Elon Musk has solely been in command of Twitter since late October. However already, he’s turned the corporate and its platform the wrong way up.
Within the days after Musk took over, he booted high executives, slashed rank-and-file headcount by 50 %, issued remaining staff an ultimatum to be “hardcore” of their work ethic or stop, and fast-tracked a hodgepodge of probably revenue-generating options, together with charging customers to get or maintain a verification examine mark.
Musk’s mass layoffs and intense administration type have gutted Twitter’s employees, reportedly together with some key engineering features, inflicting considerations concerning the website’s technical potential to remain up and working.
And his new examine mark system — Musk’s first main product replace — brought about chaos within the hours after its launch, as newly checkmarked customers flooded the app with faux accounts, impersonating figures from Nintendo’s Mario character to former US President George W. Bush. Including to the chaos, by November 11, lower than every week because the new paid checkmark system was launched, it appeared that the Twitter Blue subscription service that allow you to purchase a checkmark was now not working for many individuals.
And whereas Musk didn’t instantly change any of Twitter’s insurance policies in opposition to offensive content material, within the hours after Musk took over there was a notable surge in hate speech on the app. Among the customers posting felt emboldened by Musk’s “free speech absolutist” perspective, and actively tried to check the boundaries of what they may say on Twitter beneath the corporate’s new management. Others have examined the boundaries of Musk’s free speech stance by making enjoyable of him personally.
Musk doesn’t wish to be CEO of Twitter endlessly — he’s repeatedly mentioned he needs to ultimately give that job to another person “over time.” Within the meantime, many present and former staff, social media lecturers, and human rights advocates are involved that Musk might change Twitter for the more serious, turning it into an much more intense cesspool of damaging content material than it already is. However others hope Musk can breathe new life right into a platform that was already bleeding its most prolific customers and, for years, has struggled to show a revenue. In a employees assembly on November 10, Musk mentioned chapter was not out of the query if Twitter doesn’t work out a means to earn more money.
Listed here are a number of the most vital methods Musk has modified the corporate up to now.
Reinstating some high-profile suspended accounts
From the start, Musk took over Twitter with the acknowledged objective of constructing it a platform that allowed extra controversial speech. Whereas he hasn’t made any drastic adjustments but to Twitter’s content material moderation insurance policies, he has began reinstating some suspended accounts.
On November 18, greater than two weeks since he took over the corporate, Musk tweeted that he had reinstated the accounts of comic Kathy Griffin (who was suspended after she impersonated Musk), controversial psychologist influencer Jordan Peterson, and conservative humor information website Babylon Bee. Peterson and Babylon Bee had been each suspended after tweeting anti-trans feedback.
These reinstatements come even though Musk mentioned he would wait to make any main choices about reinstating banned accounts till he varieties a “content material moderation council” to advise him. Musk mentioned he’s nonetheless deciding about what to with former President Donald Trump’s account, though prior to now he has supported bringing again Trump’s account.
Gutting Twitter’s employees
Musk started his reign as Twitter’s chief by firing high executives. Inside hours of the deal closing, CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of authorized coverage, belief, and security Vijaya Gadde had been proven the door. On November 10, Twitter’s high privateness and safety executives resigned, together with Chief Info Safety Officer Lea Kissner, the corporate’s chief privateness officer, and chief compliance officer, in keeping with a number of stories. On the identical day, Twitter’s head of belief and security, Yoel Roth, who in current days had publicly reassured those who Twitter was nonetheless following its content material moderation insurance policies, additionally left.
The week after he took over, Musk continued firing executives, together with Twitter’s advert chief, basic supervisor of core tech, and chief advertising officer Leslie Berland (who just some days earlier despatched a cheery observe asserting that Musk was visiting the San Francisco workplaces). He additionally pulled in additional than 50 Tesla engineers to work for Twitter and assembled his personal circle of trusted advisers.
