Musk bought Twitter, fired the board of directors, promised to radically change the moderation policy, and scandalously announced a paid subscription to verification checkboxes.
Elon Musk has closed the deal to buy Twitter and is doing whatever he wants with the social network. “A bird on the loose,” he wrote as he closed the deal on October 28. In the past, Musk has promised to make the social network a “bastion of free speech.” But right now, Musk’s decisions as head of Twitter look controversial at the very least.
First changes
Already on the first day in the office, the new head of Twitter changed the main page of the social network – now everything unauthorized is sent to the Overview tab, which immediately shows the most discussed topics on the site today – and , in theory, should engage new users more.
Musk also recalled Vine, a service with six-second looped videos – Twitter bought it in 2012 (literally a few months after its appearance), closed it four years later and still owns also everything related to the service. Many creators appeared on Vine, later gaining an impressive audience on Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube, where vertical video feeds are given the most importance. Axios wrote, citing sources, that Musk ordered his subordinates to reboot Vine by the end of 2022.
Layoffs
On the day the deal closed, Musk fired several top Twitter executives. The most resounding is the departure of Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal – he replaced the founder of the social network Jack Dorsey at the end of 2021 and has led it since then.
According to US media, Musk fired three other top managers on the first day: CFO Ned Segal, chief legal counsel Sean Edgett and director of legal policy Vijaya Gadde. Top managers who left, according to Bloomberg and Insider estimates, received impressive “golden parachutes”: for example, Segal – 25-37 million, Gadde – 12-17 million. It is still unknown who will replace them. Musk’s board of directors dissolved on Monday, November 1.
In total, about 7,500 people work at Twitter – and Musk, according to American media, plans to part with a significant part of them. Most likely, optimization will affect all departments of the company. According to one of the interlocutors of the NYT, we should expect a reduction in the staff of the social network by about 50%.
Give me money
The most talked about change planned by Musk is the payment for the blue verification checkmark, which basically confirms the identity of the account owner. Verification requirements are different for different types of users – for example, one for influencers, another for journalists, and another for government organizations. The final decision is already made by the Twitter team – and, according to Musk, this process is vague and discredited.
Musk wants to simplify the principle of issuing verification checkmarks. To do this, he wants to remake the Twitter Blue premium subscription, which has been tested since 2021, giving access, for example, to personalization, bookmarks, unsent tweets and a simplified mode for reading threads . The new owner’s proposal is to move all verified users to Twitter Blue and increase its cost (it’s now $4.99).
The main question for verification for money is related to the fact that the checkmark is the main way to confirm that the account is real and that there is no one behind it that is not related to a specific person or organization name.
Some popular users are threatening to leave the social network if Musk forces them to pay for the authentication that has already been provided. Stephen King said Twitter should pay him – after he tweeted that Musk offered to cut the cost of the service from $20 to eight dollars a month.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.