Musk: ‘Independent-minded’ voters should vote for a Republican Congress
Musk says ‘independent-minded’ voters should vote for a Republican Congress, to balance ‘the worst exceses of both parties’;
To independent-minded voters: Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.
To independent-minded voters:
Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Musk says hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who’s in charge. Musk previously said he would vote for Republicans but that he backs moderates of both major political parties.
Like most people in America, I agree with some of the Democrat and some of the Republican policies, but not all. However, if executive and legislative branches are dominated by *one* party, then we lose balance of power.
Like most people in America, I agree with some of the Democrat and some of the Republican policies, but not all.
However, if executive and legislative branches are dominated by *one* party, then we lose balance of power.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Musk lets jet tracker stay on Twitter, despite ‘risk’
Musk says he will not ban a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, even though its information affects his personal safety
My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk
The owner of the @ElonJet account, Jack Sweeney, replies:
Thank you backing your commitment to free speech. Overwhelmingly the followers of my account are supporters and admirers of your endeavors. Which was my motivation for creating @ElonJet
https://twitter.com/ElonJet/status/1589419007954022400
Twitter bans Griffin for impersonating Musk
After Musk announced an immediate ban on accounts pretending to be someone else without flagging them as parodies…
Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended.
Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022
…the company banned Griffin, who had tweeted about the midterm elections under Musk’s name. Musk said Griffin had been removed for “impersonating a comedian” but could have her account back for $8.
But if she really wants her account back, she can have it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Griffin responded on Mastodon, a rival network:
I guess not ALL the content moderators were let go? Lol
Twitter fires 50% of staff by email
Twitter begins laying off up to 50% of its workforce, sending a mail titled Your Role at Twitter to the personal emails of laid-off employees.
Today is your last working day at the company.
Those laid off will remain employed by Twitter and receive compensation and benefits until the first week of January 2023, though the date may vary. Affected employees are locked out of their Twitter systems, such as email and Slack, and have been told that they will receive their non-negotiable severance offer within the week, when they are required to hand in their badges and company laptops or computers. In other emails the company acknowledges the impact of the layoffs:
We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.
Musk: Anti-Twitter activists ‘destroying free speech in America’
Musk says Twitter revenues have dropped massively, as activist groups pressure advertisers. He says this is despite there being no change to Twitter’s moderation rules
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 claims that despite ‘appeasing’ activists, they are trying to ‘destroy free speech’:
Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.
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.
Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
Musk wants $1 billion Twitter infrastructure cut
To stem loses of $3 million per day, Musk asks Twitter’s teams until November 7 to find up to $1 billion in annual infrastructure cost savings. Internal company messages titled, ‘Deep Cuts Plan’, ask for between $1.5 and $3 million per day savings from servers and cloud services. Critics say the cuts could cause outages duing times of high demand. Source:
[Musk] is willing to introduce that risk to meet these goals
Some employesss ordered to work in the office every day of the week to meet the deadline.
Musk: Twitter is a ‘collective, cybernetic super-intelligence’
Musk compares Twitter to a super-intelligent organism:
Because it consists of billions of bidirectional interactions per day, Twitter can be thought of as a collective, cybernetic super-intelligence…… with a lot of room for improvement
Followed up with:
A neuron doesn’t realize it’s a neuron
… with a lot of room for improvement
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2022
Twitter to charge for verification from next week. Edit function given to all for free.
Twitter will start selling blue verification badges for user profiles as soon as next week, part of a plan by Musk to fight fake accounts and increase profits. Verification will cost $8 a month. Twitter also plans to make the edit function, which is currently available through a $5-a-month Twitter Blue subscription, available to all users for free, also starting next week.
Musk to cut 3700 Twitter jobs, 50% of workforce
Elon Musk plans to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at Twitter, half the company’s workforce, in a bid to drive down costs following his $44 billion acquisition. Musk will inform the affected staff members on Friday, November 4. Senior personnel on product teams have been asked to target a 50% headcount reduction, with layoffs based on each employee’s contributions to coding. Musk is also reportedly considering reversing a work-from-anywhere policy and will require employees to work from office with few exceptions.
