5 Things Elon Musk Wants to Change About Twitter Right Away – Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion (€44.4 billion), then he fired the board of directors and declared himself CEO.
Musk announced his intention to lead Twitter in an SEC filing. He has also just updated his Twitter bio to include the title “Chief Twit.”
According to the filings, Musk claimed that the “consummation of the merger” occurred on October 27 and that he “became the only director of Twitter” after that date.
Who has Elon Musk replaced?
Musk abruptly replaced Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal and several other high-ranking executives late last week, at which point Twitter security immediately removed them from the Twitter offices.
Musk mentioned the departures of Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li, and Mimi Alemayehou from the board of directors in his SEC filing to take the company private after nearly a decade of trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Musk tweeted that the board was being dissolved “temporarily,” but he did not elaborate.
What Other Changes Are Taking Place At Twitter?
Musk, who also controls SpaceX and Tesla, ultimately clinched the deal on Thursday after months of negotiations to acquire Twitter.
According to the SEC filing, as part of the merger agreement, Musk has also offered to purchase all of Twitter’s outstanding bonds.
Musk visited with Tesla engineers soon after purchasing Twitter in order to examine its code.
The Washington Post said that Musk planned to let off about 75% of Twitter’s 7,500 staff when the acquisition concluded on Thursday.
The new Twitter CEO has also alluded to plans to charge users for the “blue check” that is used to verify high-profile accounts like those of journalists, media outlets, brands, and more.
According to a story by The Verge, the cost of Twitter’s premium tier, Blue, may increase from its current $5 per month to $20 per month.
“The whole verification process is being revamped right now” Musk tweeted on Sunday.
THE WHOLE VERIFICATION PROCESS IS BEING REVAMPED RIGHT NOW
— ELON MUSK (@ELONMUSK) OCTOBER 30, 2022
Changes to Twitter’s Verification Process
Having completed the buyout just last week, Musk has wasted no time stamping his authority on Twitter, which he has criticized for months for being reluctant to deploy product upgrades or remove spam accounts.
According to two sources with knowledge of the situation, he had his teams meet with some employees to begin investigating Twitter’s software code and learning how certain features of the network functioned.
WE NEED TO PAY THE BILLS SOMEHOW! TWITTER CANNOT RELY ENTIRELY ON ADVERTISERS. HOW ABOUT $8?
— ELON MUSK (@ELONMUSK) NOVEMBER 1, 2022
5 Things Elon Musk Wants to Change About Twitter Right Away
It’s dizzying to keep up with, but here’s a running list of the changes Musk is pushing for or has made at Twitter in just one week:
PAYING FOR VERIFICATIONWhile no one has been billed so far, Musk has made it clear that he plans to charge $8 for users to receive a blue verification check mark on their profile. The subscription service could go live as soon as Monday. (Users who are currently verified will retain them for free for a limited time, after which they will see their blue check disappear if they don’t pay the fee.) Verification subscribers will also receive priority status in replies, mentions, and search, the ability to post longer video and audio clips, and a reduced number of ads.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND HATE SPEECH SURGEFringe groups flocked to Twitter as soon as Musk closed the deal, hoping to test his free speech vows. The Anti-Defamation League said it found over 1,200 tweets and retweets with anti-Semitic memes on Twitter between last Thursday and Friday afternoon. And instances of the N-word increased by 500% in the 12 hours after he took over the platform. Twitter blamed the rise on a “trolling campaign,” saying more than 50,000 tweets repeatedly using “a particular slur”—an evident reference to the N-word—had come from just 300 accounts.
Musk threw jet fuel on the fire, though, after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was assaulted in his home, posting a conspiracy theory in reply to a Hillary Clinton tweet. He later deleted the tweet, but it had already been retweeted and liked tens of thousands of times.
AN EXECUTIVE RED WEDDINGMusk fired former CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, and General Counsel Sean Edgett before the ink was dry on the deal. He claims the terminations were “for cause,” which he hopes will void clauses in the contract that would give them a collective $122 million in golden parachute payouts. Expect a lawsuit over that.
Not too long afterward, Musk dissolved the company’s board, declaring himself the sole director of the company. Since then, more executives have left, including CMO Leslie Berland, Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, senior product executives Jay Sullivan and Nick Caldwell, and Twitter’s head of people and diversity Dalana Brand. And Musk has installed a new team of advisers to help him run the show.
CHANGES TO THE HOME PAGEUnregistered visitors to Twitter used to be welcomed by a start-up page. Within 24 hours of taking over the company, Musk instructed engineers to redirect logged out visitors to the Explore page, which shows trending tweets and news stories
THE END OF REMOTE WORKEmployees who do survive Musk’s purge will no longer have the option to work remotely. While there will be some exceptions, he reportedly plans to reverse the company’s existing work-from-anywhere policy. He famously did so at Tesla, telling employees in a leaked memo they were “required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
ADVERTISER (AND HIGH-PROFILE USER) EXODUSSeveral celebrities and influencers have already packed up and left Twitter, including singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles and television producer and creator Shonda Rhimes. But more critically, advertisers are growing skittish. IPG, which is one of the world’s largest advertising companies, has recommended its clients pause spending on Twitter, due to moderation concerns. IPG clients include American Express, Coca-Cola, Fitbit, GoPro, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss & Co, Mattel, and Spotify.
PERMABANS BEING OVERTURNEDMusk has made it clear that many users Twitter has previously banned for life, including Donald Trump, would be welcomed back. It’s not happening as fast as some people expected, though. Musk said no one will be allowed to return until Twitter sets up procedures on how to do that, which will take at least a few weeks and push those returns past the midterm elections.
To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2022
THE RETURN OF VINEOn Sunday, Musk put up a poll asking simply “Bring back Vine?” Nearly five million people replied, with 70% saying yes. Within a day, reports emerged he had ordered developers to get to work, with an end-of-year deadline for the reboot of the short-form video site.
AN ONLY**S COMPETITOROn Wednesday, word emerged that Twitter could debut a paywalled video feature, which would let creators charge people to view their content. That would almost certainly be embraced by the adult entertainment world and could prove to be a competitor to OnlyF**s. Subscribers to OnlyF**s spent $4.8 billion on the site last year, just shy of Twitter’s 2021 annual revenue.
Final Lines
Additionally, Musk has advocated modifying the platform’s free user verification process. In a tweet from author Stephen King, who said he was unwilling to pay $20 (€20.15) per month to preserve his verified badge on Twitter, Musk answered, “How about $8?”
