Elon Musk introduces a reform after the takeover of Twitter
Earlier on 28th October 2022, Elon Musk, Chief Executive of electric car maker Tesla and rocket maker SpaceX, has finally completed the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. Immediately followed by that, Musk exercised his authority to make his mark on Twitter. Series of actions have been taken, including lay off of former Twitter’s CEO, the other top executives, in addition to the dissolution of the board of directors of Twitter.
New Policies under Musk’s control on Twitter
Change in Twitter’s Interface
Unlike the past Twitter, logged out users will be redirected to the Explore Page, which shows the trending tweets and new stories rather than just a sign-up form. Moreover, Musk is investigating on changing the subscription feature “Super Follows”. He plans to charge $20 per user per month and only grants the verification marks to paid subscribers. This paid subscription feature will also be renamed to “Subscriptions” in Twitter’s mobile app.
Introduction of Tesla’s employees into the company
Musk authorised more than 50 employees from his other companies to work for Twitter. Most of them are software engineers drawn from the Autopilot team of Tesla. Besides that, some of his trusted friends and family members are also brought to the team as crucial roles in the company. Jake Nocon, who previously worked for Uber and in charge of Tesla’s surveillance unit, is appointed as the senior manager of security intelligence for Twitter. It is clear that Musk is going to reform the platform from source code to data-privacy protection with the employees who show loyalty to him.
Adjustment of Twitter’s engineering team
In order to meet with Musk’s expectations, the engineering team members were asked to print out their code contribution from the last 2 months for Musk’s review. “Managers in software must write great software or it’s like being a cavalry captain who can’t ride a horse!” tweeted by Musk in May. The reason for the review is to remove the non-code writers from the team in order to improve the efficiency of work under Musk’s aggressive plans and tight deadlines.
Increase accessibility of Twitter
Some controversial tweeters have been banned by Twitter under the former administration. For example, former US President, Donald Trump was permanently suspended for inciting violence while famous American rapper, Kayne West was banned from anti-Semitism. Under Musk’s new takeover, he plans to cut back on content restrictions and he said that he would reverse the permanent bans of accounts that were previously removed from the platform for violating its rules. He added that “The platform must remain “welcoming” and must abide by national laws and must not become “a free-for-all hellscape”.” On the other hand, Musk is planning to use Starlink, a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, to make Twitter available in countries that is hard to access currently.
The reform of Twitter is still under process with Musk’s guidance. What will happen to Twitter is still an uncertainty. Twitter’s communications representatives has not yet replied to any questions and press inquiries since Musk’s takeover.
