The Complete Elon Musk–Twitter Saga

It’s been just over 50 days since Elon Musk lugged a sink into Twitter HQ for his first day in his new role as owner of the platform, and since then, we’ve seen various policy changes, staff cuts, exposes of internal documents, and more.

But now, we may be at the end of the Elon as ‘Chief Twit’ experiment, with Musk tweeting out this poll on Sunday afternoon:

The results have not gone in Musk’s favor, and he has, thus far, stuck to his word on abiding by poll results.

Which begs the question, ‘what has Elon actually done, in a policy sense, at Twitter?’

Here’s an overview of all of the major announcements and policy updates that have been implemented thus far by Elon and his Twitter 2.0 team.

1. Paid verification

Musk’s first big announcement, of course, was his paid verification plan, through which people will be able to pay $8 per month to get a blue checkmark, so they can digitally cosplay as celebrities in the app.

2. Account reinstatements

A big signal of his intentions to make Twitter more free and open was Musk’s announcement that he would reinstate the profiles of users that had been previously banned from the app. 

3. Updating Twitter’s Rules and Regulations

As Twitter shared in blog post on November 30th:

“None of our policies have changed. Our approach to policy enforcement will rely more heavily on de-amplification of violative content: freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.”

4. No Doxxing

Elon Musk announced one significant policy shift:

“When someone shares an individual’s live location on Twitter, there is an increased risk of physical harm. Moving forward, we’ll remove Tweets that share this information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended.”

5. Banning Links to Other Social Apps

Twitter also banned links to selected competing social platforms for a few hours on Sunday, before reversing course pretty quickly due to massive backlash.

Elon Musk has revealed more details of the coming revamp of Twitter’s $8 verification program, which was initially launched three weeks back, but then pulled from live production due to a raft of impersonations, which caused significant confusion in the app.

The $8 verification program, while only available to some users for a short amount of time, immediately caused significant issues for Twitter and its partners. In response, Elon and Co. immediately halted this test in order to revise and re-shape the program in a more brand-safe, user-friendly way.

Now, Musk has revealed more details as to exactly how the updated $8 verification plan will work moving forward. The updated verification plan will launch on Friday next week (12/2).

Gold, Gray and Blue Checkmarks

As per Musk: “Gold check for companies, gray check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not)”

First, to limit the potential of misrepresentation of corporate and government accounts, Musk says that those profiles will now get a different colored checkmark, which will ensure that people can’t just buy a blue tick and then pretend to be Coca-Cola for example. The updated gold checkmark will ideally limit the potential for future users to do the same, because they won’t be able to buy the official gold tick – though there will be a period of adjustment and education on such for users.

Manual Verification

“All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates. Painful, but necessary.”

Unfortunately, this approach will still require manual checking, as Twitter can’t know for sure that it’s a brand or government account without some kind of confirmation. Initially, Twitter has thus far opted to avoid any kind of manual confirmation in this new process, due to the additional labor requirement, but now, Musk says that this will be integrated into the updated process.

So, like, a lot of manual monitoring, with a lot less staff.

Blue Checkmark Update

“All verified individual humans will have same blue check, as boundary of what constitutes ‘notable’ is otherwise too subjective.”

As for the traditional blue checkmarks, there’ll be no differentiation between those who’ve been given the marker, and those who’ve paid for it.

This is true— there are a lot of blue checkmarks on random accounts, and it has been a confusing system. But at the same time, there are also a lot of high-profile individuals who could be at risk of impersonation under this system – which, incidentally, is why the blue ticks were introduced in the first place (in 2009, an MLB star sued Twitter for allowing a scammer to use his likeness to dupe people in the app).

Tiny Logo for Leaders and Spokespeople

“Individuals can have secondary tiny logo showing they belong to an org if verified as such by that org.”

So an additional qualifier for spokespeople, CEOs and journalists, as another measure to avoid impersonation. The updated elements will certainly lessen the scope for scam activity, but still, they do also introduce a level of risk.

We still don’t have enough evidence to suggest that enough users will sign up to Elon’s $8 per month checkmark plan to make it worthwhile for the company to run, as either a revenue or verification pathway. Just 0.41% of Snapchat users pay for Snapchat+, a fraction of LinkedIn users pony up for Premium, while Meta concluded long ago that charging users was no where near as lucrative as serving a bigger audience more ads.

