Tag: Musk x Twitter

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Individual emails to reveal the faith of Twitter employees

A letter sent to Twitter employees late Thursday said everyone would know their faith in the company by 9am PT (12pm ET).

“By 9am PST on Friday, Nov. 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. Please check your email, including the spam folder,” the email, published by The Washington Post in full, states.

It was the first form of mass communication sent since Elon Musk took over Twitter last week for $44 billion. Musk is desperately trying to recuperate the costs of the hostile takeover and will start charging people to keep their verification status. 

Those keeping their roles at the company will be contacted through their Twitter email. Those who aren’t will be notified through their personal emails.

According to The Post, no one is safe. By Thursday evening, several people had already lost their jobs, including people who were put into small teams by Musk to work on new products over the past week.

“Numbers dwindling down in the [Slack] channels last hour, people dropping like flies,” an employee told the publication under the condition of anonymity.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: The Washington Post 

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Musk to cut half of Twitter’s workforce on Friday: report

Twitter layoffs are coming. While there’s been some debate about how many Twitter employees stand to lose their jobs — some reports went as high as 75 percent — it looks like about half the company’s employees could get let go.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Twitter’s new CEO and dude who desperately wants you to think he’s cool, Elon Musk, plans to cut 3,700 Twitter jobs. Currently, the Twitter workforce stands at roughly 7,500 people. The information comes from people with knowledge of the matter, who said Musk plans to inform affected staffers on Friday. Moreover, Musk plans to reverse the company’s work-from-anywhere policy and force employees to return to the office, although there may be some exceptions.

Musk and a team of advisors reportedly considered a variety of layoff scenarios and policy changes at Twitter, and the people who spoke to Bloomberg noted plans could still change. One scenario reportedly included offering laid-off workers 60 days’ worth of severance pay.

Once the layoffs were sorted, Twitter’s chief accounting officer, Robert Kaiden, left the company. Kaiden marks one of the last pre-Musk executives to depart the company, according to Bloomberg.

Layoffs were an expected part of Musk’s Twitter takeover. Musk made it clear from the start that he intended to fire people, with the only real question being how many people would lose their jobs. Since taking over, Twitter staff have reportedly worked long hours and over the weekend on various projects for Musk, under threat of being fired if they missed the deadline.

Meanwhile, leaders were tasked with drawing up lists of employees who could be cut, and senior personnel were told to target a 50 percent reduction in headcount, Bloomberg reported. Musk reportedly had engineers and director-level staff from Tesla review the lists, which were drawn up and ranked based on individuals’ contributions to Twitter’s code. Musk previously tweeted about focusing on Twitter’s core product, noting that “Software engineering, server operations & design will rule the roost.”

All these cuts come as Twitter contends with massive debt from the Musk acquisition. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk’s purchase saddled Twitter with $13 billion USD (about $17.95 billion CAD) in debt, with interest payments expected to total $1 billion USD (roughly $1.4 billion CAD) annually. That debt appears to be driving much of Musk’s decision-making as he rushes to make cuts and introduce changes to squeeze a profit from Twitter. Along with cutting staff, plans include increasing the cost of Twitter Blue to $8/mo, adding verification to Blue, and introducing a paywalled video feature.

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

Header image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Bloomberg

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Twitter might give everyone the ability to edit tweets

There’s been much debate over Musk’s plan to jack up the cost of Twitter Blue and make it a requirement for verification on Twitter. However, new details suggest Twitter could make one of the best Blue features available to everyone: the edit button.

As reported by Casey Newton in his Platformer newsletter (paywalled), internal company discussions detail a plan to give all users the ability to edit tweets. After years of jokes, memes, and desperate requests, Twitter finally added an edit button but locked it behind the ‘Blue’ subscription service.

Alongside a free edit button, Newton reported that Twitter is considering a $99 USD annual plan for Twitter Blue to go alongside the proposed $8/mo USD price increase proposed by Musk.

Initially, reports indicated Twitter would increase the cost of Blue to $20/mo USD and make verified users (designated with a blue checkmark) sign up for Blue to keep their verification. However, after much backlash, Musk suggested the $8/mo price instead.

