Five Significant Changes Elon Musk Has Impacted on Twitter

Twitter seems to have drifted from being a microblog to a commercial social media platform that charges a penny for every tweet. After Parag Agrawal handed over to the current CEO, Elon Musk, the bird app became a monetized platform via the Twitter Blue rejuvenation that intends to give users a new microblogging experience.

The transition Musk impacted on the bird app rolled out accordingly at a quick pace whereby several tweaks on Twitter under the Blue umbrella. The microblogging platform appears to be a frenzy of social media where paid and free users coexist to experience monetized tweaks that spring up biased reactions.

The chief consent of this insight isn’t on Twitter Blue, yet it happens to be the significant feature released in Musk’s tenure as CEO which allows tweeters to do exclusive tasks for a price that used to be free per Parag Agrawal and Jack Dorsey’s administration as CEO. It is worth having second thoughts about why Twitter has to be paid for. However, keep reading to know how much Twitter has transitioned in the name of “users will get the best experience.”

1. Rejuvenating Twitter Blue

It is worth noting that Twitter Blue pre-existed on the bird app, and Musk took it as a channel to make a profit on his emergence as Twitter’s CEO. Due to Musk’s capitalist nature, he transitioned the Twitter Blue system into a multipurpose service where subscribers have to pay to access basic features such as editing tweets, turning on reader mode, and creating bookmark folders.

Twitter Blue does other significant services posing as a system that verifies tweeters, 2FA encryption, and assignment of the checkmark — all these features have been revamped respectively. After the previous Twitter verification system made the trash can, Musk priced Twitter Blue’s monthly rates from $4.99 to $8. On Android or iOS, the subscription starts at $11 per month.

2. Different types of verified badges

Verified badges are common in the social media landscape pictured as a blue checkmark that differentiates real users from bots. Despite the criticized reactions about Musk commercializing Twitter, he relentlessly persuades users to subscribe to Twitter Blue to be tagged with verified badges.

Musk made the Twitter verification system interesting with different types of coloured badges to indicate a user’s profession such as Gold checkmarks and square profile pictures, Blue checkmarks, Grey checkmarks, Affiliation badges, Automated account labels, and the Professional label in the self-selected category.

For context:

Gold checkmark and square profile picture — The gold checkmark indicates that the account is an official business account through Twitter Verified Organizations.

Blue checkmark — Accounts that receive the blue checkmark as part of a Twitter Blue subscription will not undergo review to confirm that they meet the active, notable, and authentic criteria that were used in the previous process.

Grey checkmark — The grey checkmark indicates that an account represents a government/multilateral organization or a government/multilateral official. Other government and multilateral accounts can receive grey checkmarks through Verified Organizations.

Affiliation badges — Affiliation badges indicate that an account is connected to an organization on Twitter. All affiliates of the badged organization will be verified as well per the verified logo of the organization.

Automated labels — Automated labels provide transparency by helping you identify if an account is a bot or not. The contents shared by an automated account are controlled by a bot and not a human.

Professional label — Professional category labels are selected by people on Twitter when they convert to a Professional Account. Twitter does not control the selection of these labels, and users may change their professional category at any time.

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3. ‘Views’ on every Tweet

According to users familiar with Twitter transition in general, which involves the change of ownership and service. Musk’s presence as the owner of the bird app has stirred reactions that depicted tweeters has ditched Twitter for another social media.

However, Musk decided to show the world he became the richest man alive because of his smart IQ — he tweaked Twitter with a feature that counts tweet views. Musk said a tweet records the least one hundred views, which confirmed the tweeters that ditched the bird app are still lurking.

4. Tabs on the Twitter timeline

Twitter replicated this feature from its counterpart social media, TikTok. This feature shows related tweets on tweeters’ timelines based on Likes and Recommended tweets. The tabs on the bird app are “For You” and “Following”.

For You — tab displays tweets based on the tweeters’ likes and the bird app’s recommendation. Following — tab displays tweets from other tweeters connected to a user as the name implies.

5. Massive employee retrenchment at Twitter

Twitter’s popularity growth skyrocketed a short while after Musk acquired the social media he laid off multiple executive employees. He took the seat of the CEO then later redeployed Twitter Blue and revamped other features underneath it.

Still, Musk continued retrenching employees and replaced the empty offices at the bird app company with employees from Tesla. In 2023, the bird app was enlisted among the technology companies to retrench massive employees. the bird app reportedly retrenched more than ten thousand employees since Musk became CEO from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023.

Bonus

After all said and done, the bird app has become a frenzy social media platform that randomly tweaks basic features for cash. A few weeks ago Twitter logo transitioned to the head of the Japanese dog, Shiba Inu which is also the logo of the Musk-endorsed cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.

The Shiba Inu logo has been displayed on Twitter’s loading page, the home page, and every other page. This stirred massive reaction on the internet — others thought the time was right for the cryptocurrency integration with the microblog.

While others thought it was an April Fool joke because the change took effect on the first of April which lasted for more than four days. Nonetheless, the logo change was reversed to the bluebird.