One of the humorous aspect of Elon Musk’s takeover at Twitter has been watching how a lot, for all Musk’s overt claims and noise, all the pieces concerning the firm’s method continues to be just about the identical because it has been in occasions previous.

I imply, positive, he’s reinstated a heap of beforehand banned accounts, a lot of which have been re-banned once more, and he’s additionally made the platform much less welcoming for advertisers by upping the parameters for content material removals, and permitting Group Notes to be added to promoted tweets.

However by way of guidelines and approaches, Twitter’s both just about the identical because it was, or it’s slowly reverting again to its previous methods, as Musk and his Twitter 2.0 crew be taught why these authentic guidelines had initially been put in place.

Take, for instance, verification, which Musk initially used as an actual ‘altering of the guard’ aspect, a press release that issues would now be a lot completely different below his regime.

Musk and Co. then swiftly rolled out their new $8 verification plan, which led to an quick flood of impersonations and points, which compelled Twitter to close it down inside just some days.

Which everyone had predicted would occur – however Elon was eager to push forward together with his new technique anyway, which additionally noticed him then compelled to up the value to keep away from shedding out as a consequence of app retailer taxes.

A month later, when Twitter re-launched verification, new parameters had been added, which instantly started to reflect the ‘lords and peasants’ system that Musk had criticized. Authorities entities and companies would have separate classification, whereas Twitter would implement new checking measures to reduce impersonation, together with the elimination of the checkmark each time a Twitter Blue subscriber modified their username of profile picture.

These parameters make sense, after all, however once more, the modifications moved the system extra into line with how Twitter had beforehand managed this aspect, whereas Twitter then additionally gifted verification to its prime 10,000 advertisers, in addition to people with over 1,000,000 followers, in recognition of their significance to the app.

In different phrases, Twitter’s nonetheless giving out verification, based mostly by itself inner standards, and people customers are certainly being handled in another way. Not solely do these profiles not should pay for a verification tick, additionally they don’t even want to use – primarily, the Twitter 2.0 crew has now acknowledged that these customers want verification as a way to shield their id within the app, which is strictly what the unique verification course of was carried out to deal with. And now, by means of its personal trial and error, Twitter has come to the identical conclusion as its earlier administration, although Musk and Co. proceed to border it in any other case.

That’s been additional underlined once more this week, with Twitter launching a brand new utility process for presidency affiliated profiles, which features a vary of checks and qualifiers to substantiate your id and eligibility for the marker.

Which is smart – Twitter needs to make sure that those that are given a gray checkmark are certainly who they are saying they’re. However once more, this simply strikes the system extra into line with what it was, and whereas anybody can now purchase a checkmark if they need, the suggestion that Twitter is taking some radically completely different method right here is inaccurate, and belies the fact of its method.

You possibly can say the identical about its varied purposeful additions, like longer tweets, subscriptions and Group Notes. All of those had been both in growth or launched lengthy earlier than Elon took over, with Twitter merely clearing its experiment deck, and framing every as a brand new possibility.

For all of the noise about change on the app, Twitter’s truly not far faraway from its earlier state, with most of the rule modifications and updates that Elon has additionally carried out both being rolled again, as a consequence of points in utility, or reformed into comparable guidelines to what they’d beforehand been.

Twitter’s additionally nonetheless bowing to authorities requests, with Indian, Chinese language and Russian seemingly authorities now seemingly getting higher remedy below Musk, regardless of Musk’s ‘Twitter Recordsdata’ mission which proclaimed to uncover comparable initiatives by which Twitter had labored with authorities teams.   

Twitter’s nonetheless the identical, it’s simply that the particular person making the decision on the way it operates is completely different. Which can be considered as a greater state of affairs by some, however the concept that Twitter is now extra open, much less restricted, and fewer influenced by administration is just not right.

The one actual distinction is that Twitter needs to cost folks extra money for utilizing its instruments, be it by way of verification, API utilization, and so forth. But it surely’s fascinating to notice that its methods are nonetheless largely the identical, and with far fewer employees, it’s tough to see how Twitter’s going to implement vital modifications as a way to additional advance its choices.

However I’m positive that Elon has a plan, which fits past merely bullying customers into paying him $8 a month for elevated tweet attain.

Possibly Tucker Carlson’s new present is the subsequent stage of Twitter’s content material and creator focus, that’ll carry extra customers to the app.