How does one man take one of the most valuable social media platforms in the world and cause it to become one of the least profitable and most in-debt platforms in the history of the Internet? If you are looking for the answer, you can look no further than the disaster that was Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now known as X), and his series of massive mistakes during his ownership of the platform. Beginning in October of 2022, and continuing until the present day, Twitter (now known as X) has experienced a sharp decline in profit and advertisements, and a rise in the number of bots and extremist propaganda has become increasingly visible on the platform as its embattled owner, Elon Musk, tackles several legal battles and a public image nightmare. This article will cover the current childlike tantrums Musk has been airing out on X and the continual failures of his ownership of Twitter.

Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 Billion in October of 2022, which took the corporation from a publicly traded company to one that was privately owned and traded. During the leadup to the purchase, online speculation around the deal showed that most people who used the site were excited to see what Musk would bring to the platform as its CEO and owner. Musk, after becoming CEO, immediately went about reforming the company in his own image. One of his first acts was to start a series of mass layoffs of Twitter employees and to additionally ask current employees to return to the corporation’s San Francisco headquarters 5 days a week. This act by Musk was seen as a criticism of the company and its work culture, which Musk often derided in his own tweets before the acquisition. Musk continued with mass layoffs and changes to the platform and company for months, with the platform eventually being changed to its current X branding, with Musk ditching the iconic blue bird for the generic “X” title.

To learn more about Musk’s tenure in the company, you can visit one of my prior articles Musk’s purchase of Twitter, which covers (in detail) his ownership of the company. After handing the position of CEO to a close ally of his, Linda Yaccarino, Musk still retained a direct position of leadership in the company, often announcing changes to the platform on his personal X account. As the months progressed, Musk’s posts on X began to rapidly devolve into childish name-calling of his enemies and direct posting of far-right and right-wing conspiracy theories, which has resulted in mass controversy and even some limited legal issues with governments. One notable example of current legal issues facing the company is the feud between Brazilian Supreme Court Alexandre de Moraes and Musk. Moraes, who sits on Brazil’s supreme court, has ordered X Corp. to provide legal representation of the company or be shut down by the end of Friday (date of publication). Musk has taken to X to insult and berate the judge, even using the new Grok AI (his personal AI generation algorithm) to make images that mock the judge. 

Brazilian Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes arriving for a court hearing. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres/File)

Obviously, this child-like tantrum on X has not earned Musk much sympathy from the judge who will be overseeing whether or not his platform is allowed to continue operating in Brazil. His continual harassment of his “enemies” has also earned Musk harsh criticism from the general public. Among other things, Musk has also used X to spread far-right misinformation and propaganda during the recent United Kingdom anti-immigration riots and to directly attack renowned American author Stephen King. Musk’s continual tantrums and numerous personal failures are only one of many signs that Musk is falling further into the far-right rabbit hole.