REVAMPING TWITTER!

WHAT BIG PLANS DOES ELON MUSK HAVE?

Elon Musk, one of the richest persons in the world the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX;
angel investor, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of
Neuralink and OpenAI has recently bought Twitter, a microblogging and social networking site, and a
huge platform for political speech. Twitter is one of the top 10 social media platforms and provides a
place for government agencies to provide information to the public.
This road to the acquisition of Twitter was not that easy. Elon Musk began buying the shares of the
American tech company in early January 2022 and thereby became the biggest shareholder of the
company. As a result, the co-founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey invited Elon Musk to join the board of
directors which was later declined by Musk despite accepting it in the beginning. Then came an
unsolicited offer from the Tesla CEO to buy Twitter for $43 billion and later finalized the deal for $44
billion. Things took a hard turn when he tried to cancel the deal and was sued by Twitter for breach of the
agreement. But anyhow finally the acquisition had been completed.
After the acquisition, the first thing Elon musk did was remove the CEO Parag Agarwal, and some top
executives. He dissolved the board of directors, ousted them, and appointed him as the sole director. Elon
musk has clearly shown his authority over his newly bought company by the way he implemented all the
changes. Let us have a look at what the new CEO of the tech company has done and what will be his
vision for the future.
Elon Musk announced the increase in the amount charged for verified accounts to $19.99 per month
which was previously $4.99. The Twitter blue subscription unlocks added features like viewing articles
without any interruption of the ads, the ability to post longer videos, priority ranking for content, and can
also verify the user. The verified users are given 90 days to subscribe to the new plan or would lose their
blue tick. The employees are now working late into the night and over the weekend to meet the deadline
set by Musk to implement the new feature before November 7 or else would be fired. Further Elon musk
intended on revamping the entire verification process and fighting bots. As per the reports, Twitter got the
major revenue from advertising, and Musk is keen on changing this by growing subscriptions thereby
contributing to at least half of the company’s overall revenue.
Despite everyone expecting layoffs after Elon Musk’s acquisition, it came as a great shock when 50% of
twitter's workforce was offered a pink slip. Twitter has 7500 employees and half of them were fired just
by notifying them regarding the job cut via email. Now the major question in everyone’s mind is, is there
a necessity for this sudden layoff? How will this impact the employees and their families? The new
Twitter CEO responded to the people tweeting that this was, unfortunately, necessary for the company’s
success moving forward, as the social media site is losing $4 million per day. We should also not forget
the $13 billion debt that musk took on for buying the company as the Twitter company sued musk for
breaching the binding agreement to purchase the firm causing him financial pressure. Some employees
filed a lawsuit against the company stating that it violates the federal worker adjustment and retraining
notification act (WARN Act) and California WARN Act which requires the employer to give prior notice
on job cuts 60 days in advance when there are mass layoffs. While on the other hand twitter employees
who were working with American H-1B work visas are left with no other option but to find a new job
within 60 days or to leave the country and L-1 visa holders will have to leave the country soon. There
were also growing concerns over the spread of misinformation as some team central to fighting
misinformation was completely fired. With the American midterm elections nearing, this may cause fear
as it is the most influential platform where America's reliable voting information is shared with the public.
Bots and spam accounts are littering twitter which can even influence public opinion. Elon musk is more
focused on clearing them out. He wants twitter to be a common digital place with greater inclusivity and
free speech where people can freely share their opinion and discuss various beliefs without any violence.
The left wing was rejoicing at the acquisition as it felt that twitter's algorithm is biased because it
promotes right-wing tweets over the left. Still, there is confusion on whether Elon musk would bring back
the banned accounts like Donald trump who is permanently suspended as his tweets incite violence. But
one thing is clear Elon musk wanted to paint twitter in his image of taking risks.

- Sowmiyadevi G