Illiberalism
Gilead
Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[1] fair use.
Fig. 2. Results from Elon Musk’s snowball sample[2] suggest he should step down. Screenshot taken by author on December 19, 2022, of Twitter poll posted by Elon Musk, December 18, 2022.
There are actually two reasons I am now categorizing Twitter under Gilead. First, the saga appears to me to have begun with the January 6 coup attempt and Twitter’s subsequent decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account;[3] hence the emphasis Elon Musk has placed on restoring that account.[4] Second, the entire so-called “free speech” tone of Musk’s takeover has seemed increasingly about favoring disinformation and conspiracy theories even when it may have electoral consequences[5] and even at the risk of providing one rationale (out of a few) for reversing the deal on national security grounds.[6] Now,
Several prominent antifascist organizers and journalists have had their accounts suspended in the past week, after right-wing operatives appealed directly to Musk to ban them and far-right internet trolls flooded Twitter’s complaints system with false reports about terms of service violations.
As the Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin noted on Twitter, the suspended users include Chad Loder, an antifascist researcher whose open-source investigation of the U.S. Capitol riot led to the identification and arrest of a masked Proud Boy who attacked police officers. The account of video journalist Vishal Pratap Singh, who reports on far-right protests in Southern California, has also been suspended. . . .
Among the other prominent accounts suspended were the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, an antifascist group that provides armed security for LGBTQ+ events in North Texas, and CrimethInc, an anarchist collective that has published and distributed anarchist and anti-authoritarian zines, books, posters, and podcasts since the mid-1990s.
All four accounts had been singled out for criticism by Andy Ngo, a far-right writer whose conspiratorial, error-riddled reporting on left-wing protests and social movements fuels the mass delusion that a handful of small antifascist groups are part of an imaginary shadow army called “antifa.” In a public exchange on Twitter on Friday, Musk invited Ngo to report “Antifa accounts” that should be suspended directly to him.[7]
See also:
Margi Murphy, “Facebook, Instagram and Twitter lock Donald Trump’s accounts after praise for Capitol Hill rioters,” Telegraph, January 7, 2021, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/01/06/calls-twitter-facebook-mute-donald-trump-violence-breaks-capitol/
Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Trump banned from Facebook indefinitely, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says,” Washington Post, January 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/07/trump-twitter-ban/
Nitasha Tiku, Tony Romm, and Craig Timberg, “Twitter bans Trump’s account, citing risk of further violence,” Washington Post, January 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/08/twitter-trump-dorsey/
Josh Gerstein, “Justice Thomas grumbles over Trump’s social media ban,” Politico, April 5, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/05/justice-clarence-thomas-trump-twitter-ban-479046
Jacob Silverman, ”Trump’s Social Media Lawsuit Is Doomed to Fail (and Work Exactly as Planned),” New Republic, July 7, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/162917/trump-lawsuit-facebook-twitter-youtube-speech
Zoe Tillman, “Trump’s Social Media Lawsuits Feature A Mashup Of Arguments Courts Have Already Rejected,” Buzzfeed, July 7, 2021, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/trump-twitter-facebook-youtube-lawsuits-rejected-arguments
Amanda Marcotte, “Right-wing Twitter imitations don’t work — and Trump desperately wants back on real social media,” Salon, July 8, 2021, https://www.salon.com/2021/07/08/right-wing-twitter-imitations-dont-work–and-trump-desperately-wants-back-on-real-social-media/
Cat Zakrzewski and Rachel Lerman, “Trump files class action lawsuits targeting Facebook, Google and Twitter over ‘censorship’ of conservatives,” Washington Post, July 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/07/trump-lawsuit-social-media/
Adela Suliman, “Trump asks court to force Twitter to reinstate his account,” Washington Post, October 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/02/trump-twitter-ban-court-filing/
David Smith, “The silence of Donald Trump: how Twitter’s ban is cramping his style,” Guardian, October 9, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/09/the-silence-of-donald-trump-how-twitters-ban-is-cramping-his-style
Timothy Bella, “Florida judge rules Trump can’t skirt Twitter’s terms just because he was president, in latest legal setback,” Washington Post, October 27, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/27/trump-twitter-lawsuit-president-judge/
William D. Cohan, “The Twitter Board’s Panic Room,” Puck News, April 14, 2022, https://puck.news/the-twitter-boards-panic-room/
Rob Copeland, Rebecca Elliott, and Cara Lombardo, “Elon Musk Makes $43 Billion Bid for Twitter, Says ‘Civilization’ At Stake,” Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-offers-to-buy-rest-of-twitter-for-54-20-a-share-11649932296
Dan Gallagher, “Musk Gives Twitter’s Board an Expensive Out,” Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/musk-gives-twitters-board-an-expensive-out-11649954729
William D. Cohan, “How Elon Can Get That $40B,” Puck News, April 20, 2022, https://puck.news/how-elon-can-get-that-40b/
Russ Mitchell, “‘Free speech absolutist’ Elon Musk has a long history of opposing speech and transparency,” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-04-20/news-analysis-what-does-elon-musk-know-about-free-speech-or-transparency-or-truth
Cara Lombardo and Will Feuer, “Elon Musk Says He Has Commitments for $46.5 Billion in Financing for Twitter Deal,” Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-says-he-has-commitments-for-46-5-billion-in-financing-for-twitter-deal-11650549097
Douglas MacMillan et al., “Elon Musk acquires Twitter for roughly $44 billion,” Washington Post, April 25, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/25/twitter-elon-musk-deal/
Dan Milmo and Mark Sweney, “Twitter takeover: EU and UK warn Elon Musk must comply or face sanctions,” Guardian, April 26, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/26/twitter-takeover-jack-dorsey-elon-musk
