Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter are on the horizon, with the billionaire downing 3,700 jobs by the end of this week and starting selling blue checks at $8 a month starting next week.
Musk, 51, has pitched his idea for a blue check fee since buying the company, claiming it will end the current “Lords and Peasants” system on the social media platform.
The “badges” could go live as early as Monday, Bloomberg reported, with current blue check holders given a “grace period” of several months before being forced to either pay for them or lose them.
Beyond that, by the end of this week, Musk plans to eliminate approximately 3,700 employees and end Twitter’s “work from anywhere” policy to reduce costs.
Musk had hesitated over how many jobs he would cut during his attempt to buy Twitter. He originally said it would be 75 percent of the company’s 7,500 employees before telling employees last week, with some reports suggesting it would be 25 percent.
Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter are on the horizon, with the billionaire downing 3,700 jobs by the end of this week and starting selling blue checks at $8 a month starting next week
Musk, 51, has pitched his idea for a blue check fee since buying the company, claiming it will end the current “Lords and Peasants” system on the social media platform
Additionally, Musk plans to lay off about 3,700 employees by the end of this week and end Twitter’s “work from anywhere” policy to cut costs
The 3,700 cuts would take about half the staff and see them succeed five senior executives who resigned over the past week.
Musk originally suggested $20 a month for review, but appeared to lower the cost after an exchange earlier this week with horror author Stephen King, where he offered him a discount.
The billionaire is trying to make good on his promise to make the social media platform profitable by introducing a fee for Twitter users who want to keep their verification badge.
But in a sign that the price might not be a done deal, Musk responded to a tweet from The Shining author complaining about the new fee.
“$20 a month to keep my blue check? Screw it, they should pay me,” wrote King, who has 6.9 million followers. “If that’s rolled out, I’ll be gone like Enron.”
But Musk, noting the author’s complaints, seemed in the mood to haggle.
Author Stephen King, who wrote The Shining, said he will exit the platform if Musk introduces a blue tick verification fee
“We have to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?’ he answered.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the discount would only apply to King or to the broader Twitter user base as well, but comments suggested the $20 figure wasn’t exactly set in stone.
Musk went on to say that he would “explain the rationale at length” before indictment, but added that it was “the only way to defeat the bots and trolls.”
When users responded that King could more than afford the fee, he replied, “It’s not the money, it’s the principle of the matter.”
The author, who previously said he “admires Elon Musk,” has yet to respond directly to the CEO. But many of his fans rushed in to comment on his behalf.
“44 billion to buy the place and his new source of income is to slip Stephen King a tin cup,” said one Twitter user.
“Nice of you to give Stephen King, who is worth $500 million, a $12 a month discount,” said another.
‘He’s not going. They all threaten, but they need this platform,” said a third user.
Actress, writer and comedian Kathy Burke also said she would not pay if there was a fee for the platform
King isn’t the only Twitter user with blue ticks to threaten to drop his blue ticks if a fee is levied against the platform.
Actress, author and comedian Kathy Burke also said she would not pay.
“Musk can walk away with his idea of requiring blue tickers. I give everything for this hell site for FREE. Naughty b**** should pay ME. I don’t need the corrosive thing anyway.”
Celebrities who have threatened to boycott the site include TV screenwriter Shonda Rhimes, actress Mia Farrow and Madam Secretary star Téa Leoni, She Hulk actress Jameela Jamil, and authors and activists Shaun King and Amy Siskind.
George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, also said he would consider walking towards the digital door.
Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis released a poll Monday asking people if they would pay $5, $10, $15 a month, or nothing, for verification. Around 81 percent said they would not pay at the time of writing.
“Interesting,” Musk replied to the poll.
Since being acquired by Elon, the social media site has restricted some content moderation tools.
Elon Musk speaks to employees at Twitter headquarters. The CEO reportedly gave the platform’s engineers an ultimatum, telling them to overhaul the platform in two weeks
A blue tick allows other Twitter users to verify that other users are who they say they are. The feature has always been free since Twitter’s inception, but Musk promises to shake up the company’s operations
A blue tick allows other Twitter users to verify that other users are who they say they are.
The feature has always been free since Twitter’s inception, but since Musk first pledged to buy Twitter, the world’s richest man has made it clear that he plans to shake things up at the social media giant.
The price covers unspecified features that have not yet been revealed.
The swap comes after Twitter’s new chief reportedly gave the platform’s engineers an ultimatum, telling them to overhaul Twitter’s verification system in less than two weeks or face firing.
Staff were only notified of the project on October 30th and have until November 7th to deliver.
Twitter restricts some content moderation tools just days before the midterms
Days after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and just ahead of the Midterms in America, the social media site has curtailed some content moderation tools.
It can affect employees’ ability to stop misinformation since they cannot manually modify or penalize accounts.
The change is Musk’s last and comes after he made significant staff cuts and fired the Twitter board, making him the sole member.
Those who work in Twitter’s Trust and Safety organization can’t currently change or penalize accounts that violate the platform’s rules on misleading information, offensive posts, and hate speech.
According to Bloomberg, insiders say they can only punish people who post in violation of Twitter rules to the extent of the real damage.
They added that the team is manually enforcing these posts.
The change is the last change Musk implemented, pictured at Twitter HQ, and comes after he made significant staff cuts and fired the Twitter board, making him the sole member
At Twitter, employees have dashboards called agent tools to suspend or ban accounts that have violated policies.
Policy violations can be automatically detected or reported by other Twitter users.
However, only Twitter staff can remove or suspend accounts using the dashboard.
But according to insiders, the tools have been out of service since last week.
It is claimed that this restriction was put in place when Musk took ownership of Twitter to prevent employees from requesting changes to the app.
Company sources, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed that the high level of access to the tools provided to employees has dropped from hundreds to just 15.