Tag: Elon Musk

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New Twitter users can’t sign up for Blue subscription

Just days after rolling out updated features for Twitter Blue, the company has stopped new accounts from accessing the subscription service.

“Twitter accounts created on or after November 9, 2022 will be unable to subscribe to Twitter Blue at this time,” according to Twitter’s help page, as pointed out by Engadget.

It’s not entirely clear why new account holders can’t access the subscription, which attaches the once sought-after blue checkmark to accounts. However, it’s possible the ban on subscriptions is part of an effort to tamp down on accounts subscribing to get a blue check to help impersonate people.

Buying verification created obvious confusion as several people took the opportunity to impersonate various people and organizations.

Twitter briefly assigned a grey checkmark to accounts that served to identify which accounts were official but Musk quickly killed the system.

Twitter Blue is only available to iOS users in the U.S, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. Any Android or web subscribers who bought Blue before Musk took over the company will see their subscription cancelled if they don’t do so themselves.

The help page also lists the $9.99 price tag as an “introductory offer,” indicating the subscription cost could change down the road.

You can find more on Musk x Twitter here.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Twitter via: Engadget

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Elon Musk ends remote work, tells employees to be in the office full time

Elon Musk’s first email to Twitter employees as ‘Chief Twit’ warns employees that remote work is a thing of the past.

According to Bloomberg News, whatever employees remain after mass layoffs will be required to be in the office for 40 hours a week. The email cites economic challenges that will impact advertising, something Twitter heavily relies on.

There’s “no way to sugarcoat the message,” the email states. The mandated 40 hours will start immediately, and any work-from-home requests will need approval from Musk.

Musk has owned Twitter for two weeks and has introduced a barrage of messy rules that even he’s not sure of.

Twitter Blue increased to $9.99 and granted users verified access. He then introduced a new grey checkmark to serve the same purpose as the original blue checkmark. The grey mark was introduced to various accounts Wednesday before Musk abruptly pulled the concept.

“The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” the email reads. “Over the next few days, the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam,” a follow-up email states.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Bloomberg News 

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Critic claims Twitter rejected his anti-Tesla ad for ‘political’ reasons

A Tesla critic who previously shared controversial videos claiming that Tesla vehicles failed to avoid running over child-sized mannequins now claims that Twitter rejected an anti-Tesla ad from his safety advocacy group.

As reported by The Verge, Dan O’Dowd and the Dawn Project claimed Twitter rejected attempts to promote a tweet about a full-page ad the group ran in the New York Times. The ad criticized Elon Musk’s Tesla over its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature. Screenshots shared by the group show Twitter’s response to the promoted tweet, noting that it rejected the tweet for violating Twitter’s policy about political ads.

Notably, the tweet remains on Twitter — the Dawn Project isn’t able to promote it, which could limit engagement.

For reference, Twitter’s advertising policies define political content as follows:

“We define political content as content that references a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, referendum, ballot measure, legislation, regulation, directive, or judicial outcome.

“Ads that contain references to political content, including appeals for votes, solicitations of financial support, and advocacy for or against any of the above-listed types of political content, are prohibited under this policy.

“We also do not allow ads of any type by candidates, political parties, or elected or appointed government officials.”

“The move to prohibit the advertising of content criticizing Musk’s Tesla Full Self-Driving software raises serious questions over his commitment to free speech,” O’Dowd said in a statement. Musk’s free-speech commitment has come under fire from others as well, notably following Musk’s declaration that Twitter would permanently ban any accounts engaged in impersonation after several accounts impersonated Musk and made fun of him.

Twitter didn’t respond to The Verge’s request for comment, although it’s worth noting that much of the company’s PR department was let go in Musk’s mass layoffs.