Musk has also gone on to tweet additional details of the new Blue program, although seemingly without any thought to the work involved in building the proposed features. The list includes priority for replies, mentions, and search, the ability to post long videos and audio, and “half as many ads.” Moreover, Musk mentioned a “paywall bypass” for publishers willing to work with Twitter, which notably was already a feature of Blue that apparently the company is shutting down.

On the one hand, it’ll be great to have editable tweets available for the masses (anyone can make a typo, after all). On the other, editable tweets is one of the few worthwhile features of Twitter Blue, which is about to see a big price hike. It seems strange to me that Twitter would give away the edit button while trying to force people to pay for verification.

For the latest on Musk x Twitter, check out all the MobileSyrup coverage here.

Source: Platformer, @CaseyNewton

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Twitter reportedly working on paywalled video feature

Unsurprisingly, things continue to change at Twitter under Elon Musk at a breakneck pace. One of the latest developments is a plan to paywall video content on the social platform.

The details come from The Washington Post (via The Verge), which obtained an internal company email. According to the email, users would be able to enable a ‘Paywalled Video’ feature after adding a video to a tweet and could select from preset prices, such as $1, $2, $5, or $10. Moreover, other users would still be able to retweet the video without paying to view it.

The Post also noted it’s unclear if the video plan predates Musk’s acquisition. It certainly sounds like it could — as The Verge notes, Twitter has long been exploring ways to increase revenue outside of advertising. Alternate revenue sources include things like Super Follows, which let users pay for subscriber-only content, and the Twitter Blue subscription.

Regardless of whether the paywalled video idea predated Musk, his Twitter acquisition appears to have accelerated the feature — Twitter employees reportedly have just one or two weeks to launch the video paywall feature.

However, the tight deadline may lead to other problems for Twitter. It reportedly would leave the company’s internal review team as little as three days to evaluate the risks of charging for video content, such as what happens if a user uploads copyrighted content and charges for it.

The Verge also highlights potential issues with Twitter’s porn community. Twitter remains one of the few major social media platforms to allow adult content, and while the community might benefit from a paywalled video feature, it could also cause problems with advertisers and payment providers (as a reminder, payment providers have caused problems for other adult content platforms like OnlyFans).

Source: The Washington Post Via: The Verge

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Musk says it’ll be ‘a few more weeks’ before Twitter re-platforms banned users

Elon Musk, the rich guy so hopelessly addicted to Twitter he bought it for $44 billion USD, says it will be “at least a few more weeks” before people banned from the platform will be allowed to return.

In a tweet (it’s always a tweet), Musk explained that he wants a “clear process” for allowing people previously banned from Twitter to return to the site. Creating that process will take a “few more weeks.”

Musk’s desire to bring back banned users hasn’t exactly been a secret. Musk previously called Twitter’s ban of insurrectionist and former U.S. President Donald Trump a “mistake,” and made it clear he would lift the ban after gaining control of Twitter.

Moreover, Musk said last week that there wouldn’t be any “major content decisions or account reinstatements” until Twitter had formed a content moderation council with “widely diverse viewpoints.” Following his tweet about creating a clear process for re-platforming banned users, Musk noted that the content moderation council will “include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence.”

Finally, Musk tweeted that he had talked with leaders from organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, Free Press and Color of Change, about how Twitter will “continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies.” Free Press co-CEO Jessica J. Gonzalez told CNBC in a statement that the conversation with Musk was “productive” and noted the new Twitter CEO promised the re-platforming process would be transparent. Moreover, Gonzalez said Musk planned not to reinstate accounts that violated Twitter’s trust and safety rules before the U.S. midterm elections on November 8th.

Admittedly, this appears to be somewhat good news for those worried about how Twitter would change under Musk. In the early hours of Musk’s Twitter takeover, the site saw an increase in hate speech and harassment from users emboldened by Musk’s free speech views. Meanwhile, Musk worked to assuage the concerns of advertisers, writing that Twitter wouldn’t turn into a “free-for-all-hellscape.”

For the latest on all the Musk x Twitter news, check out our coverage here.

Source: @elonmusk Via: CNBC