Elon Musk’s X, Welcome to the social network known as Twitter. Where the check marks don’t matter. Or do they?
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said his bid to buy Twitter in April 2022, keenly driven to rid the platform of spam bots and protect free speech. Musk ultimately paid $44 billion for the website in October 2022.
Since Musk bought Twitter and took the company private, there has been news around the micro-blogging platform, including but not limited to the complete rebrand to X, a new CEO in Linda Yaccarino, a major advertising exodus, the implementation of Musk’s Grok chatbot, the expansion of premium subscriptions and features, staggering layoffs and much more.
A lot has happened with X since Musk’s takeover of the social network, so we’ve put together an exhaustive timeline of all the new features, platform changes and controversies.
Elon Musk’s X in June
X tweaks rules to formally allow adult content
Certainly X is officially allowing users to post adult and graphic content on the platform — with a few cautions. Users can now post consensually produced NSFW content as long as it is prominently labeled as such. The new rules also cover AI-generated videos and images.
Although we have launched Adult Content and Violent Content policies to bring more clarity of our Rules and transparency into enforcement of these areas. These policies replace our former Sensitive Media and Violent Speech policies – but what we enforce against hasn’t changed.
Adult…
— Safety (@Safety) June 3, 2024
Elon Musk’s X in May
X plans to hide public ‘likes’ for all users
X is preparing to make “likes” private on the social network. According to posts by company employees, the decision to hide likes is meant to incentivize engagement, by allowing people to favorite content that seems “edgy” and to protect their public image.
some clarifications on the private likes change:
– will be able to see who liked your posts
– can see the like count for all posts / replies / etc
– cannot see the people who liked someone else’s post
– can’ t see others “Liked” tab on their profile’
— Enrique (@enriquebrgn) May 22, 2024
Elon Musk’s X launches Stories, delivering news summarized by Grok AI
Particularly X is using Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok to power a new Stories feature. The feature, available for X’s Premium subscribers, summarizes personalized trending stories featured on the For You tab in Explore and curated by Grok.
Elon Musk’s X in April
Elon Musk’s X plans to launch a TV app for videos ‘soon’
Now X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced that a dedicated TV app for videos uploaded to the social network would be launched “soon.” Certainly the app would include “real-time, engaging content to your smart TVs” and looks similar to YouTube’s interface in the teaser video below.
From the small screen to the big screen X is changing everything. Soon we’ll bring real-time, engaging content to your smart TVs with the X TV App. This will be your go-to companion for a high-quality, immersive entertainment experience on a larger screen. We’re still building it… pic.twitter.com/QhG6cVDpZ8
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) April 23, 2024
Musk plans to charge new X users to enable posting
In an effort to curb X’s bot problem, Elon Musk is planning to charge new X users a small fee to enable posting on the social network. Musk said in an X post that charging a small fee to new accounts was the “only way” to stop the “onslaught of bots.”
Unfortunately small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.
Current AI (and troll farms) can pass “are you a bot” with ease.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2024
X is removing the ability to hide checkmarks for premium users
You’ll have to wear your blue checkmark with pride from now on. In 2023, X rolled out a feature for paid users to hide their blue checkmarks from other users, but the company warned users that the feature would soon go away.
BREAKING: #X seems to be removing the ability to hide the verification checkmark! pic.twitter.com/1Kn2OU4puj
— Nima Owji (@nima_owji) April 11, 2024
X adds support for passkeys globally on iOS
X is rolling out support for passkeys to all iOS users globally. Passkeys are a new and more secure login method compared with traditional passwords. The option debuted in January, but only for iOS users in the U.S.
Update: Passkeys is now available as a login option for everyone globally on iOS! Try it out.https://t.co/v1LyN0l8wF
— Safety (@Safety) April 8, 2024
X gives verified checks back to influential users for free
X is giving free blue checks to users who have more than 2,500 “verified” followers, which are people who subscribe to X Premium. The move essentially reinvents the original purpose of the blue check, which was to prove notoriety or identification.