O’Dowd and Musk have traded blows before

O’Dowd and Musk have butted heads in recent months over Tesla FSD. O’Dowd has publicly antagonized Musk, including taking out a full-page ad in the New York Times to criticize the safety and reliability of Tesla vehicles and FSD. O’Dowd’s Dawn Project became the face of anti-Tesla advertising, including a campaign centred around videos of Tesla vehicles striking child-sized mannequins. (As an aside, those videos elicited an interesting response from Musk stans, who fervently believed the vehicles failed to stop because the tests used mannequins. The stans actively sought real children to stand in front of Tesla vehicles in hopes of proving that the vehicles would stop for real children.)

Part of the anti-Tesla campaign was tied into O’Dowd’s failed Senate campaign earlier this year. The Verge notes that O’Dowd came in just shy of 75,000 votes in the June primary, landing 10th overall.

Meanwhile, Tesla sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Dawn Project in August over the videos of Tesla vehicles striking child-sized mannequins. Those videos are no longer on the group’s YouTube page. Moreover, Tesla supporters pointed out that O’Dowd has a vested interest in shaming Tesla publicly since O’Dowd runs Green Hills Software, which does business with some Tesla competitors, including General Motors, BMW, and Ford. Additionally, Musk previously called Green Hills Software a “pile of trash.”

It’s worth noting the U.S. Justice Department is investigating Tesla’s FSD claims after the automated driver system was involved in over a dozen crashes last year.

Source: The Verge

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Elon Musk considered putting all of Twitter behind a paywall

Twitter owner Elon Musk reportedly considered charging a subscription fee for access to the social media platform amid the chaos of paid verification.

According to details reported by Casey Newton in his Platformer newsletter (via The Verge), Musk and his adviser David Sacks, a venture capitalist (VC) helping Musk manage the Twitter transition, discussed the idea of adding a paywall to Twitter in recent meetings. (As an aside, it’s well worth reading Platformer to get a fuller picture of the internal chaos at Twitter right now based on information shared with Newton by employees.)

One possible plan Musk and Sacks considered involved allowing people to use Twitter for a limited time each month, but requiring a subscription to continue browsing. However, Newton wasn’t able to learn how serious Musk and Sacks are about the idea, and Twitter didn’t respond to requests for comment (unsurprising, considering Musk gutted the company’s PR team in the mass layoffs).

However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk chose to go through with the paywall idea. After all, he’s spent the last few days tweeting things like “Trash me all day, but it’ll cost $8,” suggesting people would need to pay for Twitter Blue to “trash” him. Currently, you can “trash” Musk on Twitter all you want without paying a cent (but you might lose your account).

Reading beyond Musk’s tweets, it’s clear he’ll need to do something to squeeze profit out of Twitter. The acquisition saddled Twitter with some $13 billion USD (about $17.5 billion CAD) in debt, with annual interest payments expected to total $1 billion USD (roughly $1.3 billion CAD). Moreover, some of Musk’s money-making plans might actually lose the company money.

Per Platformer, Twitter employees warned that Musk’s revamped Twitter Blue subscription could lose the company money. One of Musk’s promised features for Blue was to cut ads in half for subscribers. Estimates suggest Twitter will lose about $6 in ad revenue per U.S. user by making that change, and when factoring in the cut Apple and Google take from in-app subscriptions, Twitter would likely lose money on Blue if the ad plan goes through.

This all comes as the company reportedly delayed the launch of its paid verification feature until after the U.S. midterm elections over fears of election interference. At the same time, brands and governments are pulling ads from Twitter. However, Musk remains confident, tweeting that Twitter is gaining users.

For the latest on Musk x Twitter news, check out all of MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

Source: Platformer Via: The Verge

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Twitter user growth reportedly at an ‘all-time-high’ post Musk takeover

While it feels like Twitter’s new CEO, Elon Musk, is driving users away from the platform, in reality, daily user growth hit an all-time high during Musk’s first week at the platform, according to a company document procured by The Verge.

Global mDAUs (monetizable daily active users) growth at the platform increased to more than 20 percent, while mDAU growth in the U.S. is “growing even more quickly,” states an internal FAQ that was shared with Twitter’s sales team and was obtained by The Verge.

Since the end of Q2, 2022 (post-June), Twitter has reportedly crossed the quarter billion user mark, and has added more than 15 million monetizable daily active users.