Quickly after, Musk began gutting Twitter’s rank-and-file employees. He laid off an estimated 50 % — upward of three,700 staff — from the corporate. Twitter knowledgeable its employees that layoffs would occur by 9 am PT on Friday in a company-wide e-mail. By late Thursday night, a number of staff instructed Recode or posted publicly on Twitter that they’d already been locked out of their work e-mail and Slack accounts with none formal discover of whether or not they had been laid off.
These cuts are the biggest in Twitter’s historical past, and a number of other present and former staff Recode spoke with are involved that because of this Twitter’s operations as a platform might be in danger. Musk has additionally reportedly deliberate to slash $1 billion from Twitter’s infrastructure prices, resembling server house, in keeping with a report from Reuters, furthering these considerations.
Including to the chaos, Twitter’s administration modified its thoughts about a few of its cost-cutting: the corporate reportedly requested dozens of not too long ago laid-off staff in the event that they needed to come back again to work quickly after the layoffs, in keeping with a report from Bloomberg.
The day after the primary spherical of cuts, Musk tweeted concerning the layoffs and mentioned them at an investor convention. He framed the layoffs as crucial as a result of earlier than the deal, “Twitter was having fairly critical income challenges and price challenges,” in keeping with the New York Instances.
Twitter’s contract staff had been hit closely by one other spherical of cuts that occurred a few week later. Platformer’s Casey Newton reported that round 4,400 out of 5,500 of Twitter’s contractors had been laid off, together with heavy cuts to Twitter’s content material moderation groups. Musk additionally fired not less than twenty staff who posted essential messages about him on Twitter’s inner Slack channels, or who publicly challenged Musk on Twitter.
Some staff are combating again. Shortly after the preliminary layoffs, a bunch of 5 staff sued Twitter in a category motion lawsuit, alleging the corporate did not notify them of the upcoming layoffs as required by the federal Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act, that requires sure employers to present a 60-day discover for mass layoffs within the US. Twitter is giving many laid-off staff full pay and advantages by way of not less than January, though it’s not clear if this utilized to all staff, notably these exterior the US, sources mentioned.
Per week and a half after the primary wave of layoffs, the drama intensified when Musk issued an ultimatum to staff: Work more durable or stop. In a midnight e-mail to employees, Musk wrote that, shifting ahead, Twitter will “must be extraordinarily hardcore” and require staff to work “lengthy hours at excessive depth.” The e-mail linked to a type asking staff to verify that they wish to work on the “new Twitter” by 5 pm ET the subsequent day; if not, they’d be laid off and obtain three months severance.
The ultimatum confirmed how Musk is making an attempt to pare down Twitter’s employees past the preliminary layoffs that gutted half the corporate.
However Musk might have gone too far along with his calls for. Within the hours earlier than the deadline, Musk reportedly tried to persuade essential staff to remain on the firm.
To this point, it’s been reported that 1,200 staff declined to conform to Musk’s phrases and basically mass resigned from the corporate.
As considerations grew from a few of Twitter’s present and former staff that the location might quickly break due to low ranges of engineering staffing, Musk requested all engineers who “can truly write software program” to fulfill him in particular person on the tenth flooring of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters and present examples of current code they had been chargeable for. He even inspired employees to fly to San Francisco the identical day if want be, in keeping with emails reported by Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer. Paradoxically, Twitter staff had been locked out of the constructing till Monday for concern of sabotage, so there was confusion about how individuals would do that.
Shaking up Twitter’s inner tradition
Musk has been working Twitter in his personal means, just like how he runs his different corporations: in an advert hoc and intense trend. Quite than speaking to his staff first, Musk typically tweets no matter he’s considering, together with his plans for the corporate.
Elon’s first message to his employees was in an e-mail despatched on November 9 round midnight Pacific time, asserting that he was ending Twitter’s remote-work-for-all coverage, efficient inside hours.
Musk’s intense administration type has been an adjustment for a lot of Twitter staff who’re used to a extra measured, communicative, and structured work tradition. One nameless Twitter worker instructed the Washington Submit that the work environment beneath Elon was like “working in Trump’s White Home.”
Workers are turning to non-public or nameless communication platforms like Blind, Sign, and Discord to commiserate, a number of staff instructed Recode, since they now not really feel they are often candid on inner Slack or e-mail.
