X, also known as Twitter,¹⁾ Twix, and Xitter,²⁾ is a microblogging, social networking service, co-founded by four Odeo employees³⁾ on March 21, 2006,⁴⁾ managed as a public company from 2007⁵⁾ to 2022,⁶⁾ then the $44 billion acquisition by Elon Musk happened on October 27, 2022.⁷⁾

As Twitter, Inc. became X Corp.,⁸⁾ rebranding efforts to “X” began on July 23, 2023⁹⁾¹⁰⁾ and the domain changed on May 17, 2024.¹¹⁾ While it intends to become a super app, most people see Musk as this resentful old man¹²⁾ in a childish¹³⁾ midlife crisis.¹⁴⁾¹⁵⁾

The service revolves around short-form posts,¹⁶⁾ but users can also upload media, hold polls, and attach a location, though posts can't be edited without a subscription. From there, other users may like your post, share it to their account, or leave a reply if willing. Users may change their timeline by following or unfollowing accounts, except the website notably pushes the highly algorithmic “for you” timeline by default.

A chronological timeline is available under the “following” tab, but the website will default to the “for you” tab unless you use a third-party extension or client. While your “likes” are no longer public,¹⁷⁾ partially making bookmarks redundant,¹⁸⁾ do note that your following is still public.¹⁹⁾ Main functionalities aside, they have an annoying news widget and will push “spaces” unless you join a community.

It can be said that the platform is quite misanthropic(human-hating), inflicting a great amount of stress that people become reluctant to use the service or outright quit. The character limit makes it easy for users to misinterpret one another, you can easily instigate fights with complete strangers, and trolls generally have no issues finding a new target since the platform is incredibly open,²⁰⁾ even if the search functionality is a bit broken.

As for the company, it always struggled with profits.²¹⁾ While their company is no longer required to provide financial statements going private, we continue to hear that, despite their mass layoffs,²²⁾ it continues to follow the trend of declining revenue and rising expenses.^23)24)25) In 2021, the website added a subscription service called “Twitter Blue”, now “X Premium”, though it has very little benefits.

For most of its history, Twitter has been a Western propaganda outlet since 2009, when co-founder Jack Dorsey had a curious visit to Occupied Iraq,²⁶⁾ then a Twitter Revolution occurred in Iran.²⁷⁾²⁸⁾ It'd cool down for a decade before hiring a former PsyOp officer²⁹⁾³⁰⁾ and increasing FBI communications, per the Twitter Files,³¹⁾³²⁾ then they hired many former FBI and Atlantic Council personnel.³³⁾

After introducing curated propaganda³⁴⁾ and an infamously biased 'state-affiliated media' label,³⁵⁾ they had egregiously partnered with ASPI,³⁶⁾ a pro-defensive policy think tank which is known to smear countries that allegedly threaten Western hegemony,^37)38)39) a list that includes Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and Venezuela.⁴⁰⁾ Now, pause and take a minute to reflect on that if you haven't.

With the 2022 acquisition, Twitter's arbitrators of “misinformation”⁴¹⁾ were laid off,^42)43)44) giving a temporary reprieve from politics.⁴⁵⁾ However, Musk isn't any better, being a stooge who works with the United States⁴⁶⁾ while taking Saudi and Qatari funds.^47)48)49) Since everyone turned on him, Musk has skewed far-right, being an outspoken Trump supporter,⁵⁰⁾ and coming off as an “internet tough guy”, as they say.⁵¹⁾⁵²⁾

On January 12, 2023, the platform changed its API, breaking third-party clients in the process,⁵³⁾ and began enforcing “long-standing API rules”⁵⁴⁾ that bans developers from creating alternative third-party clients.⁵⁵⁾ It was then announced that free API access would end,⁵⁶⁾⁵⁷⁾ but the community backlash led to the plans being changed to cede a limited form of free API access instead.⁵⁸⁾⁵⁹⁾

The rebrand hasn't exactly caught on. “Twitter” remains the common name, media outlets still use variants of “X (formerly Twitter)”, and any search results for “X” will never be 100% about the platform. It doesn't sound good when spoken either as “social media X” or “X social media” will have people asking: “What is this? Some research paper?”, “Is the platform in witness protection?”, or “What's this about an ex?”

