It’s been a busy first week since Elon Musk took control of Twitter on October 27th.
He appointed himself CEO.
Make that “Chief Twit”
Or Twitter complaint hotline operator.
There were plenty of complaints when Musk said people would have to start paying $8
a month to keep their blue check mark or to get one.
AOC wasn’t too happy.
Musk’s response to the Congresswoman?
Pay up.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO didn’t waste any time getting down to business.
He ousted Twitter’s nine board of directors to become the sole director, though he says
being sole director is temporary.
He also started to trim the fat and is reportedly planning on eliminating nearly half of Twitter’s
workforce, or 3,700 jobs, according to Bloomberg.
These two guys pretended to be laid-off employees…and gave their names as Rahul Ligma and Daniel
Johnson to reporters who fell for their prank.
But Musk did really start day one as chief of Twitter by firing top Twitter executives.
CEO Parag Agrawal got the boot So did Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal
And…legal affairs and policy executive Vijaya Gadde.
Gadde was reportedly instrumental in permanently banning Donald Trump from the platform for
controversial tweets related to the Capitol Hill riot in January 2021.
Musk said banning the former U.S. president was “a morally bad decision”.
Everyone is wondering whether the former President will be back on Twitter.
Musk mused that if he “had a dollar for every time someone asked (him) if Trump is
coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!”
Before any big changes, he says “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council
with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
He said the process would take “at least a few more weeks”.
Musk did buy the platform because he’s a self-described “free speech absolutist”
Who believes Twitter should be “the digital town square” but thinks it has gone “too
far in squashing dissenting opinions.”
The final straw appears to have been when Twitter suspended the Babylon Bee, a Christian
satire account that named U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine its “Man of
the Year”.
Many who are viewed as conservative feel they’ve been unfairly targeted by Twitter.
Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson had his account suspended over his post about
transgender actor Elliot Page, formerly Ellen Page.
But the suspension will not be lifted unless I delete the “hateful” tweet in question,
and I would rather die than do that.
Musk replied to Peterson’s daughter that “Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons
will be freed from Twitter jail”.
Now that he’s in charge, Elon Musk won’t only be freeing people from Twitter jail.
Just like his ambitions for his other companies, SpaceX and Tesla, he has far bigger plans
for the platform.
In his view, Twitter is “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”
There’s speculation that he wants to replicate the success of WeChat, which has basically
become the everything app in China.
When YouTuber Steven Mark Ryan of Solving the Money Problem pointed out it’s “INSANE
that Twitter has not currently implemented a YouTube clone” - Musk responded with a
wink.
Could we see creators monetizing videos on Twitter?
Musk polled people to ask if they wanted to bring back Vine, the short video-sharing app
that Twitter shut down in 2016.
He talked about it being a possible competitor for TikTok.
All these plans rely on good engineering.
Musk reportedly sent in his trusted Tesla engineers to inspect Twitter’s code to assess
the company's needs.
They’ll have to tackle the problem of fake and spam accounts.
In fact, Musk tried to get out of buying Twitter, believing it wasn’t worth the $44 billion
he offered to take it private…due to the number of spam bots.
Musk believes the way to defeat the bots while also making money for Twitter is by charging
you if you want this blue check mark.
This is arguably his most controversial move during week one.
The blue verification badge has become a status symbol granted to journalists, celebrities,
politicians, some of whom were furious when they heard they’d have to pay $19.99 a month
to keep their blue tick as reported by The Verge.
Musk replied to an unhappy Stephen King that Twitter needs to pay the bills somehow.
And wondered if the horror author might be willing to dish out $8 instead.
He called the current system for who has and doesn’t have the blue tick is “BS” and
that charging $8 a month for anyone who wants it would mean more “power to the people”.
This would be part of the Twitter Blue subscription service which comes with other benefits.
Although Musk has long boasted that Tesla does not pay for advertising, advertising
has been crucial to Twitter’s survival.
General Motors temporarily pulled ads from Twitter following the takeover.
Musk tried to reassure advertisers that Twitter would be a respected advertising platform.
In an open letter, he stressed that he doesn’t want Twitter to “become a free-for-all hellscape,
where anything can be said with no consequences!”
He also said he bought Twitter “to help humanity, whom I love.”
Will people love the new Twitter?
Users have begun to notice some changes.
When the White House boasted seniors are getting the biggest social security increase in a
decade thanks to President Biden, context checkers pointed out it’s because inflation
has been the highest in decades.
The White House then deleted the tweet.
Musk can only hope that Twitter soars to new heights, like his rocket company SpaceX.
Though some have vowed to leave.
However you feel, let that sink in, that a new boss is in town.
Can’t help it, let that sink in.
Twitter is now a private company and will no longer be listed on the New York stock
exchange.
However, millions of investors have already dropped their shares in the last few months,
as it got too volatile.
And their caution is well-founded;
The classic 60/40 portfolio of stocks and bonds,
The go-to investing method for decades,
has lost around 34% this year.
As a result, Goldman Sachs says portfolios need to be rebalanced, to avoid further losses.
They highlight the importance of investing in real assets that have historically outperformed
in volatile conditions.
Assets like fine art.
And it’s why Masterworks is seeing increased demand this year.
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These are not NFTs.
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Even during the bull market of the last decade.
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Thanks for watching.
For Newsthink, I’m Cindy Pom.