Elon Musk’s X in March 2024
Elon Musk says certain free users will get access to X Premium features
In a post on X, Musk said that accounts with more than 2,500 “verified subscriber followers” will get access to Premium features for free. Accounts with more than 5,000 of those followers will get access to features from the Premium+ tier for free.
Going forward, all 𝕏 accounts with over 2500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free and accounts with over 5000 will get Premium+ for free
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2024
X is apparently testing NSFW adult communities
According to app researchers, X is working on an addition to its Communities feature that would let users create groups for adult content. As one of the few social networks that allows NSFW content, the new feature could give creators a more direct way to reach their audience.
This is how it’ll look like on the community page! pic.twitter.com/Sou18ze7Va
— Nima Owji (@nima_owji) February 28, 2024
Elon Musk says all X Premium subscribers will gain access to Grok chatbot
In a post on X, Musk announced that Grok will become available to all Premium subscribers. Previously, the AI chatbot was only available to subscribers of the higher-end tier Premium+ tier.
Later this week, Grok will be enabled for all premium subscribers (not just premium+) https://t.co/4u9lbLwe23
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2024
X usage has fallen by nearly a fifth since Elon Musk’s takeover, according to a new report
According to a recent report from Sensor Tower, X usage in the U.S. was down 18% year-over-year as of February 2024, and down 23% since Musk’s acquisition. The report claims that the U.S. daily active user base has flatlined or declined every month since Musk’s takeover.
Don Lemon says Elon Musk has canceled his deal for a show on X
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon announced that Elon Musk has canceled the deal for his upcoming talk show on X. In a statement, Lemon says the partnership was terminated hours after he interviewed Musk for the first episode of the show. In response, Musk said the show’s “approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media.”
News from me…#TheDonLemonShow pic.twitter.com/PzlKuvkZtj
— Don Lemon (@donlemon) March 13, 2024
X to launch a video streaming app on Samsung and Amazon TVs
Continuing on his promise to make X the “everything app,” Elon Musk is planning to launch a YouTube-like streaming app for Samsung and Amazon smart TVs. Musk said the dedicated app will allow users to watch videos from X on larger screens, like the Samsung TV and Amazon’s Fire TV.
Coming soon https://t.co/JlnlSL7eS9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2024
X now allows Premium+ users and organizations to publish articles
X Premium+ subscribers and verified organizations can now publish longer posts on the platform. The Articles feature lets users publish posts with text formatting, other X posts and embedded videos and images — similar to a blog post or a Medium article. The change comes after X increased the limit for long posts to 25,000 characters for paying users.
— Write (@Write) March 7, 2024
X turns on voice call feature that could impact your privacy
Elon Musk launched audio and video calling on X in another bid to make it the “everything” app. It leaks your IP address to anyone you talk with, and can be incredibly confusing to figure out how to limit who can call you. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to turn it off.
audio and video calling are now available to everyone on X! who are you calling first? pic.twitter.com/DYvB7ZRrbY
— News (@XNews) February 28, 2024
Former Twitter executives sue Elon Musk, alleging owed severance payments
Four former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, sued Elon Musk, alleging that they’re owed over $128 million in severance payments. The lawsuit quotes Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk, which quotes the X CEO as saying he would “hunt every single one” of Twitter’s C-suite “till the day they die.”
Elon Musk’s X in February 2024
X goes to court in Elon Musk’s war against the Center for Countering Digital Hate
X Corp is in court against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) after accusing the extremism research organization of “actively working to assert false and misleading claims about X” in a lawsuit last year. The nonprofit, formed in 2018, conducts research on social media platforms to track hate speech, extremism and misinformation. A judge has hinted that the suit may be dismissed.
X says it’s withholding accounts and tweets in India to obey orders
X said it is withholding specific accounts and posts in India in response to executive orders issued by the Indian government. The company said it disagrees with the action, but noncompliance would have subjected the firm to “potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment.