One other main change Elon is making to Twitter’s inner tradition is to drastically ramp up the tempo at which new options are developed.
Usually, product adjustments like those that Musk proposed — resembling charging customers for verification — would take months and even years to implement at Twitter. Now, staff are being requested to execute them virtually in a single day.
This might drive the form of innovation that Twitter, a money-losing enterprise, may want. But it surely might additionally go away employees demoralized, or worse, compromise the reliability and safety the app offers to its a whole lot of tens of millions of customers. Twitter already has present issues on this entrance: Former Twitter head of safety and inner whistleblower Peiter Zatko warned that the platform “was over a decade behind trade safety requirements” in September.
Making individuals pay for blue examine marks
The primary official product change Musk confirmed after taking on Twitter was to start out charging $8 per thirty days for “blue examine marks,” the verification badges that Twitter at present offers to public figures like journalists, politicians, and celebrities. Musk needed to open up examine marks to extra individuals, so long as they’re prepared to pay that value.
Twitter may even give your account extra precedence in replies, mentions, and search should you subscribe for the brand new service — that means that those that don’t pay up might lose visibility on the platform.
Twitter’s verification program was initially designed to ensure individuals actually are who they are saying they’re on-line. Earlier than you bought a examine mark, you needed to apply for one and present ID proving your actual identification matched your Twitter title. That helped Twitter’s consumer base ensure that the account they had been wasn’t an imposter.
Now, Musk has eliminated any form of ID verification from Twitter Blue. Which means anybody who pays $8 a month can fake to be another person, with a examine mark subsequent to their title. That’s brought about main trolling, with some Twitter Blue accounts impersonating well-known individuals like LeBron James, George W. Bush, and even Mario, the Nintendo character. Most of the new faux accounts use life like profile images, names, and handles, and have a examine mark subsequent to their title, so it’s onerous to inform who’s actual or who’s faux.
Elon appears to seek out all this amusing, replying with crying-of-laughter emojis to a number of tweets declaring the faux accounts.
This variation additionally brought about main debate amongst notable figures who received their examine mark at no cost — a lot of whom mentioned they aren’t prepared to pay to maintain their verification. Fellow billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban criticized the brand new function, saying Musk “killed probably the most helpful a part of Twitter” by making it more durable for him to seek out reliable details about breaking information occasions.
After a bunch of individuals together with comic Kathy Griffin started trolling Musk’s new coverage by altering their names to “Elon Musk” and making enjoyable of the tech CEO, Musk suspended their accounts and introduced new guidelines: Any Twitter accounts concerned in impersonation not clearly labeled as “parody” could be instantly suspended with out warning, and any verified consumer who adjustments their Twitter title will quickly have their examine mark eliminated.
Musk additionally made one other sudden change when he axed a brand new “Official” grey examine mark (along with the blue one) rolled out on Thursday — meant to differentiate verified customers who’re additionally notable public figures. Inside hours of the discharge, Musk tweeted that he “killed” the function, and the brand new examine marks left as shortly as they arrived.
Shortly after the function was pulled again, Musk tweeted this rationalization: “Please observe that Twitter will do plenty of dumb issues in coming months. We’ll maintain what works & change what doesn’t.”
On November 11, Twitter suspended the subscription service for purchasing checkmarks — Twitter Blue. Musk mentioned that the function will relaunch on November 29 as soon as it’s “rock stable.”
Emboldening the trolls
Musk has mentioned his main motive for purchasing Twitter was to make it a haven at no cost speech. He’s echoed conservatives’ longstanding considerations that Twitter is politically biased in opposition to right-wing speech regardless of the dearth of proof of that bias.
Conservative politicians like former president Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have celebrated Elon Musk’s possession of Twitter as a significant win, with Trump saying he’s completely happy that Twitter “will now not be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs.”
However Musk’s extra laissez-faire philosophy on content material moderation has additionally brought about one other group of individuals to have fun: trolls spreading racist, sexist, and in any other case hateful speech.
