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 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.
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: 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
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: 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
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.
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
Goldberg leaves Twitter
Goldberg announces she is leaving Twitter.
To everyone, thanks for everything! Until we meet again! Love, Whoop.
She elaborates on The View, listing Musk’s introduction of the $8 blue check fee, the mass layoffs, and the recent banning of Kathy Griffin for breaking the site’s impersonation rules.
I’m getting off today because I just feel like it’s so messy, and I’m tired of now having certain kinds of attitudes blocked now getting back on. So I’m gonna get out, and if it settles down enough and I feel more comfortable maybe I’ll come back. But as of tonight, I’m done with Twitter…People keep saying it’s free speech, but all speech is not free speech. Some speech is not okay free speech. So everybody has to agree on that, but if people keep saying ‘You hurt my free speech’ it’s going to be a problem. You know what? This is our problem. But it ain’t my problem today because I’m out.
She says she may return later:
I’m going to get out, and if it settles down and I feel more comfortable, maybe I’ll come back.
.@WhoopiGoldberg says on #TheView that "as of tonight," she's "done with Twitter."
"I'm going to get out, and if it settles down and I feel more comfortable, maybe I'll come back." https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/0Ih9fp9yHG
— The View (@TheView) November 7, 2022
Musk: Twitter usage at an all-time high
Musk says Twitter’s usage is at an all -time high:
Twitter usage is at an all-time high lol, I just hope the servers don’t melt!
I just hope the servers don’t melt!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 8, 2022
He later posts two charts that show Twitter’s mDAU (number of monetizable daily active users) at over 255 million glabal users, of which over 45 million are in the United States.
Musk kills ‘official’ grey checkmark
After grey checkmarks that had been rolled out to indicate ‘official’ accounts on Twitter started to disappear, Musk says:
I just killed it. Blue check will be the great leveler
I just killed it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022
Later, Musk says:
Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.
Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months.
We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022
Roth resigns from Twitter
Roth quits Twitter, after two weeks under Musk’s leadership. He changes his bio to:
Former Head of Trust & Safety at @Twitter.
Peterson: It would be a catastrophe to see Musk derailed
On Piers Morgan Uncensored, Peterson say he supports Elon Musk’s efforts to improve Twitter.
Well, I know people who know him very well and have worked with him very closely. These are very solid people, extremely competent and extremely creative. And they’re admirers of Musk. I talked with my brother-in-law Jim Keller, who is one of the word’s great chip engineeers, and he worked very closely with Musk for years. He believes that he is, in many ways, exactly what you think he was: He’s a genius, a visionary genius. But he’s also someone who is very, very good at implementing, very good at running companies, as you can tell because he has a multitude of impossible, succesful companies. So he goes into a company and he cleans house and puts things in order and makes things work efficiently. Maybe he can do that at Twitter. I hope he can, because Musk is doing all sorts of things that are useful and difficult and it would be a catstrophe to see him derailed.
"It would be a catastrophe to see him derailed."
Jordan Peterson says he hopes Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter will be a success.@elonmusk | @jordanbpeterson | @piersmorgan | @TalkTV | #PMU pic.twitter.com/XdBFyv75Sc
— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) November 10, 2022
Twitter suspends Blue after impersonations
After reports of multiple impersonations of major brands and politiciansaccounts, Twitter suspends it’s Twitter Blue $8 verification process. An account impersonating Nintendo tweeted an image of the Super Mario character holding up a middle finger. One posing as Eli Lilly & Co. tweeted that insulin was now free, forcing the company’s official account to say:
We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account
An internal Twitter memo confirmed the change:
An update on what we did tonight: hid the entry point to Twitter Blue, added the ‘official’ label for ONLY advertisers. Note: here is at least one way for users to sign up for Blue. Legacy Blue users can go to subscriptions and upgrade.
In an email to staff, Musk wrote:
Over the next few days, the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam
Yoel Roth, the company’s head of trust and safety also resigned
Verified Twitter users complain they can’t change name
Users complain to Musk after Twitter disables name changes on legacy verified accounts. A user called Count Dankula pleads for help after his name gets stuck after what he thought was a temporary change to “GIANT PENIS (parody)”:
Hello Elon, you seem to have disabled name changes. I was wondering when that would be getting turned back on as I appear to have gotten myself into a bit of a situation.
This is not a drill any time you try it just says DENY and doesn’t let you change it. I am literally stuck as GIANT PENIS this is not the future I imagined for myself Elon pls.
This is not a drill any time you try it just says DENY and doesn't let you change it. I am literally stuck as GIANT PENIS this is not the future I imagined for myself Elon pls. pic.twitter.com/rfWNxNiE0R
— Count Dankula (@CountDankulaTV) November 11, 2022
SpaceX buys Twitter Starlink ad campaign
Musk confirms SpaceX purchased a $250,000 ad campaign on Twitter to promote Starlink services in Australia and Spain, which will place SpaceX’s ad on top of the main Twitter timeline for a full day. Users will see the ad the first three times they open Twitter when the ad campaign is scheduled. The ad buy is the first for any of Musk’s companies, including Tesla, which does not engage in traditional advertising.
SpaceX Starlink bought a tiny – not large – ad package to test effectiveness of Twitter advertising in Australia & Spain. Did same for FB/Insta/Google.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2022
Musk ‘rehires’ Ligma and Johnson
Musk ‘rehires’ Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson, the two fake employess who pranked news networks by claiming to be laid off Twitter employees. Ligma later claimed he had been hired and fired by FTX.
Welcoming back Ligma & Johnson! Important to admit when I’m wrong & firing them was truly one of my biggest mistakes
Important to admit when I’m wrong & firing them was truly one of my biggest mistakes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
Musk reschedules Blue Verification to Nov 29
Musk says the relaunch of Twitter Blue verification will be delayed until Nov 29:
Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid
He also says that all unpaid legacy Blue checkmarks will be removed in a few months.
Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
Musk to Twitter staff: Do hardcore work or get out
In an internal email, Musk gives Twitter employees until the evening of Nov 17 to commit to “extremely hardcore” work or else leave the company:
A Fork in the Road
Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.
Twitter will also be much more engineering-driven. Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway. At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company, so I think this makes sense.
If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below. Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance. Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful. Elon
Musk: Twitter will drop 280-character limit ‘soon’
After a user complains about a Twitter thread that is 82 posts long, Musk says:
Ability to do long tweets coming soon
Ability to do long tweets coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2022
Musk later says he is working on the project personally.