On October 27, Elon Musk officially took control of Twitter Inc., capping a months-long takeover that involved several turns and a US$44 billion deal. The drama has only gotten worse since then. After becoming CEO, Mr. Musk immediately started firing executives, board members, and staff members. Due to his revamp, the social media platform’s authentication method, fundamental principles, content filtering, and advertising have all changed. Since Mr. Musk came over as CEO in October, Twitter has had to deal with its decision-making being on an up-and-down scale. Here is a glance at what has been happening, which serves as a reminder because everything has been occurring swiftly.
Paid verification
Musk’s premium verification plan, which would allow users to pay $8 per month to earn a blue checkmark so they may digitally cosplay as celebrities in the app, was his first major statement.
Before learning that $20 a month was too much for ordinary people who don’t have billions of dollars in discretionary spending, Musk had originally planned to charge that amount. He reduced the price to $8, or $96 annually to keep your blue tick. However, iOS subscribers must pay $11 monthly because Elon doesn’t want to cover Apple’s 30% in-app purchase tax out of his own pocket.
Celebrities left Twitter
After Mr. Musk purchased Twitter, a number of users, particularly celebrities, abandoned the platform. These people include Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, Grammy-winning R&B artist Toni Braxton, Mick Foley, a retired professional wrestler who is now an actress, Academy Award-winning actor Whoopi Goldberg, model Gigi Hadid, and numerous others. The platform is turning into “a sewer of hate and prejudice,” was a typical criticism.
Massive layoffs
After assuming total control of Twitter, Mr. Musk’s first action was to fire the company’s previous CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett. Within a short period of time, he also removed the company’s board of directors and replaced them with himself, giving him complete authority over the social networking platform.
Employees at Twitter received a memo warning them of impending layoffs on Nov. 3. The staff was told to keep an eye out for emails with the subject “Your Role at Twitter.” The corporation let go of 3,700 workers or 50% of its workforce. Employees flooded the Twitter network with the hashtag #OneTeam and blue hearts to show their support for coworkers who were let go.
Account reinstatements
Musk’s revelation that he would reinstate the profiles of users who had been previously banned from the app clearly indicated his ambitions to make Twitter more open and free. It was more of a user poll than an announcement, which has become Musk’s go-to decision-making mechanism.
Since Musk wants to start over with a clean slate, Twitter has re-established approximately 60,000 accounts over the past month that belonged to people who had previously broken the platform’s rules. Although all of these profiles are still required to follow the platform’s rules, some of the app’s most notorious prior offenders are suddenly back and tweeting again.
