Apple News In Conversation How Elon Musk transformed Twitter — and what it means for online discourse
Mar 19, 2026
Kate Conger, NYT technology reporter who covered Twitter’s turmoil. Ryan Mac, NYT technology reporter and co-author tracking Twitter’s transformation. They unpack Musk’s takeover, mass layoffs, major product and moderation shifts, the rise of Grok AI, and how platform choices reshaped who stays and how online conversations unfold.
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Twitter's Early Role As A Public Utility
- Early Twitter became a real-time public utility for breaking news, organizing movements, and live reactions worldwide.
- Ryan Mac and Kate Conger describe its value for journalists, emergency responders, and organizers as immediate, discovery-driven utility that few platforms matched.
Elon's Early Normie Twitter Persona
- Elon Musk began as an earnest, normie poster who shared personal updates and Tesla customer-service interactions.
- Mac and Conger read his early tweets and note he used Twitter to bypass PR, cultivate fans, and promote SpaceX and Tesla.
COVID Fueled Musk's Platform Mission
- COVID radicalized Musk's Twitter behavior, amplifying mistrust of institutions and anger at lockdowns, which fed his later platform ambitions.
- He began proclaiming strong, often inaccurate positions (e.g., children not infectable), and framed Twitter as a tool to fight 'woke' influence.
