Twitter’s new proprietor and CEO, Elon Musk, is placing his stamp on the influential social community.
Instantly after Musk purchased Twitter on Oct. 27, the billionaire wasted no time making adjustments to the platform. From firing executives to proposing a brand new content material moderation council, so much has unfolded with Musk on the helm.
However Twitter’s saga with Musk was chaotic even earlier than he took management. The 2 sides secured a pact for him to purchase the corporate in April, however Musk later tried to again out of the deal, main Twitter to sue him. After months of messy pretrial skirmishes, the SpaceX and Tesla chief lastly closed his acquisition of the corporate proper earlier than a deadline that may have compelled him to go face to face with Twitter in courtroom.
“The hen is freed,” Musk, who has greater than 112 million followers on Twitter, tweeted on the night time he accomplished his $44 billion buy.
This is the newest information about Musk’s takeover of Twitter:
Nov. 2: Musk reportedly plans to chop half of Twitter’s workforce
Musk plans to chop about 3,700 jobs at Twitter, or half of the social media firm’s workforce, Bloomberg reported. Affected staffers are to be told of their destiny by Friday, sources instructed the information outlet.
Musk additionally plans to reverse the corporate’s current work-from-anywhere coverage, requiring remaining workers to report back to workplace, the unidentified sources mentioned.
In a single situation for decreasing Twitter’s workfroce being thought of, laid off employees can be provided 60 days’ price of severance pay. Twitter customers have been bracing for layoffs since Musk introduced his bid for Twitter in April. One report indicated that Musk deliberate to chop 75% of jobs at Twitter.
Nov. 1: Musk suggests charging for verification
In a sequence of tweets, Musk floated the concept that Twitter cost $8 monthly for a verified blue examine mark as a part of its subscription plan. The corporate’s subscription service, generally known as Twitter Blue, presently prices $5 monthly however does not embrace verification as a perk.
Twitter presently does not cost to confirm accounts with a blue examine mark, and the badge is meant to be given out to accounts that the corporate determines are “notable, genuine and lively.” The blue examine mark is supposed to assist customers decide if an account of a celeb, journalist or different public determine is pretend or not.
Musk tweeted that the value could be adjusted by nation and that the subscription would come with “precedence in replies, mentions & search, which is crucial to defeat spam/rip-off,” in addition to the “capacity to publish lengthy video & audio.” He additionally mentioned customers would see “half as many advertisements.”
Earlier within the day, The Wall Avenue Journal reported that Twitter Blue subscribers will lose entry to ad-free articles from publishers like Vox, the Los Angeles Occasions and Insider. There have been varied stories of various costs for a Twitter Blue subscription, with the corporate additionally reportedly having thought of rising the subscription value to $20 a month.
It is unclear from Musk’s tweets if verified customers must pay for a subscription or lose their blue examine mark. Musk tweeted there could be “a secondary tag” for public figures, just like the one now used for politicians.
The corporate’s chief buyer officer, Sarah Personette, additionally revealed in a tweet that she resigned on Friday.
Hello people, I wished to share that I resigned on Friday from Twitter and my work entry was formally lower off final night time.
— Sarah Personette (@SEP) November 1, 2022
In the meantime, Twitter mentioned it has eliminated 1,500 accounts since Saturday for posting hateful content material.
Oct. 31: Official CEO, board dissolved, layoff plans, no Trump resolution but, content material moderation restricted
Days after naming himself “Chief Twit” on his Twitter profile, Musk confirmed he is the corporate’s CEO via a securities submitting. Different adjustments to Twitter’s management are additionally underway. A associated securities submitting reveals Twitter’s board of administrators was dissolved the day Musk took over and recognized Musk because the “sole director” of the corporate.
He additionally reportedly plans to put off 25% of Twitter’s workforce, The Washington Submit reported, citing nameless sources.
