In the year since Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion, the platform now known as X has removed guardrails designed to restrict the flow of mis- and disinformation, including stripping away what was once a free account verification process designed to combat impersonation and replacing it with paid “blue check” accounts that guarantee posts will be prioritized by X’s algorithm.
The platform has instituted processes that experts say elevate and encourage the spread of misleading content, including sharing ad revenue with its largest content creators — accounts that have paid money for “blue checks” to expand their posts’ reach.
Data shows that these measures and others have sparked increased sharing of misinformation and hate speech. At the same time, X has instituted cost-prohibitive monthly fees for limited access to Twitter’s application programming interface, or API — data that third-party researchers commonly use to study and measure critical trends about the influence of social media.
Hours after federal filings showed entrepreneur Elon Musk offered about $43 billion to buy Twitter, Musk told a Vancouver TED Talk audience about his vision for the social media platform.
"My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization," Musk said April 14, 2022.
Musk closed the Twitter deal Oct. 27, 2022, for $44 billion. A year into Musk’s ownership,...
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