William D. Cohan, “Elon’s Gamble: Imagining Tesla Stock Judgment Day,” Puck News, April 27, 2022, https://puck.news/elons-gamble-imagining-the-tesla-stock-judgment-day/
Rebecca Elliott, “Elon Musk Says He Would Reverse Donald Trump’s Twitter Ban,” Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-would-reverse-twitters-donald-trump-ban-11652204279
Spencer Jakab and Dan Gallagher, “Musk’s Twitter Deal Is No Sure Thing,” Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/musks-twitter-deal-is-no-sure-thing-11652287373
William D. Cohan, “Elon’s Next Moves,” Puck News, May 18, 2022, https://puck.news/elons-next-moves/
Sarah E. Needleman, “Elon Musk’s followers include a lot of bots,” MarketWatch, June 5, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musks-followers-include-a-lot-of-bots-11654478074
Faiz Siddiqui and Gerrit De Vynck, “Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter is in peril,” Washington Post, July 7, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/07/elon-musk-twitter-jeopardy/
Danny Fortson, “Erratic Elon Musk leaves Twitter with three unbearable choices,” Times, July 9, 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/erratic-elon-musk-leaves-twitter-with-three-unbearable-choices-g3tg5zlbt
William D. Cohan, “The Musk Reckoning,” Puck News, July 10, 2022, https://puck.news/the-musk-reckoning/
Cara Lombardo and Robert Wall, “Twitter Didn’t Seek a Sale. Now Elon Musk Doesn’t Want to Buy. Cue Strange Legal Drama,” Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-twitter-strange-legal-fight-11657488572
Cara Lombardo and Sarah E. Needleman, “Twitter Sues Elon Musk to Enforce $44 Billion Merger,” Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-sues-elon-musk-over-attempt-to-walk-away-from-44-billion-deal-11657660307
Gerrit De Vynck, “Why Elon Musk can’t get out of Twitter deal even if his lenders bail,” Washington Post, July 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/15/elon-musk-debt-financing-twitter/
William D. Cohan, “The Case Against Elon,” Puck News, July 17, 2022, https://puck.news/the-case-against-elon/
Elizabeth Dwoskin and Gerrit De Vynck, “Judge grants Elon Musk an October court date, in early win for Twitter,” Washington Post, July 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/19/twitter-elon-musk-trial/
Ankush Khardori, “I Used to Work on Cases Like Twitter v. Musk. Here’s What Will Happen Next,” New York, July 30, 2022, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/07/what-will-happen-next-with-the-twitter-v-musk-lawsuit.html
Dave Michaels, “Judge in Twitter, Elon Musk Case Known for Quick Work,” Wall Street Journal, August 6, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-in-twitter-elon-musk-case-known-for-quick-work-11659791075
Yes.
In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 10, 2022
Elon Musk, “In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” Twitter, August 10, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-10/elon-musk-sells-4-3-billion-of-tesla-shares-first-since-april
Emily Bary, “Twitter stock jumps after report says Elon Musk now wants to buy Twitter at original offer price,” MarketWatch, October 4, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-stock-jumps-after-report-says-elon-musk-proposed-to-buy-twitter-at-original-offer-price-11664900696
William D. Cohan, “The Elon Financial Mindfuck,” Puck News, October 12, 2022, https://puck.news/the-elon-financial-mindfuck/
Elizabeth Dwoskin et al., “Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce,” Washington Post, October 20, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/20/musk-twitter-acquisition-staff-cuts/
Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/
Rebecca Bellan, “Now Elon Musk says he won’t fire 75% of Twitter’s staff,” TechCrunch, October 26, 2022, https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/26/now-elon-musk-says-he-wont-fire-75-of-twitters-staff/
Sheila Dang, “Exclusive: Twitter is losing its most active users, internal documents show,” Reuters, October 26, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-where-did-tweeters-go-twitter-is-losing-its-most-active-users-internal-2022-10-25/
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
Elon Musk, “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” Twitter, October 26, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585341984679469056
Faiz Siddiqui and Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Top Twitter executives fired as Elon Musk takeover begins,” Washington Post, October 27, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/27/twitter-elon-musk/
Lauren Thomas and Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk Twitter Deal Completed, CEO and CFO Immediately Fired,” Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-completes-twitter-takeover-11666918031
Jake Johnson, “‘Dangerous for Us All’: Elon Musk, World’s Richest Man, Completes Twitter Takeover,” Common Dreams, October 28, 2022, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/10/28/dangerous-us-all-elon-musk-worlds-richest-man-completes-twitter-takeover
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
Elon Musk, “the bird is freed,” Twitter, October 28, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585841080431321088
Jeremy C. Owens, “Elon Musk on the hook to pay more than $200 million to 3 fired Twitter execs,” MarketWatch, October 28, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-must-pay-more-than-200-million-to-3-fired-twitter-execs-11666927154
Greg Sargent, “The hidden danger lurking behind Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover,” Washington Post, October 28, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/28/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-russia-ukraine-war-big-tech/
Just putting this out there. Anyone using any form of hate speech will be immediately unfollowed, blocked, and either called out, not responded to or both. There is no place for hate speech here.
— Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) October 28, 2022
Mira Sorvino, “Anyone using any form of hate speech will be immediately unfollowed, blocked, and either called out, not responded to or both. There is no place for hate speech here,” Twitter, October 28, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/29/twitter-alternatives/
Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye.
