On Elon Musk’s first full day because the proprietor of Twitter, the social media firm instantly started to really feel his imprint.
Twitter’s high executives have been fired and its board of administrators dissolved. The corporate mentioned its inventory would cease buying and selling on the New York Inventory Change on Nov. 8. Mr. Musk introduced that he deliberate to type a council to deal with Twitter’s content material questions and wouldn’t instantly reinstate customers who had been barred. And he tapped confidants for assist and established a “warfare room” at Twitter to overview its merchandise and insurance policies.
On Twitter itself, some Republicans and conservative media personalities celebrated the brand new possession. The variety of followers to a number of right-wing Twitter accounts skyrocketed. And former President Donald J. Trump, who was barred from Twitter final yr, used his personal social platform to declare himself “very comfortable that Twitter is now in sane palms.”
The adjustments and reactions started a brand new period for a social media service known as the world’s city sq., which is now firmly within the management of the world’s richest man. Mr. Musk, 51, accomplished his blockbuster $44 billion acquisition of Twitter late on Thursday and didn’t hesitate to make his presence identified. A mercurial and unpredictable innovator, he has promised to remodel the service by loosening its content material moderation guidelines, incorporating new expertise and making its algorithm extra clear.
However Mr. Musk faces myriad challenges main Twitter, which come atop his tasks at Tesla, in addition to on the rocket maker SpaceX and a number of other start-ups. Regulators in Europe instantly mentioned they’d scrutinize how he modifies the service, whereas advertisers and misinformation researchers denounced the potential for a surge in poisonous content material and falsehoods on the platform.
Mr. Musk additionally now confronts the problem of truly working Twitter, a money-losing firm with 7,500 workers and 240 million customers, a few of whom are extremely outstanding and vocal. He didn’t instantly appoint executives to go the corporate on Friday, however did attempt interesting to advertisers, who present the majority of Twitter’s income. Mr. Musk, who took on about $13 billion in debt to finance the deal for Twitter, should additionally pay lenders about $1 billion in curiosity funds yearly.
On Friday, Mr. Musk indicated that he was up for the problem. “Let the nice instances roll,” he tweeted. He, together with Twitter, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
With Twitter’s adjustments over the previous 24 hours, Mr. Musk is “sending sturdy alerts to workers the world is altering,” mentioned Tammy Madsen, a professor of administration on the Leavey Faculty of Enterprise at Santa Clara College. However, she cautioned, “we don’t know what path it’s going to go.”
Mr. Musk has beforehand instructed traders that he has large plans for Twitter. That features constructing Twitter right into a “tremendous app” like these which can be widespread in Asia, with social media, funds and messaging all a part of one service. Mr. Musk has mentioned he’ll name this “every little thing app” X.
Elon Musk’s Acquisition of Twitter
A blockbuster deal. In April, Elon Musk made an unsolicited bid value $44 billion for the social media platform, saying he wished to show Twitter into a personal firm and permit individuals to talk extra freely on the service. Right here’s how the monthslong battle that adopted performed out:
Mr. Musk has additionally mentioned he’ll add subscription companies to Twitter, bringing in income instantly from customers as an alternative of relying solely on advertisers. Such companies may embody giving individuals the choice of utilizing Twitter with out seeing adverts in the event that they paid a charge.
On Wednesday, Mr. Musk arrived at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco and met with Twitter workers all through the remainder of the week, 5 individuals with data of the conferences mentioned. Late on Thursday, high Twitter executives, together with Parag Agrawal, the chief govt, in addition to the chief monetary officer, the highest authorized and coverage govt and the overall counsel, have been fired.
These executives thought they’d till Friday earlier than the deal would shut, two individuals mentioned. However Mr. Musk’s cash for the deal got here in sooner than anticipated, so he went ahead with closing the deal on Thursday and firing the executives, they mentioned.
