Twitter is dominating the headlines with the return of former President Donald Trump’s account and actions from the platform’s new owner, Elon Musk. The National Desk’s Fact Check Team took a closer look at the changes the platform has already undergone and what could be coming next.
There are several estimates out there but Twitter’s second-quarter report provides more insight. It shows that there are more than 235 million daily users. Just for the U.S., it’s 41.5 million.
Twitter gets a lot of traction but according to the social media management site Buffer, it's the 15th most popular social media platform with Facebook and YouTube topping the list.
It appears that the number of users increased since Elon Musk took the helm. Musk just tweeted some insights a few days ago, saying that daily users had been increasing even before he took charge on Oct. 27.
He said Twitter added 1.6 million daily active users this past week, bringing the current average daily total to almost 260 million users. According to the Pew Research Center, around one in five adults say they use Twitter.
Polling shows that 69% of adult Twitter users in the U.S. get news on the site and a third of them say Twitter has increased their stress levels. Twitter is also important for politics. Another Pew Research poll shows a third of tweets from U.S. adults are political and as far as politicians go, it allows them to directly communicate with their constituents and voters.
Even back in 2017, Trump told the Financial Times that without tweets he wouldn’t be here. Of course, he was later banned from the platform and started his own platform Truth Social.
Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter has already undergone some pretty serious changes including massive layoffs and top management exits. In fact, on the day Musk closed the deal, he got rid of nearly half of the company’s 7,500-person staff.
Another change that had a lot of people talking was the new verification program. The Twitter Blue subscription service now gives blue check marks to users who pay $8 a month but in a tweet earlier this week, Musk said he’s delaying the implementation until there’s high confidence of stopping impersonation.
There are more changes Musk is considering implementing.
He has said that the company will set up a Content Moderation Council, which will be responsible for all major content decisions and that no account will be reinstated before the council convenes but Trump’s account was reinstated after Musk tweeted a poll asking users their opinion. So were a few other accounts, including the rapper Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — Project Veritas and the Babylon Bee.
Musk says he's also considering charging for video content and even reviving Vine, a platform that Twitter discontinued in 2016.
Republicans and Democrats are split over these changes. Some conservative lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia celebrated Musk’s takeover. Meanwhile, some Democratic lawmakers, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York aren’t happy about it.
Several advertisers like General Motors, General Mills, Audi, Pfizer and Ford have also put the platform on hold and distanced themselves. This is a big deal because advertising is Twitter’s biggest source of revenue, accounting for 90% last year.
But things were on a downward trend before Musk’s takeover was finalized. In the second quarter of 2022, Twitter's revenue of $1.18 billion failed to meet Wall Street’s estimate of $1.32 billion, which was the company’s biggest miss to date.