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) October 29, 2022
Shonda Rhimes, “Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye,” Twitter, October 29, 2022, https://twitter.com/shondarhimes/status/1586399694896390147
William D. Cohan, “Elon’s Clues and an M&A Hail Mary,” Puck News, October 30, 2022, https://puck.news/elons-clues-and-an-ma-hail-mary/
Alexa Corse and Salvador Rodriguez, “Twitter Is Drafting Broad Job Cuts in Whirlwind First Weekend Under Elon Musk,” Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-is-drafting-broad-job-cuts-days-after-elon-musks-takeover-11667143301
Dan Milmo, “Twitter trolls bombard platform after Elon Musk takeover,” Guardian, October 30, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/30/twitter-trolls-bombard-platform-after-elon-musk-takeover
Dean Seal, “Elon Musk Ousts Twitter Board, Named Sole Director,” Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/musk-ousts-twitter-board-named-sole-director-11667234297
Nick Bonyhady, “Twitter is no LinkedIn. Charging for blue ticks won’t work,” Sydney Morning Herald, November 1, 2022, https://www.smh.com.au/technology/twitter-is-no-linkedin-charging-for-blue-ticks-won-t-work-20221101-p5bum9.html
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Elon Musk, “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. . . .” Twitter, November 1, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587498907336118274
Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Elon Musk, “Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity,” Twitter, November 1, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587499283573530625
You will also get:
– Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam
– Ability to post long video & audio
– Half as many ads— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Elon Musk, “You will also get . . .” Twitter, November 1, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587500060853424129
And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Elon Musk, “And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us,” Twitter, November 1, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587500624098246656
This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Elon Musk, “This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators,” Twitter, November 1, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587505731611262976
There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Elon Musk, “There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians,” Twitter, November 1, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587527711228149765
Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin, “Ad Giants Advise Brands to Pause Spending on Elon Musk’s Twitter,” Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ad-giants-advise-brands-to-pause-spending-on-elon-musks-twitter-11667333021
Edward Ludlow and Kurt Wagner, “Musk Plans to Eliminate Half of Twitter Jobs to Cut Costs,” Bloomberg, November 2, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/musk-plans-to-eliminate-half-of-twitter-jobs-in-cost-cut-drive
Naomi Nix, “Elon Musk says Twitter won’t restore banned accounts for weeks,” Washington Post, November 2, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/02/musk-twitter-bans-trump/
David Frum, “Why I Logged Off Twitter,” Atlantic, November 3, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-changes/671980/
Mike Isaac and Ryan Mac, “Elon Musk, Under Financial Pressure, Pushes to Make Money From Twitter,” New York Times, November 3, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/technology/elon-musk-twitter-money-finances.html
Catherine Rampell, “World’s richest man decides to set $44 billion on fire,” Washington Post, November 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/03/elon-musk-twitter-advertisers-content-moderation/
Samuel Stolton, “EU Twitterati plot escape amid Musk takeover,” Politico, November 3, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-twitterati-plot-escape-plan-amid-elon-musk-twitter-takeover/
Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin, “General Mills, Audi and Pfizer Join Growing List of Companies Pausing Twitter Ads,” Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/general-mills-audi-and-pfizer-join-growing-list-of-companies-pausing-twitter-ads-11667507765
Josh Eidelson, “Twitter Sued for Mass Layoffs by Musk Without Enough Notice,” Bloomberg, November 4, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-04/twitter-sued-for-mass-layoffs-by-musk-without-enough-notice
Drew Harwell, Cat Zakrzewski, and Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Twitter layoffs gutted election information teams days before midterms,” Washington Post, November 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/05/twitter-layoffs-election-impact/
Sarah E. Needleman and Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk Says Twitter Has Had Massive Revenue Drop as Layoffs Begin,” Wall Street Journal, November 4, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-says-twitter-has-had-massive-revenue-drop-11667573127
Sanjay Patnaik, Robert E. Litan, and James Kunhardt, “The national security grounds for investigating Musk’s Twitter acquisition,” Brookings, November 4, 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/research/why-biden-would-be-justified-in-blocking-or-modifying-musks-twitter-acquisition-on-national-security-grounds/
Faiz Siddiqui, Naomi Nix, and Will Oremus, “Advertisers fleeing, workers in fear: Welcome to Elon Musk’s Twitter,” Washington Post, November 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/04/twitter-layoffs-musk/
Shanti Das, “‘Elon Musk doesn’t know what he’s doing’, says former Twitter executive,” Guardian, November 5, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/05/elon-musk-doesnt-know-what-hes-doing-says-former-twitter-executive
Tim Higgins, “Twitter Rolls Out Blue Check Marks for Paying Customers,” Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-rolls-out-blue-check-marks-for-paying-customers-11667681496
Kevin V. Nguyen, “How Musk’s Twitter Layoffs Went Down—And What’s Next,” San Francisco Standard, November 5, 2022, https://sfstandard.com/business/how-musks-twitter-layoffs-went-down-and-whats-next/
Natalie Ching Mun Choy, “Twitter to Ban Impersonation If Not Labeled Parody, Musk Says,” Bloomberg, November 6, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-07/twitter-to-ban-impersonation-if-not-labeled-parody-musk-says
