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- Twitter chaos continues...
Twitter chaos continues...
Here are some popular stories happening this week on GadgetBond.com, subscribe to our weekly newsletter HERE, it’s free, or get the latest updates directly through our website.
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This is just a recent update on Twitter (as the writing of this newsletter), for more updates keep an eye on Elon Musk & Twitter topics or get the all latest updates at GadgetBond.com.
The Beginning
Following Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, the chaos has continued. From engineers being asked to work unusually long hours to Musk canceling a Twitter Blue contract with over 300 web publishers.
Musk placed himself as Twitter's absolute dictator by disbanding the original board of directors and replacing it with a single director: himself...
The Background
Musk began quietly purchasing Twitter shares, was offered and accepted a seat on the company's board, changed his mind the next day, and offered to buy the company, Twitter resisted, then accepted before Musk tried to back out, Twitter sued, and it was all going ahead again, leaving Musk's bankers sweating, amid claims that Twitter ordered evidence to be burned, and each side claiming that the other is under federal investigation.
Musk officially took over the platform on October 27, firing key executives immediately. One of his decisions was reportedly to sell Twitter verification for a $19.99/month subscription to Twitter Blue (later he locked in the Twitter verification cost at $7.99/month).
Since then, the good times have continued...
Managers have been urged to work 12-hour days, 7 days a week
According to CNBC, Twitter's new owner Elon Musk is mandating managers to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week in order to meet tight deadlines for changes. He is intimidating employees by threatening them with 50% layoffs.
According to internal communications, “managers at Twitter have instructed some employees to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, in order to hit Musk’s aggressive deadlines.”
According to the cited source, the employees were asked to work extra hours with no discussion of “overtime pay or comp time, or job security.” According to reports, the engineers have been given a deadline of early November, and if they fail to meet the requirements, they may lose their jobs.
“Task completion by the early November deadline is seen as a make-or-break matter for their careers at Twitter,” according to the report. Elon Musk is said to be threatening employees with 50% layoffs in order to force them to comply with the order.
Employees are no longer working together as teams because of fear, with each individual trying to defend their own position. According to reports, Slack channels where teams would help each other have gone silent.
Moderation is frozen ahead of midterms
Midterm elections in the United States, like presidential elections, are a prime time for hoaxes and general disinformation. Moderation is required to ensure that voters are not misled by false claims. Nonetheless, Bloomberg reports that moderators have been barred from participating.
"Elon Musk has frozen some employee access to internal tools used for content moderation and other policy enforcement, curbing the staff’s ability to clamp down on misinformation ahead of a major US election."
"Most people who work in Twitter’s Trust and Safety organization are currently unable to alter or penalize accounts that break rules around misleading information, offensive posts and hate speech, except for the most high-impact violations that would involve real-world harm, according to people familiar with the matter. Those posts were prioritized for manual enforcement, they said."
Twitter Blue ad-free articles have gone
One of the Twitter Blue benefits was ad-free access to over 300 US publishers via the Ad-Free Articles agreement.
Twitter would pay publishers an amount roughly equivalent to ad revenue per view, in exchange for subscribers being able to read pieces on Twitter Blue Publisher sites without ads.
Twitter has canceled this feature with only one day's notice. The change was announced in an email to publishers.
Subscribers have lost a valuable feature, and publishers have had to go through extensive integration work to support it, only to have it rendered obsolete overnight.
