Elon Musk’s Twitter: A Year On, Comprehensive Overview

Welcome to Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), where the rules are made up and the check marks don’t matter.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced his bid to buy the social platform in April 2022, driven by his fervent desire to rid it of spam bots and safeguard free speech. Now, as we mark the one-year anniversary since his dramatic entrance in October 2022, the platform has undergone significant transformations, including a name change.

“This is just my strong, intuitive sense that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization,” Musk said at a TED conference on the day he made his offer. “I don’t care about the economics at all.”

Even for one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, $44 billion is a substantial sum to invest in acquiring a social platform. Despite his passionate commitment to expanding “the scope and scale of consciousness” through public discourse, Musk hesitated. A month later in May, he attempted to back out of the deal, citing concerns about Twitter’s bot problem. However, after a tumultuous legal process, Musk was compelled to finalize the acquisition. By October, the platform was under his ownership.

Since Musk acquired Twitter and privatized the company, the platform has experienced a whirlwind of changes, including verification chaos, API access disruptions, ban reversals, significant layoffs, and a notable rebranding to X.

Musk also transitioned from his position as Twitter/X CEO to serving as its executive chair and CTO. On May 12, it was announced that Linda Yaccarino would assume the role of X CEO. Yaccarino departed from her position as chairman of Global Advertising & Partnerships at NBCU.

As X embarks on its second year under Musk’s ownership, let’s explore a comprehensive timeline of all the developments since Elon took the helm.