Probably too late, but
1) Hire a proper CEO with relevant experience
2) Stop insulting the users
3) Stop threatening the advertisers
4) Stop amplifying and empowering crazy people
5) Delete the owner's account and communicate through PR professionals.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) November 7, 2022
David Frum, “Probably too late, but . . .” Twitter, November 7, 2022, https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1589469860655923205
Kurt Wagner, “Twitter Delays Change to Check-Mark Badges Until After Midterms,” Bloomberg, November 6, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-06/twitter-to-delay-changes-to-check-mark-badges-nyt-says
Kurt Wagner and Edward Ludlow, “Twitter Now Asks Some Fired Workers to Please Come Back,” Bloomberg, November 6, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-06/twitter-now-asks-some-fired-workers-to-please-come-back
Stephen Wilmot, “Twitter’s Free Speech Problem Is Tesla’s, Too,” Wall Street Journal, November 7, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitters-free-speech-problem-is-teslas-too-11667818396
Rebecca Elliott, “Elon Musk Sells Almost $4 Billion of Tesla Stock After Twitter Takeover,” Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-sells-almost-4-billion-of-tesla-stock-after-completing-twitter-takeover-11667957983
Joseph De Avila, “Twitter Ditches Gray ‘Official’ Label Hours After Launching It,” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-launches-gray-official-label-to-verify-certain-accounts-11668008210
Johana Bhuiyan, “Exodus continues at Twitter as Elon Musk hints at possible bankruptcy,” Guardian, November 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/10/exodus-twitter-elon-musk-possible-bankruptcy
Joseph Menn et al., “Twitter’s content moderation head quits as departures alarm the FTC,” Washington Post, November 10, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/10/twitter-security-resignations/
Once more. Musk is doing us an incredible favor by demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no meritocracy and that wealth and power do not, in any way, denote talent or competence.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) November 10, 2022
Jared Yates Sexton, “Once more. Musk is doing us an incredible favor by demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no meritocracy and that wealth and power do not, in any way, denote talent or competence,” Twitter, November 10, 2022, https://twitter.com/JYSexton/status/1590831348511834112
Alyssa Lukpat, “Twitter Stops Giving Out Blue Check Marks After Impersonators Take to the Platform,” Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-real-and-what-isnt-on-twitter-under-elon-musk-it-is-really-unclear-11668184148
Lora Kolodny and Erik Ortiz, “Twitter pulls paid verification after impersonators flourish,” NBC News, November 11, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/twitters-subscription-service-not-available-impersonators-flourish-rcna56730
Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin, “Twitter’s Advertising Exodus Accelerates, Despite Outreach From Elon Musk,” Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitters-advertising-exodus-accelerates-despite-outreach-from-elon-musk-11668262920
Natasha Lomas, “Is Elon Musk’s Twitter about to fall out of the GDPR’s one-stop shop?” TechCrunch, November 14, 2022, https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/14/is-elon-musks-twitter-about-to-fall-out-of-the-gdprs-one-stop-shop/
Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill, “Musk issues ultimatum to staff: Commit to ‘hardcore’ Twitter or take severance,” Washington Post, November 16, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/16/musk-twitter-email-ultimatum-termination/
Joseph Menn, Nitasha Tiku, and Faiz Siddiqui, “Hundreds said to have opted to leave Twitter over Musk ultimatum,” Washington Post, November 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/17/twitter-musk-easing-rto-order/
Johana Bhuiyan, “Elon Musk summons Twitter engineers amid mass resignations and puts up poll on Trump ban,” Guardian, November 18, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/18/elon-musk-twitter-engineers-workers-mass-resignation
James Clayton and Peter Hoskins, “Twitter locks staff out of offices until next week,” British Broadcasting Corporation, November 18, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63672307
Annie Gaus, “Twitter Teeters as Offices Shut Down, Employees Flee,” San Francisco Standard, November 18, 2022, https://sfstandard.com/business/twitter-teeters-on-collapse-as-offices-shut-down/
How do you make a small fortune in social media?
Start out with a large one.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
Elon Musk, “How do you make a small fortune in social media? . . .” Twitter, November 18, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593415171149791232
Sky News, “World Cup risks knocking out Twitter after staff exodus, industry expert warns,” November 18, 2022, https://news.sky.com/story/twitter-reportedly-closes-offices-over-sabotage-fears-as-more-employees-resign-12749959
Faiz Siddiqui, Drew Harwell, and Isaac Arnsdorf, “Elon Musk restores Trump’s Twitter account,” Washington Post, November 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/19/trump-musk-twitter/
Ron Kampeas, “Welcome to the new Twitter: Kanye West returns with ‘shalom’ and Elon Musk trolls the ADL,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 20, 2022, https://www.jta.org/2022/11/20/united-states/welcome-to-the-new-twitter-kanye-west-is-back-and-elon-musk-trolls-the-adl
Liz Moyer, “Elon Musk Reinstates Trump on Twitter. Trump Shrugs,” Barron’s, November 20, 2022, https://www.barrons.com/articles/elon-musk-reinstates-trump-on-twitter-trump-shrugs-51668964354
Kelly Rissman, “Donald Trump’s Twitter Account Has Been Reactivated But Will He Return?” Vanity Fair, November 20, 2022, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/11/donald-trump-twitter-account-has-been-reactivated
Vlad Savov, “Musk Welcomes Ye Back to Twitter After Inviting Trump’s Return,” Bloomberg, November 20, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-21/musk-welcomes-ye-back-to-twitter-after-inviting-trump-s-return
Elon Musk tweeted this meme.
He’s insane.
He wants to drive you insane.
So you’ll leave the “town square” to the fascist bullies and they can plaster their Nazi posters all over town.
