‘Chief Twit’ takes control
October 27, 2022
Musk completes his $44bn (£38.1bn) takeover of Twitter, immediately sacking some of the company’s top executives and tweeting “the bird is free”.
Before officially taking over the company, Musk changed his Twitter profile to read “Chief Twit” and showed up at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco carrying a pike, saying: “Let it sink in !”
The platform fights the “trolling campaign”
October 29
After a surge in tweets containing racist language, Twitter’s head of trust and safety says: “Hateful conduct has no place here.” Yoel Roth says the company is taking action against users “involved in this troll campaign” to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone.
Musk shares an inaccurate story
October 30
Musk tweets an article containing several inaccuracies about an attack on the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by a hammer-wielding intruder. The site has a history of posting inaccurate stories, and Musk later deleted the tweet after backlash.
Trump’s return ruled out, for now
October 31
With the US midterm elections just over a week away, Musk responded to questions about whether he would reinstate former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account by tweeting: “If I had a dollar for every time if someone asked me if trump is coming back. this platform, twitter would mint money!”
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Later that day, Musk attended a Halloween party in New York and posed for pictures in a “devil’s champion” costume.
Criticism of the subscription service
November 1
Following reports that Twitter will start charging users for having verified accounts, Musk responds to criticism from author Stephen King by saying, “We’ve got to pay the bills somehow!”
Musk moves to reduce headcount
November 4
Company employees begin receiving emails titled “Your role on Twitter” informing them if they’ve lost their jobs. In response to news of the layoffs, Musk says “unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing more than $4 million a day.”
Yoel Roth, the head of trust and security, said 50% of the company’s nearly 8,000 employees had been laid off, but sought to reassure users and advertisers that the platform’s ability to moderate remained intact.
The founder of Twitter breaks the silence
November 5
Twitter co-founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey breaks his silence on Musk acquisition to apologize to staff who have lost their jobs, saying: “I am responsible for why everyone is in this situation: I did grow the size of the company too quickly.”
Suppression of parody accounts
November 6
Musk announces that Twitter accounts that impersonate people without being clearly labeled as a parody will be permanently suspended, a change from the previous process when accounts were given a warning first.
A number of accounts that changed their name to “Elon Musk” and mocked the billionaire had already been suspended or placed behind a warning sign.
Twitter Survival Warnings
November 9
In his first email to Twitter staff, Musk warns that “the economic picture ahead is bleak,” adding: “Without significant subscription revenue, there’s a good chance Twitter won’t survive the next economic downturn.” .
Meanwhile, following the launch of Twitter’s $8-a-month Blue membership, which gives paying users a blue badge, a slew of parody accounts that appear to be verified…