Since finally taking over Twitter at the end of October, months after intermittent negotiations with the social media board, currently, the second-richest man on the planet Elon Musk managed to make various "questionable" changes that gave rise to concerns over the future of one of the most popular platforms.
From firing half of the staff and calling the rest of them "to opt for hardcore or leave" to restoring ex-President Donald Trump’s account and temporarily suspending accounts of dozens of prominent journalists, Musk did "quite a lot" in around two months as Twitter's owner and CEO.
Just recently, on Dec. 19 he started a poll saying he would step down from his position if users decide so but remained, tweeting afterward that, “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!”
Musk, a very attentive Twitter user himself, who often elaborated on political issues through his account, initiated the approach by actually criticizing Twitter’s stance on free speech and hinted at launching his own platform.
However, at the start of April, the South African-born billionaire acquired nearly 73.5 million Twitter shares – a 9.2% stake in the company at the time, and thus began his "Twitter adventure’’ officially.
Let's take a detailed look at the timeline of Musk’s journey to the iconic Twitter headquarters and everything that has happened since.
Here is our Twitter year summary:
April 29 – Musk sells roughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase of Twitter, with share prices ranging from $822.68 to $999.13 a share.
May 13 – Elon Musk says his $44 billion Twitter deal was "temporarily on hold" as he tries to pinpoint the exact number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform, another twist amid signs of internal turmoil over the proposed acquisition.
May 17 – The Tesla CEO tells the Twitter board: Prove spam accounts less than 5% or no deal.
Musk at the same time pledged changes to Twitter's content moderation practices, railing against decisions like the ban on former U.S. President Donald Trump as overly aggressive while seeking to crack down on "spam bots."
June 6 – Musk once again warned Twitter via letter that he may walk away from the acquisition deal if the social media networking site fails to provide data on spam and fake accounts
June 21 – The board of Twitter unanimously recommended that shareholders approve the proposed $44 billion sale of the company to multibillionaire Elon Musk, according to a regulatory filing.
July 9 – Shares of Twitter fell 6% in extended trading as Musk calls for termination of the deal since Twitter did not provide him with the requested user-related data.
In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk said Twitter has "not complied with its contractual obligations" surrounding the deal, namely giving Musk enough information to "make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter's platform."
July 13 – Twitter sues Musk to force him to complete the $44 billion deal. The social media company accused electric carmaker Tesla's CEO of “outlandish” and “bad faith” actions that have caused the platform irreparable harm and “wreaked havoc” on its stock price.
Aug. 6 – Musk steps back on signing the agreement with Twitter, once again reinstating his condition for obtaining some details about how it measures whether user accounts are "spam bots" or real people.
Oct. 4 - Musk proposes moving ahead with the original Twitter deal after he was trying for months to back out from the sale that got approved in April.
Oct. 28 – Musk buys Twitter in late October for $44 billion after months of on-off negotiations.
"Let the good times roll," he tweets after the deal is sealed, while he becomes the sole director of the company after dissolving its corporate board.
Nov. 1 – The new Twitter head announces the site will charge $8 per month to verify the accounts of celebrities and companies, thus bringing a change to a service that used to be free. But the Nov. 6 launch of the Twitter Blue subscription plan goes awry. Musk is forced to suspend the move after an embarrassing rash of fake accounts alarmed advertisers.
Nov. 3 – Top global companies, including General Mills and Volkswagen, suspend their advertising on Twitter as they monitor the new direction the company will take.
Nov. 4 – Half of Twitter's 7,500-strong staff are made redundant, sending shock waves through Silicon Valley. Musk tweets that "unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day."
Nov. 10 – The chaos caused in the first weeks after Musk's takeover draws a rare warning from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. authority that oversees consumer safety.
"We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern," an FTC spokesperson said.
Nov. 11 – Twitter is facing a surge in the number of fake accounts across the platform despite CEO Elon Musk’s claims that the new subscription service would defeat the bots and trolls.
Nov. 16 – Musk delivers an ultimatum to Twitter staff asking them to choose between being "extremely hardcore" and working long hours or losing their jobs. He gives them a day to decide. Large numbers of the staff choose to quit.
Nov. 20 – Musk reinstates the account of banned former President Donald Trump after conducting a poll of users, a narrow majority of whom supported the move. A few days later he announces an "amnesty" for all banned Twitter accounts.
Dec. 2 – Musk revises his promises of unfettered free speech after rapper Kanye West tweets a picture that appears to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David. His account is suspended for "incitement to violence."
In mid-December Musk relaunches Twitter Blue. This time, Twitter conducts a review of the account before giving it the coveted blue check mark.
Dec. 15 – Twitter suspends the accounts of more than a half-dozen journalists, including reporters from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Musk accuses them of endangering his family through their reporting on Twitter's shutdown of an account that tracked flights of his private jet. The EU also threatened to sanction the company. Two days later some of the journalists' accounts were reopened.
Dec. 19 – Twitter users vote by 57.5% to oust Musk as CEO in a poll he organized and promises to honor. A day later he says he will resign "as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job."
Dec. 25 – The "Twitter Files" are released as a set of internal Twitter Inc. documents such as screenshots, emails and chat logs that were provided by CEO Elon Musk to journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and others to present them to the public.
Dec. 27 – Musk says Twitter won't go bankrupt anytime soon, as ''it seems to be heading in a good direction," he noted.
Dec. 28 – As one of the latest developments among issues regarding the company's operations, Twitter Inc. experienced a significant outage that prevented tens of thousands of users on different continents from accessing or using the platform's key features for several hours.
