Just when the remaining Twitter employees thought the worse was over, Chief Twit has let more employees go. This past Friday (December 16th) evening an unknown number (since Twitter doesn’t have a communications department anymore) of employees in the infrastructure division were laid off via email. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Musk had laid off Nelson Abramson, Twitter’s head of infrastructure. And that was my last day at Twitter. Laid off by email. The experience has been indescribable from chaos to hilarious. — Dave Beckett (@dajobe) December 17, 2022 Twitter did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request….
Read More
Twitter users, 17.5 million of them have voted in a 12-hour poll Musk posted on Sunday afternoon. Almost 58% want Musk to step down as CEO. There has been no word this morning from Musk in regards to this poll. However, he did tweet a ‘warning’ shortly after posting the poll (which was already overwhelming ‘Yes’) about what would happen if he goes. Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022 It remains to be seen if (and how, and when) Musk will abide…
Chief Twit has posted his latest poll question and it is about his future at Twutter. Voting is still open for a few hours and we shall see if he really “abide by the results of this poll”. Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
Chief Twit has implemented yet another new policy today for Twitter: No “free promotion” of competing social media websites. That is users may no longer link to Facebook, Mastodon, Instagram. and other social media sites. Advertisers (since their promotions are not “free”) can continue linking to said competition platforms. Moving forward, Twitter says it will remove links to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Tribel, Post, Nostr and Donald Trump’s Truth Social from accounts whose “main purpose” is to promote content on those platforms. As a result of the policy, users can no longer use their Twitter bio to link to their other social media profiles,…
Earlier this week came news Chief Twit may try to deny paying severance to thousands of laid off employees which would be a blatant violation of labor laws.. From the moment Elon Musk began layoffs at Twitter, former employees immediately started suing. In a matter of weeks, Twitter was hit with multiple class-action lawsuits, with employees alleging that Twitter violated laws by denying proper severance and discriminating against women and staff with disabilities or on family or medical leave. These class actions didn’t seem to faze Musk, though, as he continued with staff cuts without delivering promised severance to many. Instead of paying ex-employees, he…
More fall-out from Chief Twit’s ban frenzy from Wednesday and Thursday. Reporters from The New York Times, Washington Post and CNN have had their Twitter accounts suspended. While Twitter has provided no official explanation other than Chief Twit claiming they were Doxxing him by publishing real-time location information about him. However, it seems mentioning (and worse yet linking to their Facebook or Mastodon account) the now suspended @ElonJet account. “I have no idea what rules I purportedly broke. I haven’t heard anything from Twitter at all,” journalist Aaron Rupar wrote on his Substack. He later added an update, writing that “it…
Twitter today has just done a massive ban wave of accounts. This all started with @ElonJet belonging to Florida student Jack Sweeney who posted real-time public information on the whereabouts of Elon Musk’s (as well as other high profile celebrities’) private jets. After having the tracking account banned Sweeney posted a link on Twitter to his tracking account on Mastodon. Mastodon is an open-source alterative (competitor) to Twitter. Musk had previously said in a November Tweet while he didn’t like what Sweeney was doing in the interest of “Free Speech” he would allow the account to remain (even if he had…
Twitter today dispersed the Trust & Safety Council, which was an advisory group consisting of roughly 100 independent researchers and human rights activists. The group, formed in 2016, gave the social network input on different content and human rights-related issues such as the removal of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), suicide prevention, and online safety. This could have implications for Twitter’s global content moderation as the group consisted of experts around the world. This development comes after three key members of the Trust & Safety council resigned last week. The members said in a letter that Elon Musk ignored the group…
It is only Monday, but shaping up to be an exciting (depending on who you ask) and newsworthy week for Twitter. Twitter Blue has jus relaunched and “Blue For Business” is being introduced. Over the weekend Twitter announced Community Notes (formerly known as Birdwatch, the social media giant’s crowdsourced fact-checking system is being rolled out globally. The feature allows users to add context to tweets and takes an open source approach toward debunking misinformation. Moderators who are part of the program can add notes to tweets to add context and users can then vote if they determine the context to…
Twitter has relaunched Twitter Blue subscriptions this week in 5 countries including the US with a host of new restrictions (account must be at least 90-days old, been active within the last 30-days, has not change their handle or picture in the last 7-days and must have a verified phone number) and a new $11 USD a month price ($8 if users sign-up on the web instead of via iOS App). Now Twitter is set to introduce “Blue for Business:”. The details of what is included in the subscription (will it just be the same benefits as the regular Twitter…