“Twitter user numbers have increased significantly around the world since the deal was announced,” wrote Musk while replying to a user. “As Twitter becomes by far the most reliable source of truth, it will be indispensable.”

While users aren’t mass-exiting the platform, and it seems new users are flowing in too, it is the advertisers that are abandoning ship, causing Twitter to sink and reportedly lose $4 million a day.

In Canada, a media and marketing agency that works with the federal government to plan and buy ads, has advised federal departments to “pause activity on Twitter,” citing mass layoffs at the newly taken-over company as the primary reason.

Other major advertisers that have pulled out of Twitter include General Mills, CVS, United Airlines, General Motors, American Express, Coca-Cola, Nintendo and more.

You can read more about Musk and Twitter here.

Source: The Verge

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Twitter reportedly delays paid verification until November 9th

Twitter has reportedly delayed the rollout of its new paid verification system until after the U.S. midterm elections, according to the New York Times.

The Times cited messages from an internal Twitter Slack channel in which employees questioned “making such a risky change before elections” over its potential to cause election interference.

A manager working on the verification badge project replied that “we’ve made the decision to move the launch of this release to Nov. 9, after the election.” The blue checkmark shown on verified accounts adds a level of authenticity to those accounts — by opening up verification to all, it potentially risks making fake news, misinformation, and fake accounts appear more legitimate.

Moreover, the Times said that Twitter didn’t respond to requests to comment, noting that the company had “almost entirely laid off” its communications team (hardly a surprise for a company owned by Elon Musk).

It’s an interesting turn of events, with the decision coming just a day after an update to the Twitter iOS app offered up paid verification. Text from the iOS app update details noted that users can sign up for Twitter Blue to get a blue checkmark “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.”

Amid the blue check chaos, Musk declared Twitter would permanently ban accounts that impersonate people without a parody label. The escalation in Twitter’s impersonation policies came amid a slew of verified accounts pretended to be Musk and made fun of him. However, despite saying that accounts labeled as parody would be okay, Twitter has banned some parody accounts that impersonated Musk too.

Since taking the helm at Twitter, Musk has created turmoil across the social network. Brands have paused advertising on Twitter over uncertainty with leadership, hate speech spiked after Musk’s takeover, and Musk has suggested various schemes to try and squeeze profit out of the company (including paid verification, DMs, and more). You can keep up with the latest Musk x Twitter news here.

Source: The New York Times

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Twitter is asking some of its fired employees to come back

After laying off roughly half of its workforce last week, it appears that Twitter’s ‘Complaint Hotline Operator,’ Elon Musk, is scrambling to get some of the fired employees back, as reported by Bloomberg.

Reportedly, some employees were laid off “by mistake,” while others are being recalled because it turns out they’re needed to build Musk’s vision for Twitter.

Platformer‘s Casey Newton also reported that an internal Twitter Slack chat message (reportedly from Musk) asked remaining Twitter employees to put together a list of former employees who would like to join back.

Prior to the layoffs, several Twitter employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the company over Musk’s plan to cut roughly half of the company’s workforce, arguing that it violates U.S. federal and California state law.

Musk said that Twitter is losing over $4 million USD (about $5.4 million CAD) per day and that reducing the company’s workforce was the only way to go. “Everyone [that] exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required,” he wrote in a tweet.

According to sources close to Twitter, the company now has roughly 3,700 employees, most of whom have been asked to show technical documentation to justify the work they do at Twitter and to prove their value to the company. Employees have also reportedly been working unsustainably long shifts since Musk’s takeover to meet deadlines and ship new features.

The company aims to add new features to Twitter Blue, charge $8/month for a blue checkmark, and introduce a new paywalled video feature, amid other updates. Musk is also looking to revive Vine, the OG short-form video hosting service that Twitter acquired for $30 million USD (about $40 million CAD) in 2012, only to shut it down in 2016. Read more about it here.

