Since then, the billionaire has seemingly left no stone unturned throughout his whirlwind first month as “Chief Twit”.
Here is a take a look at the vary of how Musk (who continues to be, concurrently, CEO of his different firms Tesla and SpaceX) has already left his mark on one of many world’s most influential social media platforms.
Musk clears out C-suite, then cuts roughly half of Twitter’s employees
On the eve of November 3 and into November 4 (US time), quite a few now-former Twitter staff started posting on the platform that that they had been locked out of their firm electronic mail accounts because the job cuts started to play out in a really dramatic, public method.
The layoffs impacted departments together with moral AI, advertising and marketing and communication, search, public coverage, and extra. As the employees mentioned goodbye to their colleagues on-line (many sharing blue hearts and salute emojis to sign that they had misplaced their jobs at Twitter), Musk remained largely silent, no less than on the job cuts.
Musk provides ultimatum to remaining staff: Do ‘extraordinarily hardcore’ work or depart
“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” Musk wrote within the memo despatched out on November 16.
“This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”
In the memo, Musk goes on to stipulate how Twitter can be “much more engineering-driven” after which provides employees an ultimatum. “
If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below”, directing employees to what seems to be a web based type.
Musk mentioned any worker who had not carried out so by 5PM ET on the next day would obtain three months’ severance.
Advertisers flee and Musk decries ‘huge drop in income’
Since Musk’s takeover, a handful of manufacturers — starting from General Mills to the North Face to the Volkswagen Group — confirmed a pause in promoting on the social community as civil society organisations raised new concern over the path of the corporate beneath Musk.
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” he mentioned in a tweet on November 4.
“Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
An ongoing saga over blue examine marks kicks off
“Twitter’s current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshitt,” Musk tweeted on November 1.
“Power to the people! Blue for (US)$8/month.”
The replace, as outlined on Apple’s App Store on the time, acknowledged that customers would now must pay US$7.99 ($11.84) per thirty days for the corporate’s Twitter Blue subscription to obtain a examine mark on the platform, “just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow”.
Chaos ensued. In one viral instance, a faux account, which featured a newly bought blue examine mark, purporting to be pharmaceutical large Eli Lilly tweeted {that a} vital diabetes drug would now be free.
In the wake of the mayhem, Musk in the end introduced that it will delay the rollout of the subscription service till the tip of the month.
“Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid,” Musk tweeted on November 15.
Twitter restores some beforehand banned accounts, together with Donald Trump’s
Ahead of restoring Trump’s Twitter account, Musk posted a ballot asking the platform’s customers if Trump ought to be reinstated — the place a slim majority (51.8 per cent) voted in favour of it.
“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted.
“Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” (Latin for “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”).
Trump has beforehand mentioned he would stay on his personal platform, Truth Social, as a substitute of rejoining Twitter, and has but to tweet since his account got here again on-line.
But a change in his method might maintain main political implications as Trump has mentioned he’ll search the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Musk goes onto to grant ‘amnesty’ to most beforehand banned accounts
The Thanksgiving Day announcement got here after most respondents voted in favour of his ballot over whether or not to supply “general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam”.
Once once more, Musk tweeted that “the people have spoken”.
His latest choices to reinstate beforehand banned accounts, primarily based on the outcomes of his polls on the platform, is notably at odds with how Musk beforehand mentioned he would deal with such decisions.
World’s richest folks revealed
“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” Musk added
It just isn’t instantly clear if that council was ever created, convened, or concerned within the decision-making behind bringing again Trump and previously banned accounts.
