In January of 2022, billionaire Elon Musk became the largest shareholder of the social media site Twitter. This marked the beginning of Musk’s pursuit of acquiring the site and “protecting free speech.” However, once the technology mogul took control of the platform and all of its operations, users were met with a chaotic frenzy of new guideline changes and software mishaps. 

Users were faced with sudden crashes and issues refreshing their feeds to see the most recent tweets. It also began to be reported that the number of hacked Twitter accounts are rising. This is likely due to the current issues users are facing when setting up two-step-verification for the security of their account.

Another part of Musk’s first order of business was to reinstate accounts of people who had previously been banned from the site for being deemed problematic. These figures include Kanye West, who was banned after an antisemitic outburst, Andrew Tate, who was banned for his misogynistic viewpoints and even former President Donald Trump. So far it seems that most of the change that has been brought upon by Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has been for the worst.

A major cause of the issues Twitter has been facing is that they have become under-staffed. After taking over Twitter, Musk decided to fire over 5000 people from multiple divisions of Twitter’s corporate offices. Many of these laid off employees were told that they were in violation of company policy. However, it is believed that in reality they were fired because of their opposition to Musk’s new adjustments. 

Most of the controversy surrounding Musk at the moment is due to his stance on free speech. Musk believes that by banning people that are considered problematic from Twitter it is a direct violation of their first amendment rights. The argument against this claim is that these people need to be deplatformed from the site because the rhetoric of their message includes either harmful or misinformation.

Many people believe that because of the events on Jan. 6, 2021 caused by Trump on Twitter he is deserving of being permanently banned. That is where the problem lies with many people. Musk feels that Trump’s account should be reinstated and that he should be able to Tweet anything he wants, despite the repercussions of his words.

Overall, it is evident that the state of Twitter is a mess right now. Many people have begun to boycott Twitter by deleting their account and protesting Musk. The tactics that have been implemented by Musk at Twitter are somewhat bizarre and clearly controversial. The future of Twitter, which was once the most used social media site in the world, looks unsure.

Contact Jamison Joyce at [email protected]