The latest news on Twitter and Musk can be found here.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Bloomberg

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Musk threatens permanent Twitter bans for impersonating accounts

It seems Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is starting to realize the downsides of handing out verification to anyone who pays for it. After going live with the new Twitter Blue subscription that gives subscribers the blue checkmark verification symbol over the weekend, several users quickly made parody accounts making fun of Musk.

Despite declaring that comedy was “now legal on Twitter” after taking control of the company, Musk was not amused by the parody accounts. In a series of tweets Sunday evening, Musk said that Twitter would now permanently suspend “any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody.’” Moreover, Musk warned that changing your name on Twitter will cause a “temporary loss of verified checkmark.”

However, it seems that specifying your account is a parody account doesn’t help dodge bans when you impersonate Musk himself:

The thing is, Twitter has rules about impersonation, which don’t seem to have changed yet (Musk even acknowledges these rules in a tweet). According to Twitter’s policies, the company may take the following actions against accounts violating its impersonation rules:

Profile modifications

If your account is potentially confusing in terms of its affiliation, we may require you to edit the content on your profile. If you violate this policy again after your first warning, your account will be permanently suspended.

Temporary account suspension

If we believe you may be in violation of this policy, we may require you to provide government issued identification (such as a driver’s license or passport) in order to reinstate your account.

Permanent suspension

If you are engaged in impersonation or are using a misleading or deceptive fake identity, we may permanently suspend your account.

However, Musk’s tweets say the company will now skip straight to permanent suspensions — so far, it seems to be the case, with The Verge noting comedians Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman both had their accounts locked or suspended after impersonating Musk. The move even appears to have bothered some Musk fans, who thought Twitter would stop doing permanent suspensions.

The Verge also reported that there don’t appear to be any changes to the Twitter terms of service, suggesting Musk rashly tweeted the new rules and had employees start enforcing them. Moreover, Musk previously promised not to make any major content decision before putting together a content moderation council — as far as we know, this moderation council has not yet been formed.

Anyway, the whole debacle is yet more evidence that offering verification to anyone willing to pay was a bad idea. The point of verification was to lend authenticity to certain high-profile accounts so that users could easily tell if an account is who claims to be. By handing out blue checkmarks to anyone who pays for them, it’s much easier to make impersonations of high-profile accounts that look legitimate.

You can read more about Musk x Twitter here.

Source: @elonmusk Via: The Verge

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Elon Musk officially launches $8/month Twitter sub with blue checkmark

Twitter has officially launched its $8/month subscription service that includes an overhaul to the verification process.

Elon Musk, who officially acquired the social media giant last week, quickly got to work on a way to monetize how people obtain the blue checkmarks.

Now, those who pay the $8 monthly fee can receive the same checks that were previously given to public figures, including celebrities, businesses and journalists.

However, the check is simply available for purchase through the new subscription. As part of a new update, iOS users are told they can sign up now to receive the blue checkmark next to their names, “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.” (It’s unclear when it’s rolling out on Android.)

Critics have previously expressed concern that such a system would dilute the intended meaning of verification, which was to combat impersonations and fake news. It remains to be seen what will happen now that anyone can get a check.

Musk’s first week as head of Twitter has been met with significant controversy, including his sharing of a conspiracy theory related to the assault of Paul Pelosi and the layoffs of half of Twitter’s staff.

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Elon Musk has been fact-checked by Twitter

Twitter is in a state of chaos thanks to widespread layoffs and edicts from its new owner surrounding outlandish money-making efforts like paid verification and DMs.

As Elon Musk often does, the recently crowned “chief twit” turned to the social media platform he now owns to blame “activist groups” for the “massive” drop in revenue the social media platform has experienced since his takeover.

Right on queue, this tweet was flagged by users with three fact-checking links, including coverage from the Wall Street Journal, MSN and the Daily Mail. The articles outline that major brands have pulled out from advertising on the platform because there’s widespread uncertainty surrounding the free speech-focused direction Musk plans to take Twitter.

While the fact-checked portion of Musk’s tweet isn’t visible to everyone, several Twitter users snapped screenshots.

All of MobileSyrup’s Musk x Twitter coverage can be found here.