Elon Musk plans to lay off Twitter’s staff as he sees a problem with coders working for Twitter
After the Twitter buyout was finalized, Elon Musk owns what he previously described as a “de facto town square” for under $44 billion. Elon Musk has taken the reins of Twitter from the former leadership and he is already set to make some big changes in how the company works. The billionaire has hinted at a major issue with coders working for Twitter. Musk claims the most messed up thing is Coders working for Twitter as it has almost 10 people managing every single person who is coding. Musk had sent out a tweet highlighting the new internal mail from Twitter management which got the conversation going about managers in the company.
In the same thread, Elon Musk also mentioned that he has no idea about who is the current CEO of Twitter. When prompted by another user, he said, “My title is Chief Twit right there in the bio. No idea who the CEO is.”
Ever since Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout news was out, the democratic camp fears that Musk will use Twitter’s platform to pursue his personal agenda, and republicans are excited that Donald Trump will be reinstated; the crypto flock cautiously awaits what will happen next.
This might not be good news if you use Twitter and value your online privacy. Twitter has struggled with privacy and security issues for years, and it has been slow to put any potential fixes into action. It is possible that everything you’ve ever done or said on Twitter, whether it was in public or private, including your direct messages, now belongs to one of the wealthiest individuals on earth, a man infamous for being erratic, foolish, and even spiteful. A man who allegedly intends to get married owns it as well. Your DMs at privacy risk might come true.
Elon Musk is considering charging Twitter users $20 a month or $240 a year for a blue tick on their account, as the world’s richest person prepares an overhaul of the social media platform.
The Tesla chief executive is planning changes to Twitter’s Blue subscription service, according to the tech newsletter Platformer, including raising the $4.99 a month fee to $19.99. Users verified by the platform – who carry a blue tick flagging them as an authentic source – would have 90 days to sign up to Blue or lose their check mark.
Musk did not comment directly on the story but tweeted to his more than 110 million followers on Sunday that “the whole verification process is being revamped right now”.
Reportedly, even current Twitter blue checkmark holders will have to comply with this new change. Twitter employees have been asked to implement these changes by November 7. They have been given the option to either meet the deadline or pack and leave.
According to the Guardian, there are about 400,000 verified users on Twitter, as of 2021, but the program has long been plagued with problems. Introduced in 2009 as a response to a growing wave of celebrity concerns about impersonation – including from Kanye West, who blogged that “EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF” – the “blue tick” rapidly came to be a status symbol, rather than simple proof of identity.
That led to Twitter withdrawing the verification status from controversial users such as the rightwing personality Milo Yiannopoulos, facing criticism for granting it to white supremacists, and eventually pausing the entire program for a number of years before resuming it in 2021.
The Washington Post also reported on Monday that Musk was planning to lay off 25% of Twitter’s 7,500 staff in a first round of job cuts at the San Francisco-based company. In an interaction with a Twitter user on Sunday, Musk was asked what the “most messed up” thing was at the company, to which he replied: “There seem to be 10 people ‘managing’ for every one person coding”.
Musk has also fired Twitter’s board of directors and appointed himself as its sole member, it was revealed on Monday in a company filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
