Changes to Twitter's operations and Elon Musk's ambitions for the platform

After many months of news headlines about whether Elon Musk was going to buy Twitter, he eventually completed the purchase on 27 October 2022.

Since then, the company’s been through some big changes; laying off most of its 8000 employees, a rebrand to ‘X’, and reinstating some previously banned accounts on the platform.

Mr Musk describes himself a free speech absolutist and says he bought Twitter – now called X - to create a space where “a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” However, the company’s faced criticism over lax content moderation, leading to advertisers halting ads on the service. He hopes to boost revenue by making the site a paid-for platform, setting himself some ambitious financial targets.

In this episode, Sam Fenwick speaks to former employees, business owners and journalists to get a picture of what has happened at X since Elon Musk took over.

(Picture: Elon Musk next to a logo for X - formerly known as Twitter. Credit: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Produced by Amber Mehmood and Hannah Mullane