Decisions and news follow the Twitter platform after its acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk, but what the reports agree on is that the changes to the platform have already begun.
Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter
After Elon Musk announced his acquisition of Twitter ownership in late October 2022 for $44 billion;
The South African-American businessman announced on Monday that he has taken over as CEO of the social network, days after he fired former President Barack Agrawal and several other officials.
Musk had expressed in a previous tweet his dissatisfaction with the presence of many people responsible for managing the platform.
Just received this email from Twitter.
This is an actual, real email that was autogenerated 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/7DQp4sNINX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2022
Changes to the Twitter Blue service
On the other hand, the American Wall Street Journal reported - citing informed sources - that Twitter will not allow subscribers to its blue service to access articles free of ads.
Twitter Blue launched in June 2021 as the platform's first subscription service that provides exclusive access to various features, including the option to edit tweets. The service also allowed subscribers to read articles from some publishers without ads.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, Twitter is planning more changes to its $4.99 per month Blue subscription plan.
Musk said today - in response to author Stephen King - that $8 is an appropriate amount he can pay for being a verified user, adding that charging a fee is the only way to "defeat bots and trolls."
Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
Power to the people!
Blue for $8/month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Twitter attracts more than 50 employees from Tesla
On the employee front, Elon Musk has brought in several employees of his company, Tesla, to work on revising the platform's code, after he asked its employees to redesign its subscription systems and the process of verifying its users' accounts within a week.
Several Twitter employees stated that some of the automated driving software engineers in Tesla cars and several experts from the company are working on a code review for the platform, even though their skills do not match the languages and systems used to build and maintain Twitter.
Musk had asked his employees to learn the software for the platform as soon as possible to re-design it.
Wholesale hairstyles are waiting for Twitter employees
Twitter employees expressed concern about losing their jobs, fearing that they would not be able to complete the required tasks on time, as some employees had to work 12-hour shifts, 7 days a week, to adhere to Musk's strict appointments.
Reports stated that Musk intends to reduce the number of employees on the platform, which made employees live in an atmosphere of tension and fear in the absence of any official clarification on the layoff process, as many of them are working to provide new features and make the required improvements for fear of losing their jobs.
Musk urged the engineers working on the platform to complete two major projects within days or weeks;
One of them made the process of verifying accounts for users paid, and the other related to restarting the Vine application as a standalone application or part of Twitter, and the team must release the required features no later than the seventh of November, otherwise the entire team will be laid off.
Musk intends to restart the "Vine" application
Musk intends to revive the application of short videos known as "Vine", after its closure in 2016, as he published a survey on his Twitter account asking whether the company should restart the application.
It is worth noting that the application needs many modifications so that it can compete with similar applications, such as Tik Tok and short YouTube clips;
Which makes the time limit set by Elon Musk to restart the application unrealistic.
Bring back Vine?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022