Here’s How Elon Musk Has Changed Twitter in the Past 3 Months

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter ended up being one of the biggest tech stories of 2022 because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up changing the platform we all know and love. Ever since the deal was finalized around three months ago, Twitter has stayed in the headlines. Listed below are some of the ways in which Musk has changed the social media platform after taking control:

1. Fewer viewing options

Going to Twitter’s website or smartphone application is not the only way in which users can view the social media platform. Many choose to use it through social media managers as well as other alternative viewing mechanisms. In spite of the fact that this is the case, it seems like this way of using Twitter is no more, with many reporting that their third party platforms are no longer working.

This is due to Twitter suspending its API which many platforms used to interface with the social media site. It seems like Twitter has done this intentionally, and the main factor that led them to doing so may have been ad revenue. If you use Twitter through some kind of a third party, you would end up seeing far fewer ads than might have been the case otherwise.

Hence, Twitter has likely done this to ensure that the majority of its users end up interacting with its ads.

2. Content curation

Another major change that users have noticed has to do with the manner in which their content ends up getting curated. While users can still elect to receive tweets in chronological order, if they instead prefer to go for Twitter’s curated feed, they might receive a rather uneven experience with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Going for the curated feed will result in a lot of recommendations, and some users are complaining that this is creating a lot of confusion. They aren’t seeing all that many tweets from people that they have chosen to follow, and are instead being recommended tweets that Twitter thinks are relevant based on the preferences it has detected.

Whether or not this is a positive change remains to be seen, but users don’t seem to be all that satisfied with it right now.

3. Banned accounts coming back

This is perhaps the most obvious change that has come to Twitter ever since Elon Musk put himself in charge. A lot of controversial accounts that were banned for violating Twitter’s community rules have been reinstated, including that of Donald Trump and Andrew Tate.

This is a rather controversial decision with all things having been considered and taken into account, since Twitter had a good reason for banning these individuals. Trump was banned for inciting the January 6th riot, and Andrew Tate has now been arrested for sex trafficking among other offences.

4. Twitter’s premium tier

One of the first things that Elon Musk said he was going to change was Twitter Blue, the social media platform’s premium tier. Musk changed the fee to $8 and told users that they would receive the famed blue tick in the bargain, along with a bunch of other features such as an edit button, lower ad density as well as a boost in the algorithm.

5. New ticks

Subscribers to Twitter Blue were able to get themselves a blue tick, but that caused a lot of problems with impersonation and scamming. Users have seen a smattering of ticks of different colors on the platform, including gold and silver ticks for organizations and politicians. This might not be enough to differentiate genuinely notable people from impersonators, but it is an ongoing project so it will take some time before we can come to any conclusions.

Read next: Musk’s Takeover Of Twitter Has Caused A Massive Rise In Hate Speech Across The App’s Largest Markets
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World