Twitter’s new owner and CEO, Elon Musk, wasted little time putting his stamp on the influential social network. Immediately after Musk bought Twitter on Oct. 27, the billionaire began making significant changes that include firing top executives and laying off half the staff.
Twitter’s saga with Musk was chaotic even before he took control. He signed a deal in April to acquire the company but then attempted to back out of it, leading Twitter to sue him. After months of pretrial skirmishes, Musk closed the acquisition right before a court-ordered deadline.
Here’s the most recent news about Musk’s takeover of Twitter:
Nov. 11: Twitter Blue subscription option vanishes
The option to sign up for the $8 a month subscription service Twitter Blue is no longer available on Twitter’s iOS app, as previously reported by The Verge. The shift comes days after the service launched for Apple devices, and prior to its Android launch. Attempting to subscribe on desktop directs you to the iOS app.
CNET can confirm that this manifests in two distinct ways: the option to subscribe has vanished from the sidebar, or tapping the link gives you an error message.
Trying to subscribe to Twitter Blue on the iOS app resulted in this message on Nov. 11.
Twitter/Screenshot by CNET
“Thank you for your interest!” it reads. “Twitter Blue will be available in your country in the future. Please check back later.”
It’s unclear why the company paused signups for the service, but a large number of users reportedly bought verification to impersonate brands and celebrities. An internal note posted on its Slack said it stopped people from subscribing “to help address impersonation issues,” according to tech outlet Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment.
Nov. 10: Musk bans remote work and warns of bankruptcy, attorney says he’s risking billions in FTC fines
Musk sent his first emails to employees on Nov. 9, warning that “the economic picture ahead is dire.” He banned remote work unless he personally approved it, according to Bloomberg, while The New York Times reported that he told workers “the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam.”
An attorney on Twitter’s privacy team posted a message in the company’s Slack warning that Musk’s focus on monetizing its users is making him take dangerous steps, The Verge reported. It’s apparently at particular risk of incurring billions in fines from the Federal Trade Commission in the wake of a May settlement regarding the use of personal info to target ads.
Twitter’s chief privacy officer, Damien Kieran; Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner; and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty all resigned, The Verge noted. Kissner’s departure confirmed her departure in a tweet.
Musk also reportedly told employees bankruptcy was a possibility, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Two more Twitter executives — Yoel Roth, the company’s head of trust and safety, and Robin Wheeler, who led marketing and sales at Twitter — also resigned, according to the report. Wheeler then decided to stay at the company after Musk persuaded her to do so, Bloomberg reported. Roth, Wheeler and Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Nov. 9: Musk tries to reassure advertisers amid confusion about check marks
Twitter’s rollout of a new verification system is messy. Twitter started adding gray check marks and an “official” label to high-profile Twitter accounts but then scrapped some of the changes hours later.
In an hour-long live audio chat on Twitter later in the day, Musk said the new labels are an “aesthetic nightmare when looking at the Twitter feed” and “another way of creating a two-class system.”
Esther Crawford, who oversees early-stage products at Twitter, tweeted that the company would still be rolling out the “official” label but to government and commercial entities first. Twitter also started allowing people to add blue check marks to their profiles if they pay $8 a month for a Twitter Blue subscription. Scammers are already using the new system to create fake accounts. Twitter said it would suspend accounts engaged in deceptive tactics and impersonation.
In the audio chat, Musk discussed Twitter’s plans for a content moderation council and decisions by companies to temporarily pause their advertising campaigns on Twitter.
“I don’t think having hate speech next to an ad is great. Obviously,” he said. Musk also said he thinks it will take Twitter a couple of months to create a content moderation council.
He signaled, though, that he isn’t planning to slow down when it comes to changing Twitter.
“The rate of evolution of Twitter will be an immense step change compared to what it has been in the past,” he said. “You know, if nothing else, I am a technologist and I can make technology go fast.”
Nov. 6: Paid check marks may be pushed back, Musk cracks down on impersonation
Paid verification reportedly delayed until after election
Twitter is postponing the rollout of verification badges connected to an $8 monthly subscription service until after the midterm elections, according to The New York Times.
Impersonators get the boot
Musk warned that any Twitter account engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying that it’s parody would get hit with a permanent ban. In reaction, some users changed their names to “Elon Musk,” which led to their suspension.