These new measures do counter some of the issues that the initial version of Musk’s $8 verification program introduced, but then again, they could also avoid them entirely by revising the current blue check system, as opposed to simply letting people pay for the marker.

But regardless, Musk is determined to push ahead, and find out for himself either way.

Yes, Twitter could well be on its last legs, or at least, it could be on the brink of significant outages, after Musk called on the app’s remaining staff to commit to ‘extremely hardcore’ working conditions, or leave the company with three months’ pay. Apparently, some 75% of them decided the latter was a better option.

A quick summary of the current Twitter staffing situation:

• In September, before Elon Musk took over at the app, Twitter, reportedly, had around 7,500 staff in total
• Musk initially cut Twitter’s top execs, on his first day at the helm of the app, then, just days later, Musk culled around 50% of the company’s staff as a cost-saving measure, taking it to approximately 3,700 staff
• At that time, many exiting employees said that the cuts were not thought–through, with entire, critical departments culled, and Twitter’s international teams, in particular, reduced to almost nothing. Reports also suggested that Musk’s transition team was forced to ask some key staff to return as a result of the hasty action
• On Wednesday this week, Musk sent an email to the remaining Twitter staff which explained that they would need to commit to ’working long hours at high intensity’, on whatever projects Musk decided to pursue. There was no roadmap provided, no plan, just a requested commitment to ‘extremely hardcore’ work - or they could leave with three months’ pay. Workers had till 5pm Thursday to either accept these conditions or resign.
• At the 5pm Thursday deadline, around 75% of Twitter’s remaining workforce had reportedly decided not to accept Musk’s offer, which has now reduced the staff headcount to 900 people in total.

So we’ve gone from 7,500 to 900 – a 88% total reduction in Twitter staff since Musk took the reigns. Which, as noted, has left many speculating that the app cannot keep running at such a reduced capacity. Some are suggesting that internal systems are already breaking, with no one there to monitor them, while any significant increase in activity – like, say, the World Cup next week – could break the app. 

It’s impossible to know exactly what may or may not happen, but an 88% reduction in staff has to have some impact.

Elon Musk held true to his word on staff cuts at Twitter, with the company eliminating, reportedly, around 50% of its entire workforce, as it works to rationalize the business.

The Twitter transition team informed staff that they would receive an email today that would let them know whether they still have a job or not. And while there are no official numbers as yet, internal managers have pegged the cull at around 50% of staff, with many long-serving experienced Tweeps bidding farewell via tweet.

News of the coming staff cull first broke at around 8pm ET Wednesday, with leaked internal conversations and notes suggesting that Twitter’s transition management team would be looking to cut around half of the company’s 7,500 roles in order to reduce costs, as part of a broader effort to return the company to profitability.

Musk repeatedly highlighted the potential of job cuts in his presentations to potential investment partners, as he sought funding for his Twitter acquisition. One document that he showed to potential investors back in May noted that Musk would look cut around 1,000 staff on day one of his takeover at the app. Musk did also note that Twitter would eventually look to bring in more staff once again, adding back over 2,700 employees by 2025, in line with platform growth.

It’s a sad day for the app, especially for staff that have been busting their asses this week in a bid to impress their new owner, in the hopes of saving their jobs. 

Additional updates:

• Twitter has canceled its Chirp developer conference (originally scheduled for November 16th).
• Twitter’s also shutting down its newsletter offering, which incorporated Revue, the newsletter platform that it acquired last year.

It seems that Elon Musk wasn’t trolling when he suggested charging $20 per month for a blue verified tick.

As per Musk’s most recent tweets on his reformation of the platform, Musk now says that they’re planning to offer verification ticks to all users for $8 per month, to combat the class divide in the app.

Taking on the class divide by charging people $96 per year to highlight the amount of expendable income that they have is a fairly odd take, but I guess, when you’re worth $223 billion, everything is cheap, right?

But that’s not all. If you are willing to pay for this new, $8 per month, verification tier of Twitter Blue, you’ll also get:

• Priority in replies, mentions and search
• Ability to post long video and audio
• Half as many ads
• Paywall bypass for selected publishers

Between Elon Musk trying to speed-run social platform management, and his tendency to say a lot of things, then deny them at a later stage, it’s difficult to know exactly what’s going on in Twitter HQ right now, and how exactly Musk and his newly assembled Twitter transition team are going to change the platform.