X will soon let advertisers run ads next to a ‘curated list’ of creators
Advertisers will soon be able to run ads next to select content creators on X. The move will allow advertisers to ensure that their ads don’t run next to controversial or offensive content, following an exodus of numerous brands from X last year after their ads appeared next to pro-Nazi content.
Sports betting is coming to X with BetMGM partnership
X has forged a deal with BetMGM, making it X’s exclusive Live Odds Sports Betting partner and will introduce access to the betting service on X. Initially, X users in the U.S. will be able to explore the betting odds on pro football, with more professional and college sports to roll out over time.
Sports never sleep on @X. And now with @BetMGM, we’ll bring fans on X even closer to the action to cheer and now bet on their favorite teams!! Let’s do this! pic.twitter.com/MFrzhKLE78
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) February 9, 2024
Elon Musk’s X becomes No. 1 app on U.S. App Store following announcement of Tucker Carlson-Putin interview
After Tucker Carlson announced he would be interviewing Russian president Vladimir Putin on X, downloads of the app sent it to the top of the U.S. App Store overnight. Appfigures’ early estimates indicate X gained 117,000 new downloads on Tuesday, up from 93,000 the day before.
𝕏 is now the #1 most downloaded app of any kind! pic.twitter.com/TeqWxcmZfs
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2024
Elon Musk’s X in January 2024
X CEO Linda Yaccarino claims company has 90M US users, less than 1% are teens
During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on kids’ online safety, Linda Yaccarino said that less than 1% of the app’s U.S. users were teens aged 13 through 17. Yaccarino also claimed that there were 90 million X users in the U.S. — a drop from its reported 95.4 million estimated users as of January 2023.
Elon Musk’s X announces plans to hire 100 moderators in Austin
X announced that it would staff a new “Trust and Safety” center in Austin, which will include 100 full-time content moderators. The move comes more than a year after Elon Musk acquired the company, which saw him drastically reducing headcount, including trust and safety teams, moderators, engineers and other staff.
Taylor Swift fans strike back after explicit deepfakes flood X
Nonconsensual deepfake porn of Taylor Swift went viral on X, with one post garnering more than 45 million views before it was removed. In response, Swifties organized a fandom-driven campaign to bury the AI-generated content searched under terms “taylor swift ai” or “taylor swift deepfake.”
Elon Musk’s X removes support for NFT profile pictures
X quietly removed a feature for paid subscribers: the ability to set an NFT as their profile picture. The feature, which allowed Twitter Blue subscribers to set NFTs minted on Ethereum as custom hexagonal profile pictures, was originally launched by previous management in January 2022. Those who had NFT profile pictures still have hexagonal avatars, though it’s unclear if X will remove those as well.
Elon Musk’s X promises peer-to-peer payments, AI advances in 2024
In a blog post, the company claims it will launch peer-to-peer payments this year, to unlock “more user utility and new opportunities for commerce.” X also said that AI would be used to “increasingly power the X user and advertising experience” in search, ads and a forthcoming “See Dissimilar Posts” feature.
Journalists critical of Elon Musk had their X accounts temporarily suspended
X temporarily suspended the accounts of multiple journalists, commentators and podcasters who have been critical of Elon Musk, including The Texas Observer’s Steven Monacelli, The Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein, MintPress News’ Alan MacLeod and The TrueAnon podcast. The impacted accounts were reinstated a few hours later.
X brought back, then removed, then brought back again, headlines to link previews
X started showing headlines at the bottom of link preview cards again using a small font. Multiple users reported that they could see titles on link cards on the web, with some titles being cut off due to character limits. The company seemingly pulled the new format hours later, but it’s now back.
X launches “Verified Organizations” feature for small businesses
X’s “Verified Organizations” program now has a $200 per month tier intended for small businesses. The basic tier comes after X launched the $1,000 per month offering for businesses on the platform.
Fidelity marks down X’s valuation by 71.5%
Mutual fund company Fidelity marked down its investment in X holdings by 71.5% from the original valuation of shares. Fidelity spent $19.2 million to acquire a stake in X back in October 2022 and made a valuation cut of 65% a year later