ANALYSIS | The 9 promises that Elon Musk has not fulfilled as head of Twitter

New York () — Elon Musk’s record of delivering on the spate of promises he’s made as head of Twitter is less than ideal. In fact, it’s downright disappointing.

Just a year ago it was revealed that the billionaire had become Twitter’s largest shareholder. Weeks after that disclosure, Musk said he would take the company private with a $44 billion buyout.

Since then, Musk has made a series of wild Twitter-related promises and changes. Some of those promises talk about new features that would supposedly be implemented on the social network. Others have referred to how the platform will govern. And others have been directed at their employees.

Under Musk’s erratic ownership, the platform has seen its fortunes quickly fade. Advertisers have fled in droves, the platform has suffered significant outages, hate speech has thrived, and thousands of employees have been forced to leave the company.

In typical Musk fashion, he’s made so many commitments that it can be hard to keep track of them. And that has played in his favor, since he has not followed through on the mountain of promises that he has made. As we approach the one-year mark of Musk’s foray into Twitter, here are some of the big promises he made and didn’t keep:

Decisions by survey: after Musk generated backlash for banning links to other social media platforms, promised: “In the future, a vote will be held for important policy changes. My apologies. It won’t happen again.” Since then, it has implemented a large number of policy changes without soliciting user feedback.

Resignation: Musk asked users in December if he should step down as head of Twitter, promising “comply with the results” of the survey. Users rejected Musk, but he has refused to step down for now, saying he doesn’t think anyone else can properly run the company.

Maximum freedom of expression: Musk said repeatedly that Twitter is a home for free speech. But multiple times, he has blatantly censored posts on his platform. Musk suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists late last year (he later restored their accounts, but forced them to delete tweets he didn’t like) and removed the BBC content after the Government of India demanded it. Musk also maintained a suspension on the account of Alex Jones and exiled kanye west from the platform for rule violations, which doesn’t really seem like it’s in the spirit of the maximum free speech it claims to support.

Digital City Square: when Musk bought Twitter, he declared the platform as a “digital city square where vital issues for the future of humanity are debated”. But this week he announced that non-paying users won’t even be able to vote on the site and their voices will be minimized. Musk also said that he will only promote tweets from users who pay him.

Check: Musk said that as the owner of Twitter, he would work on “authenticate all humanson the platform. But Musk has moved to do the opposite by stripping notable public figures who refuse to pay him of their verification credentials, while simultaneously verifying users impersonating others.

Open source algorithm: Musk has repeatedly promised that he would open-source Twitter’s algorithm. He did so when he announced his acquisition of the company. AND on February 21 he said it would happen “next week”. It has yet to happen. Musk now claims Which will happen on March 31.

Moderation Tip: when Musk became the owner of Twitter, he said he would name a content moderation tip who would advise on all those decisions. The council was never appointed and Musk stated later that it would not actually create such a body.

Shadowban function: Musk promised in december that it would launch a feature that would show users if they had been “shadow banned,” which is when people are blocked or restricted from a platform. It’s been months without that feature being available.

Compensation: Musk bragged about offering the fired employees three months’ severance, which he said was more than the company was legally required to do. Months after being laid off, many employees they were only offered one month’s pay in exchange for agreeing to various terms and conditions.

When I reached out to Musk on Wednesday morning with questions about his failed promises, he didn’t respond. but i received a poop emoji as an automatic response from the [email protected] email address, a feature Musk recently said he would implement.

It is perhaps one of the only promises that he has really kept.