One instance: There was a 500 % improve in makes use of of the n-word on Twitter within the 12 hours after Musk’s deal was accomplished, in keeping with a examine from the Community Contagion Analysis Institute, regardless that none of Twitter’s guidelines have modified on the matter.
Twitter has mentioned it’s engaged on lowering the visibility of those posts. However knowledge factors like this have spooked a number of main advertisers that don’t need their model affiliated with offensive content material, together with Normal Motors, Volkswagen, Audi, and Pfizer — who’ve are ready to see extra about what course the corporate will take beneath Musk’s management earlier than they resume adverts.
Musk has tried to settle down advertiser considerations by tweeting a public observe saying that he doesn’t need Twitter to show right into a “free-for-all hellscape.” On Thursday, Musk spoke with leaders of civil rights teams just like the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, and Colour of Change, promising them that Twitter takes hate speech significantly, and that he gained’t make any main choices about reinstating banned accounts (e.g., Trump) till after he units up a content material moderation advisory council, which he mentioned will not less than take a number of weeks.
Musk additionally instructed civil rights leaders he would reverse his choice to restrict the quantity of employees who can entry content material moderation techniques, one other one in all their considerations.
However civil rights leaders organizing beneath the banner “#StopToxicTwitter Coalition” mentioned that Musk had failed to carry true to his guarantees — and ramped up their calls for for main advertisers to pause all adverts on the platform, Musk tweeted on Friday that Twitter had a “large drop in income” as a consequence of “activist teams” who he accused of making an attempt to “destroy free speech in America.”
It’s not simply advertisers which can be leaving Twitter due to Elon; there are additionally early indicators that Elon’s takeover and the ensuing negativity are inflicting some customers to go away.
One report in MIT Expertise Evaluation estimated some 877,000 accounts had been deactivated within the week after Musk’s deal closed. That’s greater than double the same old quantity in that very same time interval, in keeping with knowledge from the agency Bot Sentinel that MIT Tech Evaluation cited.
Since taking on, Musk has claimed that, on the contrary, Twitter’s every day energetic customers have reached all-time highs.
After all, these are all estimates, and solely from a brief window of time. Twitter has additionally been shedding its most respected “heavy tweeters” in droves for some time now, in keeping with a leaked inner report coated by Reuters, and that predates Musk’s takeover. However time will inform whether or not Musk reverses or exacerbates Twitter’s present downside of customers fleeing the platform.
Throwing different concepts on the wall
Other than charging for Twitter verification, Musk has been planning an entire new set of adjustments to the platform. Whereas none of those are confirmed but, they’re reportedly within the works or being examined.
These adjustments embody making individuals pay for sure varieties of “excessive danger” video content material (many are speculating it might be grownup video content material), in keeping with the Washington Submit; bringing again Vine, the short-form video app Twitter acquired and later shuttered; altering the login web page to the discover web page; charging individuals for sending DMs to high-profile customers.
Twitter is contemplating getting into the funds enterprise — an space Musk has expertise in going again to his pre-PayPal days — in keeping with a New York Instances report citing paperwork filed with the US Treasury Division. It might be a part of Musk’s acknowledged ambitions to make Twitter a “superapp” known as X, which might be just like WeChat in China that’s used not only for posting messages however for issues like making purchasing purchases or ordering meals supply.
In any other case, it appears as if Elon is throwing a bunch of concepts out to see which of them work. As one investor in Musk’s deal, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, mentioned on the Internet Summit convention in November, he expects solely 10 % of Musk’s concepts “will stick.”
To this point, a lot of Musk’s concepts (like Vine and paid movies) are previous ones that Twitter has already tried — and failed at.
Over time, it would turn out to be clear if Musk will have the ability to efficiently resurrect these previous concepts — and his new ones, like paying for a examine mark — with a really completely different work tradition and employees than Twitter had earlier than.
We’ll maintain updating this put up as Musk continues to form Twitter, for higher or worse.
Replace, November 18, 3:06 pm ET: This story, initially revealed on November 4, has been up to date a number of occasions, most not too long ago with new particulars about mass resignations at Twitter and reinstatements of some suspended accounts.
