Elon Musk Is Destroying Twitter
Elon Musk is now the CEO of Twitter.
November 9, 2022
Elon Musk bought Twitter and became the CEO of Twitter, he is making a lot of changes to Twitter and they all aren’t for the better.
Elon Musk Cuts Off 75% Of Twitter’s Staff.
He let go of the Human Rights Team, the Accessibility Experience Team, The Ethics, Transparency, & Accountability Team, Curation Team, and the team he hired to work on a project.
Here’s the first official communication from Twitter’s new leadership to its staff, a week after Musk took over: a fun game where you get to find out if you’re laid off or not based by 9am tomorrow, based on whether the email pops up in your Twitter account or personal account. pic.twitter.com/tpJsAkiaHp
— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) November 4, 2022
Yesterday was my last day at Twitter: the entire Human Rights team has been cut from the company.
I am enormously proud of the work we did to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, to protect those at-risk in global conflicts & crises including Ethiopia,
— Shannon Raj Singh (@ShannonRSingh) November 4, 2022
I am officially no longer the Engineering Manager for the Accessibility Experience Team at Twitter. I have words. 🧵
— Gerard K. Cohen (@gerardkcohen) November 4, 2022
Probably my last Twitter Slack message. The ML Ethics, Transparency, & Accountability team was one of a kind. Forever grateful that @ruchowdh took a chance on me and I got to be a small part of it. 🙏💙 #lovewhereyouworked pic.twitter.com/L6GtpGa5Hv
— Joan Deitchman (@JoanDeitchman) November 4, 2022
So Twitter’s Curation team is no more.
This site 👇 was recently launched to tell the world about our work. Give it a look for two reasons:
1) to see how it will impact your experience
2) if you want to hire the people behind it, get in touch via DMhttps://t.co/vGdlDSYh8r— Andrew Haigh (@AndrewHaigh) November 4, 2022
Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this. https://t.co/56I1uyBIIR
— sillyrobin is a fmr Tweep (@SillyRobin) November 4, 2022
Not only that but he also let go of Twitter’s Board Of Directors.
Elon Musk came out with his own tweet trying to justify why.
Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.
Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
Elon Musk also made another change to Twitter which permanently bans people without warning for impersonation without clearly specifying “parody”.
Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022
This caused famous YouTuber Ethan Klein, better known as H3H3, to be banned after he tried to make a “parody” of Elon.
Twitter Verification
Another change Elon plans to do is to change the blue Twitter verification badge. Elon changed the blue verification to an $8/month subscription. Originally it was $20/month but they lowered it. Anyone is now capable of getting a verification badge if they are willing to pay for it. If you were previously verified you would lose your verification badge. People had a lot of negative comments on the subscription and Elon posted memes ridiculing people who are against it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
Elon Musk is trying to bring back Vine.
Vine was the original Tik Tok before Tik Tok was a thing. It was the same short form entertainment that we’re all familiar with. Vine was officially released in 2013 but acquired by Twitter in 2012. Elon Musk made a poll and the poll ended with 70% yes and 30% no.
Bring back Vine?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
The Competitors
If Elon does plan on bringing back Vine, one thing is considered is the other short-term entertainment. TikTok, Youtube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and now Vine. Vine was the first short-term entertainment and had many stars like King Bach, Lele Pons, and Thomas Sanders. However, due to Vine “dying,” they went to other platforms to continue making content. Will they come back to Vine is unsure and will people enjoy it as much as they did before is also unsure. It’s probably not going to happen but who knows what Elon plans to do.