Don’t fall for it. Stay, and rip those posters down.— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) November 21, 2022
Duty To Warn, “Elon Musk tweeted this meme. . . .” Twitter, November 21, 2022, https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1594655174852755460
Clint Rainey, “Why Apple and Google could be the biggest threats to Elon Musk’s anything-goes version of Twitter,” Fast Company, November 21, 2022, https://www.fastcompany.com/90815181/why-apple-and-google-could-be-the-biggest-threat-to-elon-musks-anything-goes-version-of-twitter
Naomi Nix and Jeremy B. Merrill, “Advertisers are dropping Twitter. Musk can’t afford to lose any more,” Washington Post, November 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/22/twitter-advertiser-exodus-musk/
Kali Hays, “Elon Musk fired dozens more Twitter staff the night before Thanksgiving — days after saying he was done with layoffs,” Business Insider, November 24, 2022, https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-fires-dozens-more-twitter-staff-night-before-thanksgiving-2022-11
Mike Isaac and Ryan Mac, “As Elon Musk Cuts Costs at Twitter, Some Bills Are Going Unpaid,” New York Times, November 22, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/technology/elon-musk-twitter-cost-cutting.html
Laurel Wamsley, “Looking to leave Twitter? Here are the social networks seeing new users now,” National Public Radio, November 24, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/11/24/1139079748/leave-twitter-social-networks-mastodon-hive-post
Reuters, “Twitter CEO Musk says user signups at all-time high, touts features of ‘everything app,’” November 27, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-ceo-musk-says-user-signups-all-time-high-touts-features-everything-app-2022-11-27/
Philip Bump, “Hey, Elon Musk? Twitter polls are not the ‘voice of the people,’” Washington Post, November 28, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/hey-elon-musk-twitter-polls-are-not-voice-people/
It’s apparently pro free speech when Elon Musk charges you $8 for access to his platform, but anti free speech if Apple charges him $2 for access to theirs. #Logic
— David Frum (@davidfrum) November 28, 2022
David Frum, “It’s apparently pro free speech when Elon Musk charges you $8 for access to his platform, but anti free speech if Apple charges him $2 for access to theirs,” Twitter, November 28, 2022, https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1597332772687085569
Sarah E. Needleman and Tim Higgins, “Elon Musk Claims Apple Is Threatening to Remove Twitter From App Store,” Wall Street Journal, November 28, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-attacks-apple-tim-cook-over-advertising-and-censorship-11669662024
Sheila Dang and Katie Paul, “Twitter not safer under Elon Musk, says former head of trust and safety,” Reuters, November 29, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-not-safer-under-elon-musk-says-former-head-trust-safety-conference-2022-11-29/
Robert Mackey and Micah Lee, “Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk,” Intercept, November 29, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/11/29/elon-musk-twitter-andy-ngo-antifascist/
Reuters, “Twitter rolls back COVID misinformation policy,” November 29, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-rolls-back-covid-misinformation-policy-2022-11-29/
A. J. McDougall, “Elon Musk Declares Feud With Apple Over After Tim Cook Gives Him a Campus Tour,” Daily Beast, November 30, 2022, https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-declares-twitters-feud-with-apple-over-after-tim-cook-gives-him-a-campus-tour
Naomi Nix, “Twitter needs Apple more than Apple needs Twitter,” Washington Post, November 30, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/30/apple-musk-tim-cook/
Patience Haggin, “Twitter Offers Advertisers Generous Incentives After Many Marketers Left Platform,” Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-offers-advertisers-generous-incentives-after-many-marketers-left-platform-11669922354
Newley Purnell, “Kanye West Suspended From Twitter After Swastika Tweet,” Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/musks-twitter-suspends-kanye-wests-account-after-swastika-tweet-11669971389
David French, “Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson Don’t Understand the First Amendment,” Atlantic, December 3, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-and-tucker-carlson-dont-understand-the-first-amendment/672352/
Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, and Kate Conger, “Twitter Keeps Missing Its Advertising Targets as Woes Mount,” New York Times, December 3, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/technology/twitter-advertising-targets-missed.html
Joseph Menn, “Surging Twitter antisemitism unites fringe, encourages violence, officials say,” Washington Post, December 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/03/twitter-antisemitism-violence-jan-6/
Joe Burn, “Twitter HQ Bedrooms Investigated by SF Officials After Complaint,” San Francisco Standard, December 6, 2022, https://sfstandard.com/business/twitter-hq-bedrooms-investigated-by-sf-officials-after-complaint/
Andrew Orlowski, “Elon Musk and Apple quickly made up. We should be worried,” Sydney Morning Herald, December 6, 2022, https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/elon-musk-and-apple-quickly-made-up-we-should-be-worried-20221205-p5c3m6.html
Faiz Siddiqui, “Amazon, Uber ads appear on Twitter pages of white nationalists restored by Musk,” Washington Post, December 6, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/06/twitter-ads-elon-musk/
Sebastian Tong and Kurt Wagner, “Musk Spars With San Francisco Over Probe of Bedrooms at Twitter,” Bloomberg, December 6, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-07/musk-slams-san-francisco-mayor-for-probe-of-bedrooms-at-twitter
Jody Serrano, “Elon Is Thinking of Changing His Twitter Blue Sales Pitch for iPhone Users to ‘Pay $11,’” Twitter, December 8, 2022, https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-twitter-iphone-apple-app-store-price-11-1849869146
Sarah Wright, “SF Investigators Found Beds at Twitter HQ. Here’s What Happens Next,” San Francisco Standard, December 8, 2022, https://sfstandard.com/business/sf-investigators-found-beds-at-twitter-hq-heres-what-happens-next/
Laura Forman, “Twitter’s Advertising Truth Hurts,” Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitters-advertising-truth-hurts-11670706720
Hey look what they found in the "Twitter Files"