Nov. 5: Paying for check marks, hearing from Dorsey
Pay-for-verification plan shows up in iOS update
Version notes for the latest iteration of Twitter’s app for the Apple iPhone showed up in the App Store, with a What’s New section that pointed to the verification feature. The notes tell users that “starting today” if you “sign up now” for an $8-a-month Twitter Blue subscription, “your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.” It appears, though, that the program hasn’t actually kicked in yet. Read more here.
Dorsey weighs in
With news reports saying Twitter had laid off about half its staff, co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey took to the service to offer words of encouragement and to place blame on himself.
“I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that,” Dorsey tweeted. He also called Twitter staffers past and present “resilient” and said, “I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment.”
In April, Dorsey expressed his support of Musk taking over the company, but he also said that in principle, he thought no one should own or run Twitter and that it should instead be “a public good.”
Nov. 4: Musk says Twitter has had ‘massive drop’ in revenue
Since Musk’s takeover, several major advertisers, such as Tesla rival General Motors, food company General Mills and pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer, have temporarily paused their ad campaigns on Twitter. Musk tweeted that Twitter has had a “massive drop” in revenue, which he blamed on activist groups pressuring advertisers. Musk didn’t say in his tweet how much Twitter’s revenue has fallen, nor did he identify the activists. In the tweet, Musk also said Twitter hasn’t changed its content moderation policies.
Musk also made an appearance at the Baron Investment Conference, where he noted that Twitter grappled with revenue challenges before the acquisition and that he tried to get out of the deal.
His remarks came after Twitter started laying off employees. Musk later tweeted that there was “no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.” Without specifying how many people were laid off or what percentage of the workforce, Musk added they were “offered 3 months of severance.” Reportedly, about half of Twitter’s 7,500-person work force was laid off.
Civil rights groups that met with Musk spoke out about the layoffs.
“For starters, there’s no way to keep election integrity in place if you are cutting capacity to do the monitoring in #TwitterLayoffs,” tweeted Rashad Robinson, president of racial justice group Color of Change. The group is part of #StopToxicTwitter, a coalition of more than 60 organizations that are urging major advertisers to pause spending and invest in content moderation. Partners listed on the coalition’s website include the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Public Citizen, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The Volkswagen Group and others reportedly paused ad spending because of concerns that ads could appear alongside problematic content on the platform.
Nov. 3: Musk looks for ways to cut costs, lawsuit filed
Musk wants to cut costs and make Twitter less dependent on advertising.
Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the matter and an internal Slack message, reported that Musk directed Twitter’s team to find more than $1 billion in infrastructure cost savings.
The company is looking at other ways to make money outside of advertising, including “paywalled” videos and paid direct messages, The New York Times reported, citing two people with knowledge of the matter and internal documents.
Musk is already making changes to Twitter’s work culture. Bloomberg reported that Musk has removed “days of rest” from Twitter’s employee calendars and plans to cancel the company’s remote work policy. Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Twitter reportedly told employees in an email that layoffs would happen. A lawsuit seeking class action status, accused Twitter of violating the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires large companies to give least 60 days of advance notice before mass layoffs, as previously reported by Bloomberg.
Nov. 2: Musk reportedly plans to cut half of Twitter’s workforce
Musk plans to cut about 3,700 jobs at Twitter, or half of the social media company’s workforce, Bloomberg reported. Affected staffers are to be informed of their fate by Nov. 4, sources told the news outlet.
Musk also plans to reverse the company’s existing work-from-anywhere policy, requiring remaining employees to report to an office, the unidentified sources said.
In one scenario for reducing Twitter’s workforce being considered, laid off workers will be offered 60 days’ worth of severance pay. Twitter users have been bracing for layoffs since Musk announced his bid for Twitter in April. One report indicated that Musk planned to cut 75% of jobs at Twitter.
Nov. 1: Musk suggests charging for verification
In a series of tweets, Musk floated the idea that Twitter charge $8 per month for a verified blue check mark as part of its subscription plan. The company’s subscription service, known as Twitter Blue, currently costs $5 per month but doesn’t include verification as a perk.
Twitter currently doesn’t charge to verify accounts with a blue check mark, and the badge is supposed to be given out to accounts that the company determines are “notable, authentic and active.” The blue check mark is meant to help users determine if an account of a celebrity, journalist or other public figure is fake or not.
Musk tweeted that the price would be adjusted by country and that the subscription would include “priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam,” as well as the “ability to post long video & audio.” He also said users would see “half as many ads.”
