Welp, it’s happened. Elon Musk, our favorite multi-hyphenate billionaire, has formally bought Twitter. Let that sink in!
If there’s one thing he’s probably realized by now, it’s that running a social media platform is not much simpler than building a rocket. Becoming the CEO of a digital space as prominent as Twitter comes with a grocery list of responsibilities, including growing the platform’s user base while trying to remain politically correct.
Elon bought the company under promises of free speech and “giving power to the people.” Criticism of his plans began immediately after he announced them back in April. His scheme meant that Twitter would essentially become a free-for-all, and the amount of bigots who would exist on the platform, if not for content regulation, would drastically increase. Given that Twitter’s main source of revenue comes from advertisers, he’d also have to figure out a way to cater to them. The issue is that advertisers don’t want their products placed next to hate speech. Good luck with making that work.
At a conference call held recently after the buy, Elon Musk admitted in front of 100,000 people that he was “open to ideas.” (He has no idea what he’s doing.) One of the first reforms he instituted directly after the deal was signed was called “Twitter Blue”, where for $7.99 a month, Twitter users would be able to purchase a blue “verified” check mark next to their on-screen name. This wholly destroys the purpose of verified twitter accounts in the first place – which has worked over a decade – and makes online entities vulnerable to impersonation by anyone with a phone and credit card.
Take the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, for example. Their official Twitter account is @LillyPad. This week, an account with the handle @EliLillyandCo tweeted, “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.”
For context, Eli Lilly has long heldheld a monopoly over the insulin market in America. Insulin is a crucial drug for people with diabetes. In the United States, insulin costs 800% more than other developed economies – which means (three people a day die as a result? Fact check) Soon after the tweet was taken down, Eli Lilly issued an apology to those who had been “served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account.” (Apologies to those who had been scammed by the company’s ridiculous insulin prices? Nowhere to be found.) As of November 14th, their stock price has suffered a 4.45% drop. That’s billions of dollars taken away by an $8 digital check mark.
In an attempt to cull the wave of impersonators across the platform, Twitter has temporarily restricted Twitter Blue subscriptions for the time being. Prior to releasing the subscription option, Elon insisted that fake accounts would be taken down briskly in order to mitigate any potential damage. That didn’t happen.
Twitter Blue is just another one of Elon’s moneymaking tricks. After purchasing the company, he promptly fired 50% of Twitter’s staff. Five employees have since filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk for failing to abide by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) act, which requires employers to inform workers 60 or more days in advance of mass layoffs. Two employees have also claimed that he intends to start making workers pay for their own lunches at the company, which were previously provided by the company. It’s unclear how he’s going to be able to afford his planned reforms if half the company has been cut and the ones who remain are on the verge of quitting.
As of November 18, rumors of Twitter shutting down completely began circulating on the platform. This was prompted by reports that Elon Musk had shut down all company buildings and internal sources stated that the internal version of Twitter used by employees had been slowing down. Traffic on the app is expected to worsen following the start of the World Cup on Sunday. Twitter is expected to be sued by the large companies he managed to inadvertently screw-over through his easily exploited verification policy.
The fate of Twitter teeters over a ledge. During a testimony on November 16th, 2022, regarding a shareholder lawsuit regarding his colossal $55 billion compensation package from Tesla (yes, another lawsuit), Musk said “I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time.”
We really can’t expect more from Elon Musk.
Credits
Written by: Sophia Gong
Edited by: Clara Li
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