SOCIAL media CEO Elon Musk has spoken out to set the record straight regarding Twitter usage since he acquired the site.
Musk posted on X, formerly Twitter, following a report that claimed the social media site’s usage had dropped significantly since he bought it out.
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In April 2022, negotiations began to hand over the company to Musk, with the final deal going through in late October.
Just about a year after acquiring Twitter, Musk announced that the company would change the notorious media name to “X.”
The Guardian reported on Tuesday that X had dropped in United States-based users by 23% since Musk’s first full month running the company.
They further wrote that international viewership on the site had dropped by 15%.
Comparatively, TikTok fell by approximately 10%, and Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat dropped less than 5%.
That same day, Musk clapped back on X, replying to a post by @DogeDesigner that provided a screenshot of the Guardian’s report.
“Please share this post with your friends who still believe the legacy media,” wrote the original poster.
Legacy media refers to more traditional media types like television, radio, and print.
The second part of the post highlights the latest numbers for X.
“X has over 8 billion daily active user minutes on average so far in 2024, up 10% from last year,” they wrote.
Musk replied to the post and shot back some figures of his own.
“On the other hand, legacy media did actually decline by 20% last year,” he wrote.
Three days prior, Musk had already begun his pushback against “legacy media” wanting users to promote his social media site.
“Please forward links to X posts to your friends,” he posted.
“Some people still believe the legacy media!” he told followers.
‘CENSORING, SHADOWBANS, AND THROTTLING’
Users have been quick to speak against Musk’s implication that X is a platform for real information, claiming that they face censorship and follower manipulation on the app.
“Then please remove the X censoring, shadow banning, and throttling of our accounts who are trying to share ‘what’s actually happening’,” replied one user to Musk’s call to action.
ELON MUSK BUYING TWITTER TIMELINE
IN 2023, Elon Musk began transitioning Twitter’s branding to X
April 2022: Negotiations for Musk to purchase Twitter began.
October 27, 2022: Musk finalized his purchase of X and began his rebranding efforts.
November 1, 2022: Twitter boars is dissolved, making Musk the “sole director” of the site.
July 23, 2023: Musk announces icon rebranding and X users point out the switch. “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he wrote.
July 24, 2023: Musk revealed the reason for the rebranding. “The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video,” he said.
One user detailed their experience with shadow banning, a slang word used to describe when a social media algorithm systematically hides a person’s content from explore pages and their followers.
“I’d love to no longer be shadow-banned on here to get the truth out more. Many have told me they are unable to even find me via search on X some of whom were already my followers,” they shared.
“Would be nice if X didn’t randomly and stealthily unfollow me from accounts I follow. 200 people dropped off this morning and I have no idea who,” added another.
Some completely rejected Musk’s implications against legacy media altogether.
“Or you know, you could link to actual primary sources, instead of what Tony, or Bob, or Trish think happened,” snipped one user.
SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Musk commonly uses his account to weigh in on facts and figures, recently coming to Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s aide.
In mid-March MSNBC host Joe Scarborough posted a short clip of a speech given by Trump on X while adding a critique of the Republican presidential candidate.
“Promised another ‘bloodbath’ if he loses,” Scarborough had written.
Musk came to Trump’s defense, commenting on the post.
“Jan 6 was not a ‘bloodbath’ by any definition,” he wrote.
“And Trump was referring to job losses in the auto industry when he used that word. Your post is extremely misleading,” accused Musk.
He went on to continue his support the next day, posting a snide subtweet on March 17, calling out Scarborough.
“Easy to tell who is an NPC today,” he wrote captioning a meme.
The image showed the notorious graphic used to represent a hoard mindset all speaking into one speech bubble saying “Bloodbath.”
WHY MUSK BOUGHT TWITTER
ELON Musk claimed that his reason for buying the site was purely altruistic.
“There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong,” Musk explained in a statement around the time of his purchase.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.
“There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
“That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy,” he continued.
“I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.”
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