Articles about Elon Musk Twitter

In typically swift and spontaneous fashion, Elon Musk has effectively killed off Twitter after promising over the weekend to ditch the bird logo. The new X logo is in the process of rolling out, and X Corp CEO Linda Yaccarino says that "X will be the platform that can deliver, well….everything".

At the moment it is not clear whether the name X will be used to completely replace the Twitter moniker, but this is certainly what has been suggested. The logo that has been chosen is the same one that Musk hinted at on Sunday, and he tweeted a photo of the company headquarters with a large X projected onto the side.

Continue reading →

Since Elon Musk's arrival at Twitter, it has been difficult to keep track of the fast-paced changes. The latest signals from the billionaire owner indicate that even more dramatic changes are afoot -- including ditching the Twitter brand and all bird-related imagery.

In a series of tweets, Musk said "soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds". Indicating that the change could happen very quickly indeed, he added: "If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow".

Continue reading →

In the past six months, Twitter has experienced considerable upheaval since Elon Musk assumed control. Thousands of employees have been let go, account authentication has been drastically altered, and idle accounts now face deactivation.

Yesterday, Musk revealed that he had found a new leader for the company, but didn't name his hire, disclosing only that it was a woman.

Continue reading →

Having tried various tactics to get Twitter users to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription, Elon Musk is now trying something new -- confiscation.

Having tried bribing users with Blue-exclusive features, and threatening non-subscribers with stripping them of verified status, the latest announcement sees Musk promising to take features away from anyone who doesn't pay up. Specifically, he warns that non-verified users will not be eligible to appear in the suggestions on the For You Tab, and they also will not be able to vote in polls on Twitter.

Continue reading →

With the chaos that has followed the arrival of Elon Musk at Twitter, it's often difficult to know which announcements to accept at face value, and which to take with a pinch of salt.

The latest announcement concerns the blue ticks used to signify verified accounts. The social platform has announced that "legacy" checkmarks (that is, those that have not been paid for) will be removed starting on April 1 -- April Fool's Day.

Continue reading →

When Twitter announced that it was ending free access to its API, it said nothing about what the new pricing structure would look like. But now the company has finally revealed the price tags for different tiers of access -- and it is worse than anyone predicted.

In all, there are now three tiers to choose from, each allowing for different numbers of tweets and giving varying levels of access. The cheapest, the Small Package tier, costs a staggering $42,000 per month (or just over $0.5 million per year), while the Large Package costs an eye-watering $210,000 per month (or a shade over $2.5 million per year).

Continue reading →

There is a great deal to be said in favor of making software, apps and code available on an open source basis. And this is particularly true of the algorithms that influence so many aspects of life, and control what is seen online.

Now Elon Musk has suggested that Twitter's own algorithm could be made open source -- perhaps as soon as next week.

Continue reading →

The turbulent seas of Twitter show no signs of calming since the tempestuous Elon Musk took over. Having caused confusion and irritation by blocking third-party clients, Twitter then announced that free access to its API will end this week, with the effect of killing off large numbers of bots, services and tools -- including Mastodon migraters' favorite Movetodon.

Ending free access to the Twitter API has, understandably, not gone down well, with developers being highly and vocally critical of the move. Now, having listened to feedback, Musk says that "Twitter will enable a light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free".

Continue reading →

Having already banned all third-party clients, Twitter has now announced that it is completely dropping free access to its APIs. In an announcement made via the Twitter Dev account, the company says: "Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead".

The move will effectively kill off unknown -- but large -- numbers of apps and tools that depend on the Twitter API. While getting rid of free API access is unlikely to impact larger apps such as Hootsuite, those produced by smaller, independent developers are unlikely to be able to shoulder the costs.

Continue reading →

Twitter is looking to make sharing content easier and wider-reaching by cross-pollinating with other social platforms. The micro-blogging site -- which may or may not end up being bought by Elon Musk -- is adding an option for sharing tweets via WhatsApp.

For now, the new sharing option is limited to certain markets, but it is hard to imagine that it will not spread globally in the near future. The question is, will it be welcomed by users or not?

Continue reading →

When the richest person on Earth offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the eyes of the world pivoted to Elon Musk to watch the drama unfold. And the drama did not disappoint, played out over several month.

There has been speculation for some time that Musk's plans to buy Twitter would fall through, and those who predicted this may just have been proved right. Musk's lawyers have written to the social media company to say that the deal is now off, citing Twitter'ss failure to provide information that had been requested. Twitter has responded saying that it intends to sue Musk and force him to complete the merger.

Continue reading →