Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 and made several changes that the mainstream media called chaotic or fast. I think those changes were pretty intense; however, change is the only constant in life.
Change is important because it forces you to grow, and in the case of Twitter, we are witnessing this in real-time. In the few short weeks that Elon has been in charge, we have seen massive improvements and many mistakes made. Mistakes, which Elon pointed out, would happen.
Five ways Elon Musk improved Twitter in 2022.
If you’re not on Twitter, these improvements may not seem relevant, or they may not make any sense. However, I think many Twitter users have noticed these improvements. I certainly have.
1. Twitter cares about users’ opinions.
Previously, Twitter would ignore the many suggestions users had for the app — at least, that’s been my own personal experience. The reporting system was broken, the platform was drowning in bots, and innocent people were being suspended for no reason.
There were many times I reported someone for impersonating me, and Twitter found that the account didn’t violate its terms of service. The same went for those bullying me, encouraging me to end my life, and outright threatening me.
In my experience, the attitude at Twitter has changed from indifference and coldness to one of listening to advice and being willing to change.
Tesla, SpaceX, and Elon’s other companies also have this in common. For example, Elon Musk and Tesla sought out many suggestions for a truck before unveiling the Cybertruck. In fact, over 25,000 tweets helped Elon Musk develop the Cybertruck.
2. Prioritizing the removal of child sexual abuse material
In a recent report released by Andrea Stroppa, Twitter allowed child sexual abuse material to receive a sum of over 10 million views. During a Twitter Spaces interview with Elon Musk, Eliza Bleu, and Twitter’s new safety head, Ella Irwin, Andrea pointed out:
“10 million views is the sum of the different videos published by these accounts on Twitter. What it says is that these accounts received a lot of interactions. And these videos have been on Twitter for months — for years.”
Before Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the platform seemed to have an indifference toward child sexual abuse material that plagued it. In many cases, the material was reported, but Twitter found that it didn’t violate its terms of service. This was the case for John Doe 1 and 2, who are currently suing Twitter.
That lawsuit began before Elon Musk purchased it. It wasn’t until after the acquisition offer that Elon Musk realized Twitter had this problem. In that aforementioned interview, Elon said that a few weeks after his acquisition offer — perhaps a week after, the issue presented itself. He said:
“And then it was, I guess, a few weeks after that — well maybe even a week after that — that the magnitude of the child sexual exploitation stuff became apparent.”
“As soon as I learnt that, I was like, ‘Wait a second. This is crazy, This has gotta be priority number one. And Eliza, you and Andrea were key in bringing that forward. And then Ella internally.”
“So thank you all for doing that. And as soon as that became apparent, we immediately made it number one priority and with your help, we’ve made a lot of progress. And, we’ll keep at it. It’s going to be a constant battle, but we’ll keep at it.”
3. Transparency and the Twitter Files
Under the leadership of Elon Musk, Twitter began releasing the Twitter Files, a set of internal Twitter documents. Elon Musk released these documents to independent journalists to present to the public in a show of transparency.
Each of these journalists presented the information in a Twitter thread and shared their own articles. Some of the things revealed in the Twitter Files should alarm you. For ease of accessibility, my friend, Hart Deer, and I built an archival website for the Twitter Files, and you can access it here.
The Twitter Files aren’t the only way Twitter has been transparent since Elon purchased the platform. Twitter’s new safety head, Ella Irwin, has been very transparent and working tirelessly to address issues such as suspensions.
4. No longer in the fast lane to bankruptcy
In December, Elon Musk pointed out that Twitter had been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. In November, Reuters also reported that Elon warned of the possibility of bankruptcy. The article noted that during a call with employees, he said that he couldn’t rule out bankruptcy.
One spending habit of Twitter that Elon Musk ended resulted in several mainstream media hit pieces being written about him. Twitter was spending $13 million per year on food services, and Elon pointed out that the peak occupancy was 25% and the average occupancy was below 10%. This translated to a lot of money and food being wasted.
On Christmas Eve, Elon Musk was a surprise guest on the All-In Podcast, and he shared some hopeful news. Speaking to Jason Calacanis, Elon Musk said:
“Well, it’s been quite a roller coaster which, obviously, you’ve witnessed and been on the roller coaster as well (speaking to Jason).
“I mean, it’s exciting, but I think it sort of has its highs and lows, to say the least, but overall, it seems to be going in a good direction, and we’ve got the expenses reasonably under control, so it’s not like in the fast lane of bankruptcy anymore.”
Gail Alfar has a full transcription of Elon’s appearance in the podcast, and you can read it here. You can listen to the All-In Podcast here.
Since owning Twitter, Elon has brought the platform from the fast lane of bankruptcy to no longer being in that fast lane. However, he pointed out that Twitter is still not yet secure.
5. Willingness to make mistakes and learn from them
Elon Musk has brought a sense of humanity to Twitter. We are all learning from the mistakes we’ve made in life, and bringing this openness to Twitter, presents a human element to the platform.
An example of this took place in December during the World Cup Finals. Twitter made a new policy banning links promoting other social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram. Aggregation websites such as Link Tree were also included.
When faced with criticism over this move, Elon Musk and Twitter reversed the policy and promised to include Twitter’s users when there are new major policy changes.
He also apologized to everyone on Twitter for this mistake. We don’t see CEOs of major organizations being this authentic in public as we do with Elon Musk.