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) December 11, 2022
Keith Olbermann, “Hey look what they found in the ‘Twitter Files,’” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1601983506070081536
My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
Elon Musk, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601894132573605888
Charlie Warzel, “Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist,” Atlantic, December 11, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/
Joseph Menn, “Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-child-porn-qanon/
Stephen Wilmot, “Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-price-tesla-stock-is-still-no-bargain-11670851513
Cat Zakrzewski, Joseph Menn, and Naomi Nix, “Twitter dissolves Trust and Safety Council,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-twitter-harass-yoel-roth/
Zoë Schiffer and Casey Newton, “Twitter’s risky plan to save its ads business,” Platformer, December 13, 2022, https://www.platformer.news/p/twitters-risky-plan-to-save-its-ads
Steve Burgess, “Please Advise! Is Elon Musk Really That Vile?” Tyee, December 14, 2022, https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2022/12/14/Please-Advise-Elon-Musk-Really-Vile/
Joseph De Avila, “Twitter Suspends Account That Tracked Elon Musk’s Private Jet,” Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-suspends-account-that-tracked-elon-musks-private-jet-11671036887
Rebecca Elliott, “Elon Musk Sold More Than $3.5 Billion Worth of Tesla Shares,” Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-sold-more-than-3-5-billion-worth-of-tesla-shares-11671071099
Nicholas Gordon, “Twitter is reportedly not paying rent for its offices as Musk warns users to ‘beware of debt,’” Fortune, December 14, 2022, https://fortune.com/2022/12/14/twitter-not-paying-office-rent-elon-musk-cut-costs/
Drew Harwell, “QAnon, adrift after Trump’s defeat, finds new life in Elon Musk’s Twitter,” Washington Post, December 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/14/qanon-musk-revival-twitter/
Paul Farhi, “Musk suspends journalists from Twitter, claims ‘assassination’ danger,” Washington Post, December 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/15/twitter-journalists-suspended-musk/
Dana Hull and Bloomberg, “Elon Musk just unloaded $3.6 billion in Tesla stock, his 4th huge sale this year,” Fortune, December 15, 2022, https://fortune.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-unloaded-billion-tesla-stock-fourth-huge-sale-this-year/
Jordan Pearson, “Elon Musk Had His Most Absurd, Disturbing 24 Hours at Twitter Yet,” Vice, December 15, 2022, https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjk5yx/elon-musk-had-his-most-absurd-disturbing-24-hours-at-twitter-yet
Jon Brodkin, “Twitter stiffs software vendor with $8 million left on contract, lawsuit says,” Ars Technica, December 16, 2022, https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/12/twitter-stiffs-software-vendor-with-8-million-left-on-contract-lawsuit-says/
Adam Clark, “Musk’s Twitter Suspends Accounts of Some Journalists and Rival Mastodon,” Barron’s, December 16, 2022, https://www.barrons.com/articles/elon-musk-twitter-suspends-accounts-journalists-mastodon-tesla-51671178816
Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk Seeks Additional Funds for Twitter,” Wall Street Journal, December 16, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-seeks-additional-funds-for-twitter-11671247325
Jillian Deutsch and Aggi Cantrill, “Musk Faces European Anger Over Twitter Ban of Journalists,” Bloomberg, December 16, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-16/musk-faces-threats-from-european-lawmakers-over-twitter-bans
Kevin T. Dugan, “Is Elon Musk Setting Himself Up to Lose Tesla?” New York, December 16, 2022, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/why-elon-musks-twitter-affair-could-cots-him-tesla.html
the mainstream media can't stop talking about @twitter drama because it fuels the clickbait model
at the same time its giving @twitter more attention, press and power than ever. disruption is accelerating
— Gali (@Gfilche) December 16, 2022
Gali, “the mainstream media can't stop talking about @twitter drama because it fuels the clickbait model . . .” Twitter, December 16, 2022, https://twitter.com/Gfilche/status/1603644570679803904
Jeremy Barr and Sarah Ellison, “Musk unsuspends some reporters on Twitter. But their companies never left,” Washington Post, December 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/17/musk-twitter-journalist-suspension-media-react/
Drew Harwell and Taylor Lorenz, “Musk blamed a Twitter account for an alleged stalker. Police see no link,” Washington Post, December 18, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/18/details-of-musk-stalking-incident/
Mike Murphy, “Elon Musk says he’ll quit if poll tells him to, as Twitter bans accounts that promote other social networks,” MarketWatch, December 18, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-bans-accounts-that-promote-other-social-networks-11671389073
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
Elon Musk, “Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll,” Twitter, December 18, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097
Michael Race and Monica Miller, “Elon Musk: Only blue tick users to vote in Twitter polls on policy,” British Broadcasting Corporation, December 20, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64034892
Reuters, “Musk to step down as Twitter CEO once he finds ‘someone foolish’ enough as successor,” December 20, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-says-hell-step-down-twitter-ceo-after-finding-replacement-2022-12-21/
Laura Forman and Dan Gallagher, “Elon Musk Offers Worst Job in Tech,” Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-offers-worst-job-in-tech-11671648139
Suzanne Vranica, Patience Haggin, and Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk’s Campaign to Win Back Twitter Advertisers Isn’t Going Well,” Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-twitter-advertisers-exodus-11671722594
Hamza Shaban and Faiz Siddiqui, “Here’s who helped Elon Musk buy Twitter,” Washington Post, December 24, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/24/elon-musk-twitter-funders/
Karishma Vanjani and Al Root, “Tesla Drops Out of the 10 Biggest U.S. Public Companies,” Barron’s, December 27, 2022, https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-stock-price-market-cap-tsla-51672162042
Barron’s, “Tesla Falls to Two-Year Low. Why It May Not Have Bottomed Out,” December 28, 2022, https://www.barrons.com/articles/what-to-know-today-51672216064