Earlier in the day, The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter Blue subscribers will lose access to ad-free articles from publishers like Vox, the Los Angeles Times and Insider. There have been various reports of different prices for a Twitter Blue subscription, with the company also reportedly having considered increasing the subscription price to $20 a month.
It’s unclear from Musk’s tweets if verified users would have to pay for a subscription or lose their blue check mark. Musk tweeted there would be “a secondary tag” for public figures, like the one now used for politicians.
The company’s chief customer officer, Sarah Personette, also revealed in a tweet that she resigned.
Hi folks, I wanted to share that I resigned on Friday from Twitter and my work access was officially cut off last night.
— Sarah Personette (@SEP) November 1, 2022
Meanwhile, Twitter said it has removed 1,500 accounts since Oct. 29 for posting hateful content.
Oct. 31: Official CEO, board dissolved, layoff plans, no Trump decision yet, content moderation limited
Days after naming himself “Chief Twit” on his Twitter profile, Musk confirmed he’s the company’s CEO through a securities filing. Other changes to Twitter’s leadership are also underway. A related securities filing shows Twitter’s board of directors was dissolved the day Musk took over and identified Musk as the “sole director” of the company.
He also reportedly plans to lay off 25% of Twitter’s workforce, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources.
Musk, who has previously said he would reverse former US President Donald Trump’s permanent ban from Twitter, is still getting questions about whether he’ll follow through on that. Twitter booted Trump from its platform in 2021 following the deadly US Capitol Hill riot because of concerns that his remarks could incite more violence.
“If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!” Musk tweeted.
Twitter also limited some Trust and Safety employee access to internal tools, Bloomberg reported, curbing their ability to moderate content and address misinformation ahead of next week’s US elections. They can apparently still edit or remove posts that could result in real-world harm.
“This is exactly what we (or any company) should be doing in the midst of a corporate transition to reduce opportunities for insider risk. We’re still enforcing our rules at scale,” Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, tweeted in response to Bloomberg’s story.
Oct. 30: Musk toys with checkmark changes and Vine revival, tweets misinformation
Musk has been busy suggesting changes to Twitter. He tweeted a poll about whether Twitter should bring back Vine, a short-form video app that Twitter shut down in 2017.
Twitter also reportedly plans to charge $20 per month for its Twitter Blue subscription service, and verified users would lose their blue checkmark if they don’t do so in 90 days, The Verge reported, citing anonymous sources. Platformer’s Casey Newton reported that Twitter is thinking about charging $5 a month to verified users if they want to keep their blue checkmarks.
Musk also tweeted and then deleted a link to an article with a baseless conspiracy theory about last week’s attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco. The article came from a website called the Santa Monica Observer. Fact-checking website Media Bias/Fact Check noted the outlet publishes right-wing misinformation.
Oct. 29: Twitter battles a surge in racist slurs
Twitter is trying to combat anonymous accounts that started to tweet racist slurs hours after Musk took over Twitter.
Twitter head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted that the company has “seen a small number of accounts post a ton of tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms.” He added that “more than 50,000 tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts.”
“Bottom line up front: Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here. And we’re taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have,” he tweeted.
Let’s talk for a minute about slurs, hateful conduct, and trolling campaigns.
Bottom line up front: Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here. And we’re taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022
Oct. 28: Twitter to form content moderation council
Advocacy groups have raised concerns that Musk’s control over Twitter would allow more hate speech and misinformation to surface on the platform. Musk has vowed publicly he doesn’t want Twitter to become a “free-for-all hellscape” but has also said that he’s “against censorship that goes far beyond the law.”
Musk said the company would form a content moderation council with “widely diverse viewpoints.” The company won’t make any major content decisions or account reinstatements before the council convenes, he tweeted.
Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
A securities filing on Oct. 28 also noted that Twitter’s stock is being delisted on the New York Stock Exchange. Twitter, a publicly traded company, became a private one.
Oct. 27: Musk takes over Twitter, fires executives
Musk became Twitter’s new owner and reportedly fired key executives at the company, including Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal policy, trust and safety.
Earlier in the day, Musk tweeted a letter to advertisers. The billionaire, who once tweeted that he hated advertising, now posted that “advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you.”
Musk met with employees throughout the week, carried a sink into Twitter’s headquarters as a photo op and changed his profile to “Chief Twit” before news broke that the deal had been completed.
CNET’s staff contributed to this report.
