Currently, the Twitter social network is in the possession of Elon Musk, through a company dedicated to it. He bought it for 44.000 million dollars to be the sole owner of the social network and implement changes that he believes will be profitable at the business level. It will without reporting to investors.
But Elon Musk has found that many of his ideas and ways of acting are not economically viable. Others violate freedom of expression. There have also been massive dismissals that could be classified as illegal in all departments of the company. all for Musk's desire to make everything profitable immediately and eliminate costs. We explain everything that has happened.
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From a tweet that Elon Musk was going to buy Twitter, until he bought it
On April 14, Elon Musk targeted Twitter Inc with a $43.000 billion cash buyout offer on Thursday. He said the social media company needs to be taken private to grow Y "become a platform for freedom of expression«On July 12, Twitter Inc sued Elon Musk for violating their $44.000 billion takeover agreement, and asked a Delaware court to order the merger to be completed.
Finally, several days ago, that purchase was completed, and Musk's immediate decisions began to be made. Those measures are mass layoffs, reducing moderation to ensure freedom of expression, and pressuring workers to implement a system in which to maintain the verified from twitter for a monthly payment. It is not clear if andl verified payment is for all public osi will apply only to verified accounts of relevant people. Verification for relevant accounts is important to prevent online phishing.
Layoff of executives and employees
On October 28, Musk fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal; CFO Ned Segal; and the head of legal affairs and policy, Vijaya Gadde. He had accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors about the number of fake accounts on the platform. It was the main reason he gave when he wanted to back out of buying Twitter.
We arrived at November 4, and Elon Musk makes mass layoffs on Twitter Inc. laid off half of its workforce on Friday. He said the cuts were minor to the team responsible for preventing the spread of disinformation. He claimed that advertisers withdrew the spend amid concerns about content moderation.
Many of the employees they were fired without warning, and they learned of their dismissal for not being able to access corporate mail. On Twitter Spain, that of the 30 workers that his division has, they fired 26. A representative of the UGT union affirms that it is de facto a massive dismissal and can be considered null in Spanish legislation, to protect the rights of workers.
What is the freedom of expression that Elon Musk professes?
being direct, Elon Musk believes that freedom of expression is being able to say anything on any platform and no one can say anything to you..
Comedy is now legal on Twitter.
Elon Musk
This movement, in favor of a much more relaxed moderation, would allow messages that could be classified as hate messages. This has been a reason why several brands have suspended advertising on Twitter. The social network has seen a massive drop in revenue, as activist groups pressure advertisers; despite the fact that, according to Musk, nothing has changed with content moderation. The CEO stated shortly after: “They are trying to destroy free speech in America«.
Advertising agencies and associations have raised concerns about recent cutbacks on Twitter:
Elon, great talk yesterday, as you overwhelmingly heard from the senior advertisers on the call, the topic that concerns us all is content moderation and its impact on BRAND SAFETY and SUSTAINABILITY. You say you're committed to moderation, but you just fired 75% of the moderation team!
Elon Musk argues that Twitter's recent downsizing has had little impact on most of the trust and safety team, and moderation:
Yesterday's downsizing affected approximately 15% of our Trust & Safety organization (vs. cuts of approximately 50% company-wide), with our front-line moderation staff having the least impact. Last week, for security reasons, we restricted access to our internal tools for some users, including some members of my team. Most of the more than 2.000 content moderators working on the frontline review were not affected, and access will be fully restored in the coming days. Over 80% of our inbound content moderation volume has not been affected by this access change. The daily volume of moderation actions we performed remained stable during this period.
Elon Musk
Verified against Elon Musk on Twitter
After all these statements, many users who have a check mark have started to campaign to show that Musk is neither in favor of freedom of expression nor comedy, as he says, and that he has a voice in eliminating account definitively. Those users have changed their public name, not their username, to Elon Musk, and their profile picture to the current Twitter CEO, or an old photo of you from when you purchased PayPal.
These users have begun to comment on how Musk has earned money having inherited an emerald mine, criticize his working conditions in his companies, the poor quality and safety of the Tesla, that the Hyperloop he made has destroyed any hint of having a public transport efficient railroad in California, who uses his money to pay for his appearances in movies and series to improve his image, or even mention that he has not gotten over his breakup with his ex-partner Grimes.
The idea of this move is to show that Elon Musk doesn't really value free speech, as much as Musk espouses it as such. He has started deleting and suspending accounts. Shortly after he announces that, immediately, an account that tries to impersonate an identity must be clearly indicated as a parody.
Twitter prohibits linking to other social networks
In mid-December, Twitter announced that it was going to ban the use of the social network to promote other social networks. According to its rules, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon and TikTok were considered foreign social networks and therefore promotion towards them was not allowed. In the statement they emphasized that it is not about prohibiting the links, but to target accounts and messages created solely and exclusively to promote other social networks.
At least, that's what was said in theory. But they were quickly met with criticism, and that this conflicts with European Union laws to prevent monopolies. After a few hours, they backed down and nothing more was heard. But it is seen that Elon Musk views the competition with a bad eye.
Giving more value to the verified
After a series of tests, it seems that Elon Musk is already finding a way to add value to the verified ones and thus make companies pay for him. Apart from Twitter Blue that verifies that whoever has it pays so that it is known that it is a real account, even if it has been used to harm the company; There is the one verified for companies and organizations.
At first there was a little indicator below the name that said “Official"But within weeks it became a yellow verified symbol, which can only be obtained with the original Twitter verification process, that is, by being someone relevant who seeks and justifies that other accounts do not impersonate them.
It has dropped the possibility that accounts of people who work or represent larger organizations and companies have a small square in their username with the avatar of the account of said company of which they are representatives. They hope with this that workers in the media, government agencies, entertainment companies and more, have the approval of the company to make it clear that they are the workers and representatives of the same.
What can we realistically expect with Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter?
Exodus of Twitter users
It is already taking place that many relevant users are leaving the social network. Various names emerge, such as Reddit, which has been growing in Spanish-speaking communities for years; and Instagram. Mastodon resonates, but its main problem is its complexity and that all the content is very isolated against the algorithms of recommendation, discovery and follow-up of people offered by Twitter.
Greater monetization
It is clear that Twitter Blue, the paid subscription, is going to try to get ahead. It remains to be seen the details and what it will offer paid users versus free ones. One of the proposals is to have more priority when there are answers, fewer ads and that are more relevant; put longer videos and longer texts. There are already signs of campaigns to block paying accounts to reduce the value of Twitter Blue.
Lawsuits for labor breaches and reinstatement of workers
With the massive layoffs that have taken place, it is to be expected that many workers will sue Elon Musk for severance pay or be reinstated. Many workers were from the areas of recommended content and information verification, elements that many users found convenient to find content beyond their followers, and see that the information they give is real.
Elon Musk sells Twitter
It is a possibility that we cannot rule out. Before its closure, it is to be expected that certain business organizations will buy the social network to take advantage of its data and advertising possibilities before it finally closes. Many media outlets, artists, journalists and more, have Twitter as their main source of income or work tool, in addition to being a communication tool that allows them to discover a lot of content without being advertising, with which, at least because of its usefulness, many funds and organizations may want it to stand, even after a long series of bad decisions by Musk.