Seth Masket, “RIP Twitter’s intellectual community,” Denver Post, December 29, 2022, https://www.denverpost.com/2022/12/29/why-leave-twitter-seth-masket-rip-twitter/
Meghan Bobrowsky, “Tesla Stock Fell 65% in 2022, Its Biggest-Ever Annual Decline,” Wall Street Journal, December 30, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-stock-is-headed-for-its-biggest-ever-annual-decline-11672374248
Brian Chappatta, “Elon Musk Becomes First Person Ever to Lose $200 Billion,” Bloomberg, December 30, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-30/elon-musk-becomes-first-person-ever-to-lose-200-billion
Esha Dey, “Tesla Stock Had the Worst Year Ever. That Doesn’t Make It Cheap,” Bloomberg, December 31, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-31/tesla-stock-had-the-worst-year-ever-that-doesn-t-make-it-cheap
James R. Hagerty, “Twitter Sued Over Rent Payment in San Francisco,” Wall Street Journal, January 1, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-sued-over-rent-payment-in-san-francisco-11672622435
Mathew Ingram, “Is Twitter dying? And what would that mean for journalism?” Columbia Journalism Review, January 12, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/twitter_musk_dying_journalism.php
Zoë Schiffer, Casey Newton, and Alex Heath, “Extremely Hardcore: Twitter’s staff spent years trying to protect the platform against impulsive ranting billionaires — then one made himself the CEO,” New York, January 17, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/elon-musk-twitter-takeover.html
Lora Kolodny, “Twitter is down to fewer than 550 full-time engineers,” CNBC, January 20, 2023, https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/20/twitter-is-down-to-fewer-than-550-full-time-engineers.html
Mark Frauenfelder, “Only 180,000 people in the U.S. are paying for Twitter Blue. That covers about 1% of its annual debt,” Boing Boing, February 6, 2023, https://boingboing.net/2023/02/06/only-0-2-of-twitters-active-users-have-paid-for-twitter-blue-subscriptions.html
Josh Taylor, “Twitter users told they’ve hit daily post limit in latest outage since Musk takeover,” Guardian, February 8, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/09/twitter-users-temporarily-unable-to-post-in-latest-outage-since-musk-takeover
Clare Duffy, “More than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers stopped spending on platform, data show,” CNN, February 10, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/10/tech/twitter-top-advertiser-decline/index.html
Matt Binder, “Twitter is making even less from Twitter Blue than previously known,” Mashable, February 14, 2023, https://mashable.com/article/twitter-blue-subscriptions-lower
Jimmy Hoover, “Justices Skeptical Of Twitter’s Liability For Terrorism, ” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/california/articles/1578710
Matthew Ingram, “Section 230 gets its day in court,” Columbia Journalism Review, February 23, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/section_230_supreme_court.php
Clare Duffy, “Twitter hit with one of the biggest outages since Elon Musk took over,” CNN, March 6, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/tech/twitter-website-down/index.html
Ryan Tracy, &ldqo;FTC Twitter Investigation Sought Elon Musk’s Internal Communications, Journalist Names,” Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-investigation-ftc-musk-documents-db6b179e
Stephen Bartholomeusz, “Elon Musk’s Twitter is on the road to nowhere,” Sydney Morning Herald, March 7, 2023, https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/elon-musk-s-twitter-is-on-the-road-to-nowhere-20230307-p5cpxp.html
MoneyControl, “Elon Musk says he’s open to buying Silicon Valley Bank,” March 11, 2023, https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/elon-musk-says-hes-open-to-buying-silicon-valley-bank-10232901.html
I’m open to the idea
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2023
Elon Musk, “I’m open to the idea,” Twitter, March 11, 2023, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1634374859043270678
Nice joke.
SVB operates in very limited number of countries and doesn't have the scale to make a global app like Twitter a digital bank or super app. That money would be better spend in getting the #accessibility team back to Twitter and make it a great app for disabled users.— Antonio Vieira Santos (@AkwyZ) March 11, 2023
Antonio Vieira Santos, “Nice joke. . . .” Twitter, March 11, 2023, https://twitter.com/AkwyZ/status/1634525487622963200
I think Twitter should buy SVB and become a digital bank.
— Min-Liang Tan (@minliangtan) March 11, 2023
Min-Liang Tan, “I think Twitter should buy SVB and become a digital bank,” Twitter, March 11, 2023, https://twitter.com/minliangtan/status/1634371553059119104
Natasha Lomas, “Twitter is dying,” TechCrunch, March 28, 2023, https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/28/twitter-is-dying/
Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill, “Elon Musk’s Twitter pushes hate speech, extremist content into ‘For You’ pages,” Washington Post, March 30, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/30/elon-musk-twitter-hate-speech/
David Folkenflik, “NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as ‘state-affiliated media,’ National Public Radio, April 12, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/04/12/1169269161/npr-leaves-twitter-government-funded-media-label
Faiz Siddiqui, Rachel Lerman, and Jeremy B. Merrill, “A year ago, Musk asked, ‘Is Twitter dying?’ He may have his answer,” Washington Post, April 15, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/15/twitter-musk-bid-anniversary/
Dan Milmo, “Is the bird really freed? A look back at six months of Musk’s Twitter reign,” Guardian, April 16, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/16/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-six-months
Bobby Allyn, “Elon Musk threatens to re-assign @NPR on Twitter to ‘another company,’” National Public Radio, May 2, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/05/02/1173422311/elon-musk-npr-twitter-reassign
David McAfee, “Jen Psaki pours cold water on Tucker Carlson’s Twitter pivot,” Alternet, May 13, 2023, https://www.alternet.org/jen-psaki-tucker-carlson-twitter/
Mike Calia, “Elon Musk: ‘I’ll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it,’” CNBC, May 16, 2023, https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/16/elon-musk-defends-inflammatory-tweets-ill-say-what-i-want.html
