In that point, Elon Muskinitiated mass layoffs and gave remaining staffers a cryptic ultimatum, reinstated the accounts of controversial figures together with former President Donald Trump, and launched — then punted — a plan to cost for Twitter's iconic blue checkmarks.
After spending months embroiled in an unsuccessful authorized battle to get out of his preliminary proposal to purchase Twitter, Musk made his first splashy entrance into the corporate's workplaces on October 26, carrying a sink. In a video of the incident shared on Twitter, he wrote: "Coming into Twitter HQ — let that sink in!"
Since then, the billionaire has seemingly left no stone unturned throughout his whirlwind first month as "Chief Twit".
Here's a have a look at the vary of the way Musk (who remains to be, concurrently, CEO of his different corporations 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 workers
Nearly instantly after Musk accomplished his drama-plagued $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter, he fired former CEO Parag Agrawal and different executives. He then made himself the CEO and sole director of the platform, per a securities submitting.
The dramatic management shakeup, nevertheless, was solely the primary style of the main staffing overhaul to come back. Musk started wide-ranging layoffs throughout the corporate, lowering its total headcount by roughly 50 per cent within the span of a few days.
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 they'd been locked out of their firm e-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 communication, search, public coverage, and extra. As the employees stated goodbye to their colleagues on-line (many sharing blue hearts and salute emojis to sign they'd misplaced their jobs at Twitter), Musk remained largely silent, no less than on the job cuts.
In one other dramatic transfer by the brand new boss, Musk publicly fired a software program engineer who had survived the preliminary spherical of cuts, however who then questioned Musk on Twitter.
Musk offers ultimatum to remaining staff: Do 'extraordinarily hardcore' work or go away
In a late-night inner e-mail after the mass workers cuts, Musk requested Twitter's remaining staff to decide to "extraordinarily hardcore" work or else go away the corporate with severance pay.
"Going ahead, to construct a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and achieve an more and more aggressive world, we'll should be extraordinarily hardcore," Musk wrote within the memo despatched out on November 16.
"This can imply working lengthy hours at excessive depth. Solely distinctive efficiency will represent a passing grade."
Within the memo, Musk goes on to stipulate how Twitter might be "rather more engineering-driven" after which offers workers an ultimatum. "
In case you are positive that you just need to be a part of the brand new Twitter, please click on sure on the hyperlink under", directing workers to what seems to be a web based kind.
Musk stated any worker who had not achieved so by 5PM ET on the next day would obtain three months' severance.
Advertisers flee and Musk decries 'large drop in income'
Since Musk's takeover, a handful of manufacturers — starting from Basic 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 route of the corporate beneath Musk.
Roughly every week after he took over the corporate, Musk stated that it had seen a "large drop in income".
"Twitter has had a large drop in income, as a result of activist teams pressuring advertisers, despite the fact that nothing has modified with content material moderation and we did the whole lot we may to appease the activists," he stated in a tweet on November 4.
"Extraordinarily tousled! They're making an attempt to destroy free speech in America."
An ongoing saga over blue examine marks kicks off
One other facet of Twitter that Musk rapidly upended is without doubt one of the platform's most acquainted options for its customers: the verified blue examine marks that had lengthy been used to verify the authenticity of presidency officers, journalists, and different public figures.
"Twitter's present lords and peasants system for who has or does not have a blue checkmark is bullshitt," Musk tweeted on November 1.
"Energy to the individuals! Blue for (US)$8/month."
Positive sufficient, on November 5, Twitter launched an up to date model of its iOS app that allowed customers to pay a month-to-month subscription payment to obtain a blue examine mark on their profiles.
The replace, as outlined on Apple's App Retailer on the time, acknowledged that customers would now should pay US$7.99 ($11.84) per thirty days for the corporate's Twitter Blue subscription to obtain a examine mark on the platform, "similar to the celebrities, corporations, and politicians you already observe".
Inside days of the rollout of the subscription service, Twitter was inundated with a wave of movie star and company impersonators who rapidly gamed the brand new system to pose as manufacturers and outstanding figures.
Chaos ensued. In a single viral instance, a faux account, which featured a newly bought blue examine mark, purporting to be pharmaceutical large Eli Lilly tweeted that a important diabetes drug would now be free.
Within the wake of the mayhem, Musk finally introduced that it might delay the rollout of the subscription service till the tip of the month.
"Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November twenty ninth to make it possible for it's rock strong," Musk tweeted on November 15.
On November 24 Musk gave a barely completely different goal date for the relaunch, December 2, and supplied extra particulars concerning the future service, together with a spread of examine mark colors to indicate the kind of verified account.
Twitter restores some beforehand banned accounts, together with Donald Trump's
On November 19, Musk restored the Twitter account of former President Donald Trump, practically two years after it had been completely banned following the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol.
The transfer got here shortly after Twitter restored the accounts of a number of different controversial, beforehand banned or suspended customers, together with conservative Canadian podcaster Jordan Peterson, right-leaning satire web site Babylon Bee, comic Kathy Griffin and Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Forward 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 individuals have spoken. Trump might be reinstated," Musk tweeted.
"Vox Populi, Vox Dei." (Latin for "the voice of the individuals is the voice of God.").
Trump has beforehand stated he would stay on his personal platform, Reality Social, as an alternative of rejoining Twitter, and has but to tweet since his account got here again on-line.
However a change in his strategy may maintain main political implications as Trump has stated he'll search the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Musk goes onto to grant 'amnesty' to most beforehand banned accounts
After conducting yet one more Twitter ballot, Musk stated on November 24 that he'll start restoring most beforehand banned accounts on Twitter beginning subsequent week. This could mark his most far-reaching transfer but to undo the social media platform's coverage of completely suspending customers who repeatedly violated its guidelines.
The Thanksgiving Day announcement got here after most respondents voted in favour of his ballot over whether or not to supply "basic amnesty to suspended accounts, supplied that they haven't damaged the legislation or engaged in egregious spam".
As soon as once more, Musk tweeted that "the individuals have spoken".
His current selections to reinstate beforehand banned accounts, based mostly on the outcomes of his polls on the platform, is notably at odds with how Musk beforehand stated he would deal with such selections.
Only a day after his takeover of Twitter, Musk stated that the social media firm "might be forming a content material moderation council with broadly numerous viewpoints."
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"No main content material selections or account reinstatements will occur earlier than that council convenes," Musk added
It's not instantly clear if that council was ever created, convened, or concerned within the decision-making behind bringing again Trump and previously banned accounts.