Elon Musk has commenced chaos on X, aka Twitter, adding more problems to the existing one! He bought the platform through strenuous efforts, taking up huge loans and selling the majority of his stocks from his other ventures. The billionaire completed the historic $44 billion deal in October 2022. However, since then, it has been a bumpy ride for the owner.
The 2022 chaos spilled over into 2023, and matters became worse for Elon Musk. In 2023, Musk rebranded Twitter to X, trying to make it into an all-rounder app. While making amends to many policy decisions, Musk did not fail to create controversies on the platform by being the flagbearer of free speech. Due to his erratic tweeting, X is in financially trying territory, as advertisers have flown away from it. From perpetuating hate speech to shooing away advertisers, here are some of the top controversial moments of X’s owner.
10) Elon Musk Announces That X Will Charge $1 Per Year To Post On The Platform
When Elon Musk bought X, aka Twitter, the activists lobbied against him and asked the advertisers to stop the advertisements on the platform. This plummeted the revenue of X. To compensate for it, he started a monthly subscription plan for $8.
Correct, read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users.
This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2023
After reintroducing it due to the chaos that ensued, in 2023, he announced that X would start charging $1 per year to all the users to post on the platform. While surfing on the platform will be free, he will charge people to write on it.
9) Ron DeSantis’ Campaign Chaos
From 2022 to 2023, Elon Musk has changed his loyalties at lightning speed. Initially, he heavily criticized Joe Biden for inflating and taxing the rich. Later, he admitted that he voted for Democrats. In 2023, during an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk announced that he would be interviewing Republican candidate Ron DeSantis.
Along with Elon Musk, David Sacks, a DeSantis supporter, moderated the session on X. However, due to a lack of employees after mass layoffs, the session had several glitches, and we saw more errors than the campaign launch of Ron DeSantis.
8) Elon Musk And Mark Zuckerberg Cage Fight
In June 2023, rumors were swirling that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta would introduce Threads, an app similar to Twitter. This gave rise to Elon Musk challenging Zuckerberg for a cage fight. Mark is an experienced jiu-jitsu champion.
More than Mark, Musk was more excited for the smackdown. He even started to search for venues, suggesting the Colosseum be the venue for the fight.
However, Mark Zuckerberg finally broke his silence on the fight, saying that Musk was not serious about the fight. Mark said that the billionaire gave him several reasons to postpone the fight. So, he asked Musk to reach out to him when he was ready.
7) Elon Musk Rebranded Twitter As X
Since Elon Musk has been endorsing the purchase of Twitter, the Tesla owner has been wanting to create an everything app. He wanted all the users to have a holistic experience of ordering cabs, food, and movie tickets, along with keeping a tab on their stocks in one place. Elon wanted to replicate the model of the Chinese app WeChat.
And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
In July 2023, Elon Musk finally converted Twitter into X. He started to change the logo from the bird to an X at the San Francisco headquarters. He wrote, “Soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand, and gradually, all the birds.” Since then, Twitter has become X.
6) Musk Stripped Headlines From News On X
In October 2023, Elon Musk decided to remove the headlines from the news to make X look more aesthetically pleasing. X started to remove the headlines from the news articles on October 4, 2023. There was only an image and text on the left of it that were displayed on the platform.
In an upcoming release, 𝕏 will overlay title in the upper potion of the image of a URL card
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2023
However, in November 2023, Elon Musk brought back the headlines in the news articles on X. He wrote that “an upcoming release, will overlay the title in the upper portion of the image of a URL card.”
5) The Billionaire Reinstated Accounts Of Kanye West And Donald Trump
Elon Musk has always been the flagbearer of free speech. He said that everyone, even the Taliban, has a right to free speech and to exist like other users on X. In 2021, Donald Trump’s account was suspended for inciting the January 6 violence at Capitol Hill. Likewise, Kanye West‘s and Alex Jones’ accounts were suspended for spreading anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories, respectively.
However, Elon Musk has reinstated the accounts of Kanye West, Donald Trump, and Alex Jones to uphold their rights to free speech. While Donald Trump has not returned to X and uses his Truth Social platform, Musk hosted Alex Jones and Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on X.
In Case You Missed: Hunter Biden Calls Elon Musk The ‘World’s Dumbest Smart Person’, Gets Schooled By The X Owner
4) Elon Musk Asked Advertisers To F**k Themselves
Elon Musk has caused more damage to X’s financial standing after he perpetuated anti-Semitism on the platform by engaging in a post that talked about the ‘Great Replacement Theory’ about Jews. Since then, advertisers have fled the platform. Major corporations like Disney, IBM, Apple, and others have pulled out of advertising on X.
Recently, Elon Musk appeared at the DealBook Conference. During the conference, he made an inflammatory comment to push the advertisers further away. Musk said, “I hope they stop. Don’t advertise. 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.”
3) X Has Faced A Major Advertising Revenue Slump
After Elon Musk pushed anti-Semitism and asked advertisers to f**k themselves, he caused a huge loss to the company. X was already facing a huge advertising revenue slump due to Musk’s erratic behavior, but a report by Media Matters for America has caused an advertising revenue loss for X.
The report suggested that Musk’s X places corporations’ advertisements next to pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi content. Due to this, many advertisers have left the platform. Now, according to a report by Bloomberg, X will have a slump in advertising revenue from $4 billion in 2022 to $2.5 billion in 2023. It only generated $600 million in each quarter in 2023, compared to $1 billion in every quarter in 2022.
2) Elon Musk’s X Fueled Riots In Ireland
While purchasing X, Elon Musk promised that there would be a content moderation council that would overlook the content that is posted on the platform to eliminate any content perpetuating misinformation or hateful content. However, after taking charge of X, Elon Musk dissolved the council and replaced it with Community Notes.
Recently, X became the reason for fanning right-wing organized riots in Dublin, Ireland. The riot erupted after right-wing folks spread the news on all platforms that an immigrant had killed several citizens. This caused a loss of public property, leaving many people injured. The Justice Minister of Ireland said that while all the platforms complied to take down the posts, X refused to do so, fueling the violence further.
1) X Will Be Investigated By EU For Spread Of Misinformation And Hate
One of the final blows in 2023, after the advertisers’ exodus, is that the European Union will launch a probe at X to see whether the platform has complied with The Digital Services Act. The preliminary inquiry started in October 2023, and the investigating committee has found enough evidence to launch an investigation. If the committee found that X violated the guidelines, Elon Musk has to pay 6% of its global revenue.
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