Samantha Delouya, Clare Duffy, and Donie O’Sullivan, “Glitches, echoes and ‘melting the servers’ crash DeSantis’ campaign launch on Twitter,” CNN, May 25, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/tech/twitter-desantis-meltdown/index.html
Caleb Ecarma, “The Numbers Are In: Elon Musk Has Been a Disaster for Twitter,” Vanity Fair, May 31, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/05/elon-musk-twitter-valuation
Suzanne Vranica, Patience Haggin, and Alexa Corse, “Twitter Safety Executives Exit as Concerns About Policing Content Grow,” Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-loses-second-safety-executive-within-days-1954a51e
Ryan Mac and Tiffany Hsu, “Twitter’s U.S. Ad Sales Plunge 59% as Woes Continue,” New York Times, June 5, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/technology/twitter-ad-sales-musk.html
Mike Masnick, “Elon Musk Says Twitter Is Going To Get Rid Of The Block Feature, Enabling Greater Harassment,” TechDirt, June 9, 2023, https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/09/elon-musk-says-twitter-is-going-to-get-rid-of-the-block-feature-enabling-greater-harassment/
Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, “Boulder landlord succeeds in evicting Twitter over unpaid rent,” Denver Post, June 14, 2023, https://www.denverpost.com/2023/06/14/boulder-twitter-eviction-unpaid-rent/
William D. Cohan, “Will Elon Lose Control of Twitter?” Puck, June 18, 2023, https://puck.news/will-elon-lose-control-of-twitter/
William D. Cohan, “The Elon Twitter Debt Vulcan Chess Theory,” Puck, June 28, 2023, https://puck.news/the-elon-twitter-debt-vulcan-chess-theory/
Tamia Fowlkes and Julian Mark, “Elon Musk sets new daily Twitter limits for users,” Washington Post, July 1, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/01/elon-musk-new-twitter-user-limits/
Siva Vaidhyanathan, “Twitter was locked in a chaotic doom loop. Now it’s on the verge of collapse,” Guardian, July 5, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/05/twitter-elon-musk-verge-of-collapse
Ramishah Maruf, “Elon Musk says Twitter’s ad revenue is down 50% and cash flow is negative,” CNN, July 15, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/15/business/twitter-cash-flow-elon-musk/index.html
Varg Folkman, “Twitter to ditch bird logo, Musk says,” Politico, July 23, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/twitter-ditch-bird-logo-elon-musk-rebrand-social-media-platform/
Casey Newton, “Elon Musk’s creep show,” Platformer, August 14, 2023, https://www.platformer.news/p/elon-musks-creep-show
Jeremy C. Owens, “Sorry, Elon, a ‘super app’ is never going to fly in the U.S.,” MarketWatch, September 7, 2023, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sorry-elon-a-super-app-is-never-going-to-fly-in-the-u-s-eac7c36c
Cat Zakrzewski, “Musk may have violated FTC privacy order, new court filing shows,” Washington Post, September 12, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/12/elon-musk-consent-order-ftc/
Sheila Dang, “US ad revenue at Musk’s X declined each month since takeover -data,” Reuters, October 4, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-ad-revenue-musks-x-declined-each-month-since-takeover-data-2023-10-04/
Claudia Assis, “Elon Musk sued by SEC to compel him to testify over Twitter deal,” MarketWatch, October 5, 2023, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-sued-by-sec-over-twitter-deal-8acb7e4e
Will Oremus et al., “A year later, Musk’s X is tilting right. And sinking,” Washington Post, October 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/27/elon-musk-twitter-x-anniversary/
Trisha Thadani, Eli Tan, and Taylor Telford, “Disney, Comcast, Lionsgate pull ads from X over antisemitic posts,” Washington Post, November 17, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/17/apple-disney-x-musk-antisemitic/
Harry Taylor, “Elon Musk to file ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ as advertisers desert X,” Guardian, November 18, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/18/elon-musk-to-file-thermonuclear-lawsuit-as-advertisers-desert-x
Ryan Mac and Kate Conger, “X May Lose Up to $75 Million in Revenue as More Advertisers Pull Out,” New York Times, November 24, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/business/x-elon-musk-advertisers.html
Mike Murphy, “Elon Musk lashes out at advertisers who boycott X: ‘Go f— yourself,’” MarketWatch, November 29, 2023, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-lashes-out-at-advertisers-who-boycott-x-go-f-yourself-3664f8d8
- [1]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
- [2]David Benfell, “About Elon Musk’s Twitter poll and about Twitter polls generally,” Not Housebroken, November 21, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/11/21/about-elon-musks-twitter-poll-and-about-twitter-polls-generally/↩
- [3]Margi Murphy, “Facebook, Instagram and Twitter lock Donald Trump’s accounts after praise for Capitol Hill rioters,” Telegraph, January 7, 2021, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/01/06/calls-twitter-facebook-mute-donald-trump-violence-breaks-capitol/; Nitasha Tiku, Tony Romm, and Craig Timberg, “Twitter bans Trump’s account, citing risk of further violence,” Washington Post, January 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/08/twitter-trump-dorsey/↩
- [4]Faiz Siddiqui, Drew Harwell and Isaac Arnsdorf , “Elon Musk restores Trump’s Twitter account,” Washington Post, November 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/19/trump-musk-twitter/↩
- [5]Drew Harwell, “QAnon, adrift after Trump’s defeat, finds new life in Elon Musk’s Twitter,” Washington Post, December 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/14/qanon-musk-revival-twitter/; Drew Harwell, Cat Zakrzewski, and Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Twitter layoffs gutted election information teams days before midterms,” Washington Post, November 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/05/twitter-layoffs-election-impact/↩
- [6]Sanjay Patnaik, Robert E. Litan, and James Kunhardt, “The national security grounds for investigating Musk’s Twitter acquisition,” Brookings, November 4, 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/research/why-biden-would-be-justified-in-blocking-or-modifying-musks-twitter-acquisition-on-national-security-grounds/↩
- [7]Robert Mackey and Micah Lee, “Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk,” Intercept, November 29, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/11/29/elon-musk-twitter-andy-ngo-antifascist/↩
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