Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter
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https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/7/23907424/x-unlabeled-ads-posts-cant-block-report-chumbox
Advertisements now mixed in with tweets without being labeled as advertisements, and users cannot block or report them.
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X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features including the ability to tweet, reply, quote, repost, like, bookmark, and create lists, according to a source familiar with the matter. This change will go live today for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines.
Roughly 20 minutes after this story published, X’s Support account confirmed the details, writing that “this new test was developed to bolster our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount. It is not a profit driver.”
The company published the “Not-a-Bot Terms and Conditions” today outlining its plan for a paid subscription service that gives users certain abilities on their platform, like posting content and interacting with other users. This program is different from X Premium, which offers more features like “Undo” and “Edit” for posts for $8 a month. Given the company’s tumultuous reputation under Musk, some users have voiced their hesitancy to turn over their credit card info.
X owner Elon Musk has long floated the idea of charging users $1 for the platform. During a livestreamed conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Musk said “It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.”
Shortly after the announcement, Musk tweeted that you can “read for free, but $1/year to write.”
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It does seem like it might be a good idea, and get rid of a lot of the fake accounts, etc.
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@taiwan_girl said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
It does seem like it might be a good idea, and get rid of a lot of the fake accounts, etc.
That's what I thought as well, but...
This only applies to NEW accounts. The old bots are still there.
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Yes but it's a pilot. I assume they'll roll this out. It won't stop ads but it will greatly limit bots. I'd pay without thinking.
I was always supportive of the idea that sending an email would cost 1 penny or whatever. Trivially unnoticeable by actual humans, catastrophic for spammers.
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@jon-nyc said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
Yes but it's a pilot. I assume they'll roll this out. It won't stop ads but it will greatly limit bots. I'd pay without thinking.
I was always supportive of the idea that sending an email would cost 1 penny or whatever. Trivially unnoticeable by actual humans, catastrophic for spammers.
Make it like what the telephone used to cost: free within an organization (free PBX calls) but costs money to send email across organizations.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/technology/elon-musk-twitter-x-advertisers.html
Advertisers flee X/Twitter again, this time because Elon allegedly endorsed an antisemitic x/tweet.
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(I think he really means ‘since the Obama Depression’)
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`https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-x-sued-120-million-worth-of-server-parts-2024-8?op=1
Elon Musk's X is facing yet another possible legal battle, this time over $120 million worth of unpaid IT bills.
Taiwanese tech firm Wiwynn is suing the social media giant formerly known as Twitter for $61 million over claims it refused to pay for around $120 million in server parts after Musk took over in 2022.
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In addition to the Wiwynn lawsuit, Musk is facing lawsuits from several former Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, over $128 million in unpaid severance.
X is also being sued by former Twitter chairman Omid Kordestani over $20 million worth of shares and other ex-Twitter staff over unpaid bonuses, with the growing number of legal fights unlikely to help the company's reportedly sagging revenues.
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@jon-nyc said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
(I think he really means ‘since the Obama Depression’)
Works for me.
"Own the language", the Demonrats said.
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https://futurism.com/mistake-elon-musk-begged-twitter-staff-turn-off-new-feature
In late 2022, long before multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk renamed Twitter to X, rumors swirled that he was getting ready to shake up the platform's verification system.
His proposal: charge each subscriber for the privilege of being verified without ever doing the homework of actually verifying their identity — a short-sighted and ultimately disastrous decision that Musk reportedly regretted almost immediately.
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The 2022 US midterm elections took place on November 8, a day before Musk started charging users for a blue checkmark.
When the switch was made, all hell broke loose, with countless newly verified accounts masquerading as politicians, celebrities, and companies. One account parading as Nintendo shared a viral image of Super Mario giving the finger.
Advertisers, who had gotten wind of the mayhem, started reaching out to Twitter's sales teams, threatening to pull their ads. According to Mac and Conger's sources, Nike executives threatened to never advertise on the platform again.
And Musk was terrified of the prospect of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue.
"Turn it off," he reportedly told an engineer. "Turn it off!"
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Elon Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter:
To his credit, he changed his mind after realizing it was a mistake.
Yes but his best lawyers couldn’t get him out of the contract so he had to buy the company after all.
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https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-x-more-advertisers-pull-back-in-2025
As Elon Musk struggled to rebuild X's ability to generate revenue, the site suffered a mass advertiser exodus late last year, and at least some of those departures were evidently due to pro-nazi content. A few months later, Musk told advertisers "go fuck yourself."
And this was all right before Musk shared that the former Twitter's revenue was already down by 60 percent from before his acquisition.
It looks like 2025 isn't going to be any better for X. A new report from UK market research firm Kantar found that 26 percent of marketers are planning to reduce their ad spend on Musk's platform next year.
According to Kantar's research, this was the "biggest recorded pullback" from any of the major global advertising platforms.