Musk, who has beforehand mentioned he would reverse former US President Donald Trump’s everlasting ban from Twitter, remains to be getting questions on whether or not he’ll observe via on that. Twitter booted Trump from its platform in 2021 following the lethal US Capitol Hill riot due to considerations that his remarks might incite extra violence.
“If I had a greenback for each time somebody requested me if Trump is coming again on this platform, Twitter could be minting cash!” Musk tweeted.
Twitter additionally restricted some Belief and Security worker entry to inside instruments, Bloomberg reported, curbing their capacity to reasonable content material and handle misinformation forward of subsequent week’s US elections. They will apparently nonetheless edit or take away posts that might end in real-world hurt.
“That is precisely what we (or any firm) needs to be doing within the midst of a company transition to cut back alternatives for insider threat. We’re nonetheless implementing our guidelines at scale,” Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of security and integrity, tweeted in response to Bloomberg’s story.
Oct. 30: Musk toys with checkmark adjustments and Vine revival, tweets misinformation
Musk has been busy suggesting adjustments to Twitter. He tweeted a ballot about whether or not Twitter ought to carry again Vine, a short-form video app that Twitter shut down in 2017.
Twitter additionally reportedly plans to cost $20 monthly for its Twitter Blue subscription service, and verified customers would lose their blue checkmark if they do not accomplish that in 90 days, The Verge reported, citing nameless sources. Platformer’s Casey Newton reported that Twitter is considering charging $5 a month to verified customers in the event that they need to hold their blue checkmarks.
Musk additionally tweeted after which deleted a hyperlink to an article with a baseless conspiracy idea about final week’s assault on Paul Pelosi, the husband of US Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco. The article got here from a web site referred to as the Santa Monica Observer. Reality-checking web site Media Bias/Reality Verify famous the outlet publishes right-wing misinformation.
Oct. 29: Twitter battles a surge in racist slurs
Twitter is making an attempt to fight nameless accounts that began to tweet racist slurs hours after Musk took over Twitter.
Twitter head of security and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted that the corporate has “seen a small variety of accounts publish a ton of tweets that embrace slurs and different derogatory phrases.” He added that “greater than 50,000 tweets repeatedly utilizing a specific slur got here from simply 300 accounts.”
“Backside line up entrance: Twitter’s insurance policies have not modified. Hateful conduct has no place right here. And we’re taking steps to place a cease to an organized effort to make folks assume we’ve got,” he tweeted.
Let’s speak for a minute about slurs, hateful conduct, and trolling campaigns.
Backside line up entrance: Twitter’s insurance policies haven’t modified. Hateful conduct has no place right here. And we’re taking steps to place a cease to an organized effort to make folks assume we’ve got.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022
Oct. 28: Twitter to type content material moderation council
Advocacy teams have raised considerations that Musk’s management over Twitter would enable extra hate speech and misinformation to floor on the platform. Musk has vowed publicly he does not need Twitter to change into a “free-for-all hellscape” however has additionally mentioned that he is “in opposition to censorship that goes far past the regulation.”
Musk mentioned the corporate would type a content material moderation council with “broadly various viewpoints.” The corporate will not make any main content material choices or account reinstatements earlier than the council convenes, he tweeted.
Twitter can be forming a content material moderation council with broadly various viewpoints.
No main content material choices or account reinstatements will occur earlier than that council convenes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
A securities submitting on Oct. 28 additionally famous that Twitter’s inventory is being delisted on the New York Inventory Change. Twitter, a publicly traded firm, turned a non-public one.
Oct. 27: Musk takes over Twitter, fires executives
Musk turned Twitter’s new proprietor and reportedly fired key executives on the firm, together with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of authorized coverage, belief and security.
Earlier within the day, Musk tweeted a letter to advertisers. The billionaire, who as soon as tweeted that he hated promoting, now posted that “promoting, when achieved proper, can delight, entertain and inform you.”
Musk met with workers all through the week, carried a sink into Twitter’s headquarters as a photograph op and adjusted his profile to “Chief Twit” earlier than information broke that the deal had been accomplished.
