elon Musk made posts agreeing with antisemitic conspiracy theories and supporting white pride.

Citing unnamed sources, Axios reports that Apple is pausing all advertising on X. Later on Friday, the New York Times reported that Disney would pause advertising on X, while CNBC noted the same for Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount and Comcast / NBCUniversal have paused their ads as well, Axios says in a separate report.

IBM has pulled its advertising presence from X, formerly Twitter, as Elon Musk continues to endorse far-right talking points — agreeing with posts this week that promoted antisemitism and pushed support for white pride. The nonprofit Media Matters drew attention to those statements and noted that IBM, Apple, Comcast, and other companies all had ads placed next to pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler content (not posted by Musk) on X. IBM told the Financial Times and confirmed to The Verge that “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”

On the platform today, Musk called it “super messed up” that white people are not, in the words of one far-right poster’s tweet, “allowed to be proud of their race.” The white pride support came a day after Musk agreed with an antisemitic post claiming that Jewish communities have stoked “hatred against whites.” Musk told another user that “You have said the actual truth” after the person wrote that they are “deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations” facing “hordes of minorities that support flooding their country.” The Atlantic wrote that Musk’s tweets echoed the “deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history” by pushing the idea that there is a “unified Jewish agenda.”

Sony is terminating its X (formerly Twitter) integrations for PS5 and PS4, meaning you soon won’t be able to post screenshots and clips to X from those consoles.

“As of November 13, 2023, integration with X (formerly known as Twitter) will no longer function on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles,” Sony said in a support message on its website. “This includes the ability to view any content published on X on PS5/PS4, and the ability to post and view content, trophies, and other gameplay-related activities on X directly from PS5/PS4 (or link an X account to do so).” Wario64 posted a screenshot of a similar message on Threads that appears to have popped up on a PS5 console.

Yesterday, employees at X received a crash course in private equity from the folks at Morgan Stanley, whose Shareworks platform is being used to manage the restricted stock units that Elon Musk has finally begun doling out.

The issuance of new equity, complete with an official stockholder agreement and disclosure statement, marks the beginning of a new chapter in the saga of Twitter’s haywire transformation into X. The old Twitter, a publicly traded company incorporated in Delaware with an independent board of directors, has been dead for a year. In its place now is X Holdings, a private, Nevada-based corporation with one controlling shareholder and a PO box in Austin, Texas.

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter a year ago, he has blown it up to create something else entirely.

What is now called X is in the process of becoming “a single application that encompasses everything,” he recently told employees. Being the “digital town square,” as he has described Twitter in the past, isn’t enough. For X to succeed in Musk’s eyes, the platform needs to compete with YouTube, LinkedIn, FaceTime, dating apps, and the entire banking industry.

Everyone knew that Twitter wasn’t worth $44 billion when Elon Musk bought it a year ago. Now, we know what Musk himself thinks it’s worth today: $19 billion.

On Monday, employees at X were awarded equity in the company at a valuation of $19 billion, or $45 per share, according to internal documents seen by The Verge. That price is a 55 percent discount to Musk’s original purchase price, per the documents, which note that “the fair market value per share is determined by the Board of Directors based on a number of factors in a manner that complies with applicable tax rules.” (Musk is X’s chair and has yet to create a formal board.)

X, the platform previously known as Twitter, has introduced a new $16 per month Premium Plus plan that lets subscribers pay more to get the biggest boost for their replies. Not only does the plan offer the “largest reply boost,” but it also removes ads from your For You and Following feeds, according to a page detailing the features of the subscription.

Premium Plus builds on the perks that come with X’s standard Premium plan (formerly Twitter Blue), which includes a blue checkmark, the ability to edit tweets, longer posts, longer video uploads, encrypted direct messages, and more.

Elon Musk has now owned the company formerly known as Twitter for an entire year. It’s been a disaster.

Before Musk, Twitter had its problems. It took forever to launch new features and had to try really hard to stop people from tweeting bad things. But for most of 2022, it was generally functional. Even as the company dealt with the chaos of Musk’s will-he-won’t-he approach to the acquisition, Twitter soldiered on with long-awaited updates like the edit button for Twitter Blue subscribers, new features for its Spaces audio rooms, and smaller improvements like new designs for icons. The company was working, even if it was moving slowly.

Elon Musk wants X to be the center of your financial world, handling anything in your life that deals with money. He expects those features to launch by the end of 2024, he told X employees during an all-hands call on Thursday, saying that people will be surprised with “just how powerful it is.”

“When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life,” Musk said, according to audio of the meeting obtained by The Verge. “If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”

Heading into the first joint all-hands meeting with Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino at X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, employees were asked to submit questions ahead of time. 

Since Musk walked into the building literally carrying a kitchen sink exactly one year ago, companywide communication from him has been nearly nonexistent at X, save for his random, terse emails asking for things to be fixed in the middle of the night. The all-hands Thursday was the first time that both Musk and Yaccarino had addressed employees together. They didn’t answer any of their questions.