‘Malevolent force’ or haven for free speech? How Elon Musk turned Twitter upside down

The awkward juxtaposition served as a neat visual representation of the incredulous reaction sparked by his decision to rebrand Twitter – a much-loved and iconic social network famed for its blue bird and ‘fail whale’ icons.

Reflecting on the last 12 months of Elon’s Twitter takeover, Dr Annmarie Hanlon, senior lecturer in digital and social media marketing at Cranfield School of Management, tells Metro.co.uk how Twitter was once ‘the breaking news channel and a place you could hear a wide range of opinions’.

However, she warns that the platform’s future now looks ‘increasingly uncertain and volatile’ and calls on the billionaire to ‘build the community rather than destroy it’. 

‘For many the hasty rebrand to “X” left the platform with a malevolent and uninviting aesthetic,’ she continued. 

‘Some regard its appearance as a force for bad, instead of an intended force for good. Musk’s takeover of Twitter has profoundly impacted user experience, namely through a surge in hate speech, misinformation, and bots across the platform. 

‘Restoring civility and trust should be his top priority. Users and brands want a safe, constructive platform.’

Free speech zone or ‘cesspit’ of hate and misinformation? 

Metro.co.uk approached Cummings for comment but he did not respond. 

Michael Fertik, a well-known Silicon Valley venture investor who is the founder and managing director of venture capital firm Heroic Ventures, tells Metro.co.uk: ‘The question is not whether Elon has run Twitter and X better than an armchair commentator on X would have done. It’s whether he ran it better than the apparently self-unaware woke junta did before he bought it.

Dr Paul Carter, CEO of GWS, tells Metro: ‘Elon Musk’s major overhaul of Twitter’s branding, adopting the X name and logo, might have attracted controversy, especially at a time when the company faces the looming threat of a well-funded rival in Threads. 

‘However, real-time mobile data from social media users across the UK and the US shows Twitter continues to hold steady despite external threats.

‘The same, however, cannot be said for its main new rival Threads and its parent company Meta. The mass exodus from one platform to the other just hasn’t occurred.’

Dr Alex Gunz, lecturer in marketing at Alliance Manchester Business School, said Twitter is protected from competition by a phenomenon known as a ‘network lock-in’ effect. 

‘The most valuable aspect about social media platforms is the fact that everyone else is there too,’ he says. ‘This herd effect seems to have helped Twitter to stay afloat since Musk’s takeover. Membership has shrunk somewhat, but the exodus never hit a critical mass.’

This situation could change if enough people decide to jump ship and move to a different social network. 

‘If enough users are dissatisfied with Twitter and turn to a sufficiently plausible alternative, then the trickle of migration could well hit a tipping point,’ Dr Gunz continued. ‘If enough people move to a new place, then the lock-in goes with them, and so does Twitter’s monopoly.’

Although the user base has not yet deserted X, it faces ‘a significant challenge when it comes to attracting and retaining users’, Arden University’s Dr Syed Tarek tells Metro.

‘With Elon Musk’s recent approach of prioritising blue tick subscribers over ads, it’s possible that many non-subscribers, who are responsible for creating and consuming the majority of the platform’s content, may feel alienated,’ says Dr Tarek, deputy head of school of leadership and management at the private university.

‘It seems that X users are actively seeking alternatives, but it’s likely that the platform will experience a gradual decline rather than a sudden collapse. There’s a clear need for other platforms to catch up to Twitter’s capabilities before users commit to the switch for the long-term.’

Is there trouble ahead for X?

While Elon wants to turn X into a ‘super app’ – the name of ‘one app to rule them all’ services like WeChat in China, which enables users to do everything from sharing photos to making payments – the road ahead looks far from smooth for the social media site.

Kirsty Minns, executive creative director and partner at Mother Design, tells Metro.co.uk that Elon’s unique management style poses its own risks. 

‘He appears to be using the same “break it til you make it” playbook seen in the early days of both Tesla and SpaceX – but the big problem is that this playbook applies to start-ups, not a globally recognised brand with an already established set of values,’ she says. 

‘Twitter already meant something to people, they’d given it a purpose. Now, it appears that users are not at the centre of the brand and Musk has total freedom to do what he likes, without any accountability”.

Alex Laurie, SVP at the digital identity platform ForgeRock, told Metro.co.uk about one example of a potential problem which could push users into moving to another social network. He said that a ‘subtle change’ to X’s privacy policy like this suggests Elon Musk is capable of ‘acting on whims without thinking things through’. 

Laurie says: ‘This could cause serious revenue issues for X as our own research, conducted earlier this year, shows that 44% of UK users would stop using X if it implemented a requirement for identity verification. Given existing consumer distrust of social media companies, especially when handling credentials and online identities, we may witness an acceleration in user drop-off if X implements this decision.’

The biometric data issue is just one example of the many challenges Musk faces as he strives to build the first super app in the West. 

As we move into the second year of Musk’s ownership of X, little is certain about its future and it is more or less impossible to predict the plans of its owner. 

‘What’s next?’ Olivia Wedderburn, executive social influence director at TMW Unlimited, a creative agency based in London, tells Metro. ‘It’s hard to say, but my bet is in the cold hard ground.’