The Thread of Meta’s New App: Unraveling Trivia from the Social Media Tapestry

Twitter Blue is the company’s subscription service, allowing paying subscribers to recall tweets, theme their Twitter app and app icon, and experience new features early.

Where and when is Twitter Blue available?

Twitter first launched the Twitter Blue service in June 2021 in Canada and Australia on iOS. On Nov. 9, 2021, Twitter Blue became available in the US and New Zealand and on Android and the web. After purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk said he was considering raising the subscription price and moving all verified users to the paid program. Starting Dec. 13, 2022, the relaunched service costs $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for iPhone users. Subscribers see fewer ads, can post longer videos, and have their tweets emphasized.

Following the suspension of Kanye West’s Twitter and Instagram accounts due to antisemitic remarks, Parler’s parent company announced on Oct. 17, 2022, that Ye would buy the site for an undisclosed amount. By December, the conservative social media platform confirmed it would not go through with the deal to sell the site to Ye.

What’s Parler?

Parler bills itself as a platform for uncancelable free speech. Apple, Amazon, and Google had kicked the right-wing social network off their platforms after the app hosted calls for violence around the time of the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. Apple and Google later restored the site to their app stores, but it has struggled to maintain a large user base.

And the apology?

West joined Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored” for an interview out Oct.21, 2022. After a back and forth between Morgan and Ye, the rapper apologized for writing: “I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”, saying he’s sorry for the “hurt” and “confusion” it caused families unrelated to his anger. Watch the clip.

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter on Oct. 28, 2022, led to a 500% increase in the use of the N-word to demean Black people on the platform within just 12 hours, according to the National Contagion Research Institute, a disinformation tracking agency. Users were encouraged to amplify derogatory slurs on Twitter in several posts on the 4chan fringe message board website.

Is Trump returning to Twitter?

As of Nov. 2, 2022, Elon Musk announced Twitter would only allow people banned from its site to return once it sets up procedures on how to do so. That includes the former President, despite a fake meme stating otherwise.

After Elon Musk announced that his newly acquired company had restored Kanye West’s Twitter account, the rapper returned to the platform on Nov. 20, 2022. In October 2022, Twitter moderators blocked Ye’s page because of his antisemitic tweets. After confirming Twitter unblocked him, Ye tweeted: “Shalom : ).”

Is Ye still on Twitter?

By Dec. 1, West’s account was suspended after the troubled rapper tweeted an image of a Nazi swastika inside the Jewish Star of David. The indefinite suspension happened the same day Ye appeared on Infowars’ conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones’s podcast, during which he said, “I like Hitler.”

Following Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, the social platform made a single-sentence update to its policies: “Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter will no longer enforce the COVID-19 misleading information policy.”

Elon Musk values Twitter at $20 billion, according to an internal memo reported by the Information on March 25, 2023. Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter in October 2022, meaning Twitter lost more than half its value in just half a year. However, Musk acknowledged it as an overpayment at the time of the deal. The company’s value dropped throughout the year as advertisers pulled out of the platform.

Linda Yaccarino, previously the head of advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal, was confirmed as the new CEO of Twitter on May 12, 2023. She was appointed by Elon Musk, who bought the platform last year for $44 billion. She will focus on business operations while Musk works on product design and technology. Yaccarino is one of the rare female chief executives in technology. She has often said she was the only woman at the table and faced bias incidents in her career.

On May 12, 2023, Twitter announced that it would limit access to some tweets and accounts in Turkey without specifying which ones or why. The company said it complied with the legal process and tried to keep Twitter available in Turkey. The decision sparked controversy and criticism from some observers who accused Twitter CEO Elon Musk of censoring Erdogan’s opponents and betraying his free speech principles. The content restriction came ahead of Turkey’s May 14, 2023, presidential election. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced a close race against opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Both sides dispute the election results, and Turkey remains in a state of political uncertainty.

Tucker Carlson launched his brand-new show on Twitter on June 6, 2023. Carlson’s Twitter show, aptly named “Tucker on Twitter,” premiered with a 10-minute episode, receiving millions of views. In the first episode, Carlson suggested that the destruction of a major dam in Ukraine was self-inflicted, as usual, without providing any proof.

How did Fox News react?

Fox News has claimed that Tucker Carlson’s new Twitter show violates his contract with the network. Carlson’s Fox News contract lasts until 2025. He was the top-rated talk show host on US cable television at Fox News.

George Soros. Photo: Niccolò Caranti, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

George Soros, a Holocaust-surviving Jewish-born investor, and philanthropist, is often the target of far-right, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. According to a regulatory filing, Soros Fund Management LLC sold all of its 2.5 million shares of Tesla Inc. in the first quarter of 2023. It also bought shares of Lucid Motors Inc., a competitor in the electric vehicle market. This prompted Musk to tweet on May 16, 2023: “Soros is a traitor to humanity and a threat to our planet,” comparing him to the X-Men’s civilization-crushing Magneto.