Musk jokes it will cost $8 to complain about Twitter
Musk says that it will cost $8 to complain about Twitter. He says he stole the idea from Monty Python sketch, called The Argument,
To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8
Totally stole idea of charging for insults & arguments from Monty Python tbh https://t.co/oFKRyp3BS7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
Musk reveals $8 Twitter Blue details
Musk announces that the revamped Twitter Blue will cost $8; will grant a verified user blue tick; priorities in replies, mentions and replies; ability to post long video and audio; and have half as many ads. The price will be adjusted by country.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month. Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity, You will also get:
- Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam
- Ability to post long video & audio
- Half as many ads
And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us. This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators. There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Falcon Heavy double booster landing
The two side boosters from Falcon Heavy USSF-44 mission return to Earth safely, marking the 150th and 151st succesful orbital-class booster recovery. The middle booster was expended. The mission is to deploy two payloads for the US Space Force into geosynchronous orbit, one of which is the TETRA 1 microsatellite.
Falcon Heavy’s side boosters have landed – marking the 150th and 151st recovery of orbital class rockets pic.twitter.com/vK4ZdfDQtX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 1, 2022
Musk debates Twitter verification fee with King
After Stephen King complains that he will leave Twitter if he is made to pay $20 a month to keep his ‘blue tick’:
$20 to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron
Musk debates the fee amount with him:
We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8.
We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Musk dissolves Twitter’s board of directors
SEC filings [doc] show that Musk has dissolved Twitters Board of Directors and has become the company’s sole director.
Item 5.02: Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On October 27, 2022, and as a result of the consummation of the Merger, Mr. Musk became the sole director of Twitter. In accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement, effective as of the effective time of the Merger, the following persons, who were directors of Twitter prior to the effective time of the Merger, are no longer directors of Twitter: Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li and Mimi Alemayehou.
Musk defends Roth
After the disclosure of internal Twitter communications by Roth, that Musk says showed other Twitter staff hiding evidence, Musk defends Roth.
We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.
We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Musk: Twitter lawyers hid evidence
Musk shares internal Twitter communications that he says were hidden by Twitter’s lawyers, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The messages were written by Yoel Roth, Head of Safety & Integrity at Twitter, apparently about Amir Shevat, Head of Product, alleging Shevat was using ‘fraudulent metrics’ and may be actively trying to hide the ball’, which was what Musk was accusing the company of. Roth’s messages:
But also lol if Amir continues to BS me my escalation route is “Amir’s OKRs are entirely based on fraudulent metrics ad he doesn’t care an may be actively trying to hide the ball”
Literally doing what Elon is accusing us of doing
Musk says:
Wachtell & Twitter board deliberately hid this evidence from the court. Stay tuned, more to come …
Wachtell & Twitter board deliberately hid this evidence from the court. Stay tuned, more to come … pic.twitter.com/CifaNvtRtt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Musk later clarifies that he supports Roth:
I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.
We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Twitter plans paid user verification
Musk says Twitter will revise its user verification process, without detail. Separate reports say that users would have 90 days to subscribe to Twitter Blue at $19,99 (up from $4.99) or lose their verified badges. Employees working on the project were told that they need to meet a deadline of November 7th to launch the feature or they will be fired. Musk:
The whole verification process is being revamped right now
The whole verification process is being revamped right now
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2022
Musk later jokes about about the verification levels:
Oh no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Musk: NYT Twitter severance payouts story is ‘false’
Musk denies a story by The New York Times [link] that he plans to lay off employees before the start of November to avoid having to make special payouts as part of their compensation deals.
This is false
This is false
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2022
Musk deletes Paul Pelosi conspiracy tweet
In response to a post by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in which she claimed that the attack on Paul Pelosi by Paul DePape was the fault of Republican ‘mouthpieces’ spreading ‘hate and deranged conspiracy theories, Musk replied with an article, titled headlined: ‘The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning,’ that said Paul Pelosi’s attacker was a gay prostitute he met during a drunken night out. Musk:
There’s a tiny possibility there may be more to this story than meets the eye.
The article’s author offered no evidence to support his claim and Pelosi is neither gay nor an alcoholic. Musk later deletes the tweet.
Musk comments on people pretending to be laid-off Twitter workers
Musk makes a comment about two men who claimed they were software developers laid off by Twitter, one of whom identified himself as “Rahul Ligma”, a name that does not appear in Twitter’s Slack or email system. There is no evidence that the employee exists on LinkedIn, while the name ‘Ligma’ an internet hoax designed to elicit the response “lick my balls” from people who are in on the joke.
Software engineer and his buddy got fired from @Twitter #ELONMUSK #Twitter #twitterhq #fired #TwitterTakeover #elonmusktwitter #twitter pic.twitter.com/RkDGXm3nAH
— Rezowan Siddique Reza (@Rezowan_) October 28, 2022
Musk responds:
Ligma Johnson had it coming
Ligma Johnson had it coming 🍆 💦 pic.twitter.com/CgjrOV5eM2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022