Here’s a quick round-up of what may or may not be happening at Twitter right now:

Subscription Updates

As we’ve already covered, Musk is focused on re-vamping Twitter subscription offering, as he pushes to generate 50% of Twitter’s revenue intake from subscribers, reducing the app’s reliance on ads.

Musk is reportedly considering:

• Charging users for verification ticks (and charging verified users to keep theirs)
• Charging businesses to use the platform
• Enhancing exposure for verified profiles to entice sign-ups
• Adding new verification options for ‘real humans’

Staff reductions

Despite Musk denying reports that he would look to cut 75% of Twitter’s staff straight up, he is indeed looking to make significant headcount reductions, and quickly, as part of cost rationalization at the company.

The return of Vine?

This seems like a troll, but Elon seems to be considering bringing Vine back from the dead, in order to directly compete with TikTok.

CFIUS review of Twitter deal

On another front, the Musk/Twitter deal could be set to come under more scrutiny, with US Senator Chris Murphy calling on the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) to analyze the role that Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has played in funding Musk’s Twitter acquisition, and what that means for the company moving forward.

Twitter is now trying to use the media to negate another anticipated pushback from Elon Musk’s team, in regards to its claims that only 5% of its active users are fake.

Twitter held a briefing with reporters in which it gave more context as to how it polices fake and spam accounts, and removes such from the platform.

As reported by Reuters:

“Twitter removes more than 1 million spam accounts each day, executives told reporters in a briefing on Thursday, providing new insight into efforts to reduce harmful automated bots as billionaire Elon Musk has demanded more details from the social media company.”

Twitter has long reported that fake/spam accounts only make up 5% of its active users figure, but Musk has loudly, and publicly, refuted this, and has called for Twitter to provide more evidence in order for the deal to progress.

In an interview for the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk explained that there are three key issues that need to be resolved before he will proceed with his Twitter takeover bid.

Those three elements are:

• Fake profiles – Musk has repeatedly said that the deal cannot progress unless Twitter is able to provide evidence to support its claim that fake accounts only make up 5% of its user base. 
• Debt financing – Musk also needs to secure final funding for his $44 billion Twitter offer. Musk has committed to paying $33.5 billion in cash, with an additional $7.1 billion in equity financing commitments from investors. That leaves $3.4 billion which will come via bank loans, though the full details of how this will work have not been finalized.
• Shareholder approval – Lastly, Twitter shareholders actually have to accept Musk’s proposed deal, which Twitter’s board has recommended that they do. 

Musk held his first meeting with Twitter staff since launching a hostile takeover offer for the platform back in April.

Employees gathered to voice questions and concerns and hear Musk’s plans for the future of the company.

• Addressing Musk’s plan to tackle bots – His solution would be that users need to pay a certain amount to get their account verified, which would make it too expensive to run massive bot networks.
  In his words: “It needs to be much more expensive to have a troll army.”
• Addressing growth plans – As seen in Musk’s leaked strategy deck, he has a plan to increase Twitter’s user base from the 229 million daily actives it has right now, to 600 million by 2025, then to 931 million by 2028. He explains to Twitter staff that his plans are even bigger than this, with a target of a billion users in the app.
• Addressing work-life and company culture – In regards to potential lay-offs, Musk has previously stated that he plans to cut around 1,000 roles - about 1/7 of Twitter’s overall workforce - over the next two years. Musk didn’t offer any additional assurance on this front, saying: “Right now costs exceed revenue. That’s not a great situation.”

Musk has been slowly doling out more details of his Twitter reinvigoration plan, which he believes will see the app grow its user count by 200% over the next three years, and bring in 5x more revenue by 2028.

In an interview at the Financial Times, Musk shared some new notes on his Twitter plans, including:

• Musk feels that Twitter has a strong left bias because it’s based in San Francisco. Musk’s view is that many Twitter employees would not even realize this bias due to where they’re located.
• Musk reiterated his plans to open-source Twitter’s feed algorithm, saying that, if he can, he would put the Twitter algorithm on GitHub and say like, “Hey, anyone want to suggest changes to this? Please go ahead.”
• Musk indicated that, based on the evidence that he’s seen, he would likely restore former President Donald Trump’s banned account, as permanent bans, in his view, are not effective in the vast majority of cases.