Mr. Musk has arrange a “warfare room” on the firm to dig into his new buy, two individuals mentioned. Tesla workers and different trusted lieutenants of Mr. Musk additionally met with Twitter workers, 4 individuals mentioned. One was Alex Spiro, Mr. Musk’s private lawyer, who mentioned content material moderation and authorized points with Twitter workers, three individuals mentioned.
“He’s going to choose and select the perfect he has in his community to return in and deal with a few of these points,” mentioned Patrick Hillmann, the chief technique officer of the cryptocurrency trade Binance, which invested in Mr. Musk’s takeover of Twitter.
Different traders who offered cash for Mr. Musk’s Twitter deal — together with the enterprise capitalist David Sacks — additionally held conferences on the firm on Friday, two individuals mentioned. Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s former head of product who was fired by Mr. Agrawal in Could, was noticed within the constructing, three individuals mentioned.
Amid layoff fears, some Twitter workers have been instructed to print out copies of the code they’d written lately as potential proof of labor, mentioned two individuals with data of the state of affairs. Three workers mentioned they weren’t getting any communication from the corporate and have been reliant on information stories. Twitter additionally applied a “code freeze” to stop adjustments to the app, two individuals mentioned.
Mr. Musk appeared to take a step again from his plans for Twitter to be a haven for undiluted and unrestrained commentary. For months, misinformation researchers have cautioned towards eradicating guardrails from the service. Some advertisers additionally mentioned they have been leery of a Twitter that allowed every little thing when it comes to speech. Normal Motors, for one, mentioned it was quickly suspending promoting on Twitter because it tries “to grasp the path of the platform underneath their new possession.”
“If Twitter turns into the go-to platform for the knucklehead brigade, advertisers will run, not stroll,” Bob Hoffman, the promoting business veteran behind the Advert Contrarian publication, mentioned in an e-mail.
Mr. Musk, who instructed advertisers this week that he aimed to make Twitter “essentially the most revered promoting platform on this planet,” added to that sentiment on Friday. He made it clear that he wouldn’t instantly upend Twitter’s content material moderation insurance policies and would type a council to deliberate speech questions. Till then, he mentioned, he wouldn’t reinstate the accounts of customers who had damaged the platform’s guidelines.
“Twitter can be forming a content material moderation council with extensively numerous viewpoints,” he mentioned in a tweet. “No main content material choices or account reinstatements will occur earlier than that council convenes.”
Evan Greer, the director of the digital advocacy group Struggle for the Future, mentioned {that a} council was a “good thought” however that Mr. Musk would in the end have management over content material choices.
“He can type the council, and he can dissolve it,” Ms. Greer mentioned of Mr. Musk. “That’s the issue with having a single particular person personal an organization that has such a profound influence on our politics, tradition and society.”
Conservative Twitter customers — together with lawmakers, Fox Information hosts and others who’ve accused the mainstream tech platforms of censoring their views — have been gleeful over Mr. Musk’s possession of Twitter.
“Elon Musk has indicated he’ll oppose Massive Tech censorship and assist free speech,” Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee mentioned in a tweet. “That’s one thing all freedom-loving individuals can get behind.”
New exercise on Twitter additionally ramped up. Within the 24 hours earlier than Mr. Musk closed his deal for the corporate, hundreds of latest accounts have been created on the service, becoming a member of a broader surge of latest followers for a few of the platform’s most influential far-right accounts, in line with analysis from Memetica, a digital investigations firm.
On the similar time, researchers discovered that Twitter accounts for progressive politicians and celebrities misplaced followers on Friday. Former President Barack Obama, Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, and Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC host, have been among the many Twitter accounts that had misplaced essentially the most followers since Thursday, in line with knowledge from Social Blade, a social media analytics agency.
A number of left-wing influencers pleaded with their Twitter followers to remain on the service and not delete their accounts.
“If respectable moderates and other people on the Left preserve abandoning platforms, we permit the extremist Proper to personal the narrative and we give the reality no voice,” John Pavlovitz, a author and pastor, wrote to his 410,000 followers.
Sheera Frenkel, Stuart Thompson, Tiffany Hsu, Mike Isaac and David McCabe contributed reporting.
