Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and its transformation into X

Musk took control later in October and immediately ousted top executives,^[2] and layoffs began across the company within days.^[3] He announced that verified accounts would cost $8 a month,^[4] gave remaining workers a choice to pledge "extremely hardcore" work or resign,^[20] and restored Trump's account after an online poll.^[5] In December, Twitter dissolved its Trust and Safety Council and suspended several journalists, whose accounts Musk later restored.^[21][22] After users voted in his poll for him to step down, Musk said he would resign as CEO once he found a replacement.^[23]

Musk also released internal company documents, which he called the Twitter Files, through outside journalists including Matt Taibbi. The first installment, in December 2022, described how Twitter had decided to block the New York Post's 2020 story about Hunter Biden's laptop,^[24][25] and Musk fired the company's general counsel amid the controversy.^[26] The FBI said "conspiracy theorists" were using the files to discredit it,^[27] critics said Musk was using them to attack his foes and push conspiracy theories,^[28] and the Federal Trade Commission later sought the names of the journalists involved as part of an investigation of the company.^[29] The fight over the laptop story itself is followed in a separate arc.

Twitter became X in 2023. NPR quit Twitter in April over a label that called it government-funded,^[30] and in May Musk named Linda Yaccarino, an NBCUniversal executive with deep ties to the advertising industry, as CEO.^[31] In July, Twitter's blue bird gave way to an "X" logo.^[6]

The platform also fought its critics. X sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit whose research documented a rise in hate speech on the site, accusing it of unlawfully accessing data.^[32] After a large advertiser exodus in November 2023, it sued Media Matters over an analysis highlighting antisemitic and pro-Nazi content on the platform.^[7] Musk told advertisers who had pulled out to "go fuck yourself."^[33] A judge threw out X's suit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate in March 2024,^[34] while its case against Media Matters was allowed to go to trial,^[35] and in August X sued a group of major advertisers, accusing them of an illegal boycott; their industry alliance shut down days later.^[36][37] In July 2024, Musk said X would move its headquarters from California to Texas, after California barred school districts from requiring staff to tell parents about changes in a child's gender identity.^[38]

Regulators and former partners pressed claims against Musk and the company. An EU official called X the biggest purveyor of disinformation, and the European Union opened a formal investigation of it over illegal content in December 2023.^[39][40] The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk in October 2023 to force him to testify in its probe of his purchase of Twitter stock, and later sought sanctions when he failed to appear.^[41][42] Fired executives sued him for more than $128 million in severance,^[43] and former CNN anchor Don Lemon sued after Musk canceled his planned show on X.^[44][45] Musk's other ventures, including Tesla and his role in the Trump administration, are followed in separate arcs in this series.