• Control Panel for Twitter [@controlpanelft]
  Gives more control over the Twitter experience, adding features and general UI improvements.
• Minimal Twitter [@typefully]
  Simple extension to make Twitter minimalist (less cluttered), offers a resizable timeline.
• Old Twitter Layout [@dimden]
  Emulates the 2015 or 2018 layout, on top of a bunch of other features. Not available for Firefox.⁶⁰⁾
• Shadowban Scanner [@keita_roboin]
  A tool that scans posts and profiles to see if their outreach is limited. For the paranoid.

• Privatter [@privatter] - An off-site blogging service with a handful of privacy features, including password-protected posts and restricting posts to only be viewable by followers.
• Skeb [@skeb_jp] - It's an artist “commission” service⁶¹⁾ that uses a lot of wasei-eigo terminology, so please read the client guidelines and be very specific with your paid drawing request.
• TwitLonger [@twitlonger] - An off-site blogging service which has allowed people to write longer posts since 2008. Due to the recent API changes, it hasn't returned yet.

• Please keep in mind that the platform is not anonymous, does not always reflect real life,⁶²⁾ and the spaghetti code is unreliable, so please don't obsess over follower counts either.
• Despite its long history of selling user data,⁶³⁾⁶⁴⁾ a phone number must be tied to your account, forcing people to use a burner phone⁶⁵⁾ or borrow someone else's phone number to avoid this.
  • Be warned that people can find your account if they have your phone number, so I'd uncheck the option under “discoverability & contacts” if you want your digital identity separate.
• From 2010 to 2023, Twitter had an iconic blue bird mascot named Larry,⁶⁶⁾ referencing the former NBA player Larry Bird. Coincidentally, the mascot and the player ended up having 13 year careers.
• The emoji-like icon that shows up after certain hashtags (e.g. brands, trends) are called “hashflags” which became a permanent addition in 2014.⁶⁷⁾ These became “hashmojis” in the rebrand.⁶⁸⁾
• Back then, Twitter would suppress trends after they've trended for a certain amount of time as a way to keep the news fresh, but users eventually discovered you could circumvent this with typos.
• The old “verified badge” (blue checkmark) application once asked you to have three news articles, from verified news organizations, written about you in the past six months!⁶⁹⁾
  • If you applied for the gold checkmark, intended for businesses and verified organizations,⁷⁰⁾ please be aware that your application may be denied and they will not refund your $1,000.
• Around 2019, the platform started becoming a home for cryptocurrency discussion⁷¹⁾ which eventually seeped into the company itself. During the NFT craze, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet for $2.9 million on March 22, 2021, though it's worthless now.⁷²⁾⁷³⁾ By 2022, the company claims that cryptocurrency was one of the “highest-growing topics” at the time.⁷⁴⁾
  • In the October 2022 report, the company also noted that NSFW content (i.e. nudity, pornography) was the other “highest-growing topic”, explicitly saying 13% of Twitter is adult content.⁷⁵⁾
  • During the acquisition, Binance reportedly gave $500 million to Elon Musk,⁷⁶⁾ which means that a cryptocurrency exchange makes up 1.13% of his $44 billion acquisition.
• You can always mute people if you don't want to give them the satisfaction of being blocked~ :P
• In the Japanese community, “FF-gai kara shitsureishimasu” (FF外から失礼します), or “FF-gai” (FF外), is an overly polite preface meaning “neither of us follow each other, so pardon my intrusion.”
• For some reason, Elon Musk always replies “interesting”, “concerning”, “looking into it/this”, and “wow”.
• Why is it called “X” if the URL still has “Twitter” in it?

• Bluesky - An independent initiative that later became a Twitter alternative.
• 'State-affiliated media' label - A former feature that was in use from 2020 to 2023.

• Twitter (X) - The front page of Twitter.
  • @X, @Support, @XEng, @API - A handful of official accounts to keep an eye on.
  • X Developers - The official forum for API development.
• Nitter - The alternative, privacy-focused front-end. It was sadly discontinued around 2024.⁷⁷⁾⁷⁸⁾
  • X Cancelled (xcancel.com) - One of the few working forks of Nitter.
• Blolook - That one Japanese tool that checks how many accounts have apparently blocked you.
• Twitter Shadowban Test, Shadow Bird - A tool for the paranoid.