When he bought Twitter for $44 billion on October 27, Elon Musk portrayed himself as a “great defender of free speech.” He wanted to revolutionize his platform to implement this vision. His initial idea was to make an app based on the WeChat model, but he went from disavowal to disavowal until giving up his place.
“The bird is free,” Elon Musk tweeted on October 28, announcing the acquisition of Twitter. He was seen at the headquarters of the social network, a sink in his arms, a fun way to announce a takeover bid. For 44 billion dollars, the social network that he intends to transform was offered. However, the deal was far from done.
In April, after initially wanting to join the board of directors, the billionaire went live by announcing his intention to buy the social network. He announced his desire to buy Twitter before changing his mind in early July, estimating the number of fake accounts to be 20% versus 5% advertised by Twitter.
This disagreement gives rise to the case of Peiter Zatko, the former head of Twitter security, who lashed out at the platform’s poor cybersecurity and accused its leaders of having lied about the means implemented to combat fake accounts and spam.
The case even went to court in October. Elon Musk eventually found a consensus with Twitter and borrowed to the tune of $25 billion to seal the deal.
Within a week of taking office, Elon Musk vows to lay off half of his workforce, or nearly 3,500 employees. All services are affected. In a very symbolic way, he thanks the entire board of directors that sat before his inauguration, he becomes the sole administrator.
A second wave of layoffs took place on November 13, cutting the workforce related to moderation, marketing and real estate, largely involving contract employees. They received a notification that they were losing access to their work mailbox and internal Slack messaging. Former Twitter employee Melissa Ingle, the data scientist in charge of moderation, has also testified about her firing from Tech & Co.
A few days later, on November 17, the remaining employees received an email. The new owner and head of the platform. They are being asked to fully commit to your strategy, or jump ship: work hard or leave. Elon Musk gives his teams 24 hours to make a decision. Without repayment, they will be fired and receive severance pay equivalent to three months’ salary.
Currently, Twitter is the subject of dozens of legal complaints filed by former employees for unfair dismissal or failure to collect promised compensation. But wanting to fire everyone, Elon Musk was a bit quick. He asked a dozen former employees to come back just days after they were fired.
These layoffs had a serious impact on content moderation as most of the moderators were fired. The highest point was reached on December 12. The billionaire dissolves the trust and safety council of the social network. The entity brought together a hundred independent researchers and human rights activists. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, he has increased hateful and racist content. And the case of Twitter Files reinforces the mistrust of users.
Elon Musk’s account certification project has also experienced many setbacks.
Officially available from December 12, Twitter Blue is a subscription that allows any user to get their account certified. It’s available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK for $8 or $11 from an iPhone.
A first failed attempt took place in November before being temporarily suspended because paid certification resulted in numerous identity thefts and spread false information. Fake certified accounts have been created to copy personalities accounts. Added additional conditions for obtaining Sesame. To be authenticated, a user must now register her phone number.
Continuing his vision of free speech, Elon Musk reinstated accounts banned by former Twitter teams. These did not respect community norms because they were criminally reprehensible. He thus reinstated Donald Trump’s account, but also Kanye West’s before changing his mind. He didn’t risk bringing Alex Jones back. However, this study shows that many Nazi accounts are making a strong comeback on the social network.
By contrast, Elon Musk’s account suspension policy accelerated during the month of December. On December 14, Elon Musk had an automated account that tracked his private jet travel removed. He had promised a few days earlier not to, citing his “commitment to free speech.” Ultimately, he went so far as to delete 25 accounts that tracked private plane routes.
The rope tightened in the following days. Elon Musk has suspended the accounts of fifteen journalists who wrote articles about him. Some of them had tweeted Twitter’s decision to suspend the account that automatically reported Elon Musk’s private jet travel. The latter invoked the prohibition of “doxxing”, which means publicly disclosing personal information relating to an individual on the Internet, without their consent.
For example, the Twitter account of a journalist from Washington Post was suspended by decision ofElon Musk According to her, the next day reinstatement of various journalist accountsthe boss referring to a “temporary suspension” linked to the “prior disclosure of personal data”.
Elon Musk is the king to reconsider his decisions. He suspended for a few hours the ability to post links to other social networks like Mastodon, before backing down.
Very concerned about the opinion of his users, Elon Musk conducts his Twitter policy through surveys. He asked them if they wanted the suspended accounts to reappear.
Last survey, asked Twitter users if they should leave the head of Twitter. The “yes” won with 57%.
After questioning the poll results and casting doubt, Elon Musk finally announces his retirement from Twitter. He is currently looking for a successor, “someone crazy enough” to succeed him.
Now Twitter is in financial trouble as advertisers have left one after another, while 90% of the network’s revenue comes from advertising. Twitter is even looking for new investors.
Source: BFM TV
