Update
2022-11-22T13: 53: 49.915Z
Pressing a blue pause button
Amidst a flurry of tweets covering topics as varied as saving the world (yes, he replied - opens in a new tab) to one of our tweets), room monitors (opens in a new tab) and other social platforms , bigotry (opens in new tab), admitting to little sleep (opens in new tab) and whether his tweets count as work (opens in new tab), Twitter official Elon Musk has delivered some news.
Musk has decided to put his much-criticized Blue Verified system on hold until "there is a high degree of confidence to stop spoofing." He also seeks to give organizations and individuals checks in different colors.
This is great news as Musk is finally addressing the biggest problem with the Blue Check payment system that he introduced this month. All he asked was that he pay €8 a month for a Blue Verification check. Previously, the check was distributed for free, but not before Twitter verified the identity of the person, organization, or business he was verifying.
As soon as Musk launched his own plan, Twitter was flooded with blue-box accounts posing as other people. It was a disaster.
Musk previously said he would relaunch the Blue Verified program on November 29, but that clearly wasn't enough time to come up with a workable verification system. Also, Twitter might be a little low on required engineers after Musk laid off half the staff and then hundreds more left after Musk insisted on a more aggressive work culture.
Could this be the time that Musk stops listening to his echo chamber and starts tackling some of Twitter's fundamental and structural problems?
We will see.
-Lance Ulanoff
Delay relaunching Blue Verified until there is a high level of confidence that identity theft has stopped. You'll likely use a different color control for organizations than for individuals. November 22, 2022
Read more
2022-11-21T12: 50: 17.933Z
I tried Hive(opens in a new tab) today after a group of friends and my wife decided to join in the last 24 hours.
After using the app, I was struck by the need for Mastodon to quickly find its place as a Twitter alternative, quickly.
2022-11-21T00: 58: 56.398Z
Happy to see you?
Over the weekend, Twitter owner Elon Musk polled his followers asking whether he should reinstate former President Donald Trump, whose account was suspended after January 6.
A day later, Musk resets the account with all his tweets intact. So far Trump has said that he will not return. He does have his own platform, Truth Social, after all.
While Trump has taken a wait-and-see approach, rapper Kayne West officially joined the platform on Sunday. His account was suspended after anti-Semitic tweets and reinstated shortly before Musk took over, but it was the first time he had tweeted. Naturally, Musk welcomed (opens in a new tab) to the platform.
At the same time that Musk was inviting Ye and the former president back (and posting memes (opens in a new tab) about whether or not Trump would return), he was busy promoting the World Cup and promising better coverage (opens in a new tab). new tab) ) of the global soccer event based in Qatar than anywhere else.
At first glance, Musk practically lives in Twitter headquarters as he assesses the impact of his own changes and calls in engineers (those left behind) for sleepless nights. Musk shared images (opens in a new tab) of a nightly code review with his engineers on Saturday. While we were mesmerized by the blackboard, some noted the complete lack of female representation, at least in the photos.
Looks like we're in for another interesting week in Twitterville.
2022-11-18T18: 52: 08.939Z
Changes and big decisions
Like virtually every other strategy that Twitter owner Elon Musk has introduced to the beleaguered social media platform, they all take place, even the most important ones, on Twitter.
After starting comedian Kathy Griffin and other parodies and humorous accounts, Musk said he is reinstating (opens in a new tab) Griffin, Jorden Peterson and the satirical online magazine, The Babylon Bee.
Musk also clarified that he was considering bringing back former President Donald Trump, although "the decision has not been made yet."
Perhaps even bigger news is the unveiling of a new policy on Twitter, which Musk first mocked with a tweet reading "Freedom Friday..." (opens in a new tab).
The new policy followed quickly in another tweet.
"Twitter's new policy is free speech, not free access.
Negative/hate tweets will be reduced and demonetized as much as possible, so Twitter will have no advertising or other revenue. You won't find the tweet unless you specifically search for it, which is no different than the rest of the internet."
Some of this seems to allow "hate" speech on the platform, but hides it. That still means people could see it (but maybe only if they search on Twitter or Google). While this decision will surely hurt some and scare advertisers off, Musk's plan is not to monetize any of these tweets.
A bigger question remains. How will Musk and his team identify "hate/negative tweets"? These details were not included. Musk also failed to explain how and when a tweet could be so inflammatory that, for example, it would be too hateful and removed from the platform, or its author banned.
The flurry of tweets came shortly after reports that Musk reversed his decision (opens in new tab) to block Twitter on Friday and apparently ordered some people back to work.
-Lance Ulanoff
Twitter's new policy is free speech, but not free access. Negative/hate tweets will be reduced and demonetized as much as possible, so Twitter will have no advertising or other revenue. You won't find the tweet unless you specifically search for it, which is no different than the rest of the internet. November 18, 2022
Read more
2022-11-18T11: 06: 55.587ZMemes aside, though, Elon Musk isn't apparently all that jaded about the situation in private. Twitter has reportedly once again suspended access to staff credentials and its offices are temporarily closed. Twitter staff have been told that the offices will reopen on Monday, November 21, though they have not been told why access is currently restricted.
NEW: Twitter just alerted employees that, as of today, all office buildings are temporarily closed and badge access is suspended. No details were given as to why. November 17, 2022
Read more
The current theory is that Elon Musk and top Twitter executives are concerned that employees who haven't committed to Twitter 2.0 will sabotage the platform by leaving. On top of that, it seems they are also trying to figure out who is leaving (and needs to have their desktop access revoked) and who is staying.
According to a Twitter post (opens in a new tab) posted at 9:42 p.m. Platformer boss: As only the names of people who said "yes" to Twitter 2.0 were collected, it's not immediately clear who actually left.
We imagine Elon Musk and his cronies will also try to convince staff to leave critical teams to stay, especially teams that would have no members without them. If discussions are ongoing, it would likely add even more confusion to the situation, as Musk wouldn't want to revoke access to Twitter staff who end up staying with the company.
2022-11-18T10: 37: 31.170ZWell, it turns out that a lot of people at Twitter weren't interested in working even harder than they are now on Musk's "Twitter 2.0." Hundreds of employees reportedly posted goodbye messages on Twitter's internal Slack channels after the 5 p.m. ET deadline expired.
According to anonymous sources who spoke to The Verge (opens in a new tab), this new wave of resignations means that several "critical" Twitter teams have lost all or most of their members. This apparently includes Twitter's traffic and front-end teams who make sure engineering requests are routed to the right back-end services, as well as the entire core Twitter system library team; one employee admitted that “you can't run Twitter without .”
But according to his Twitter timeline, Elon Musk is apparently pretty chill about the whole situation. In a tweet that followed this exodus of new employees (opens in a new tab), he said that "the best people stay, so I'm not too worried."
He then followed up with several memes, including one showing Twitter posing in front of his own grave.
2022-11-18T10: 14: 40.182ZHello friends, we are back with the latest from Twitter and a lot has happened.
Following the mass layoffs on Twitter two weeks ago, when Elon Musk laid off around half of the platform's workforce, he issued a request to those who remained on Wednesday, November 16: Participate in the new "extremely tough" work culture or Paris.
Scoop: Elon Musk just sent an email to all staff describing "Twitter 2.0," writing that it "will have to be extremely tough." Long days, high intensity. People need to click "yes" to confirm they're a part of it by 5pm ET tomorrow, or they'll receive a 3-month severance package. More details: November 16, 2022
Read more
Twitter staff were asked to confirm their commitment to work more hours and agree that "only outstanding performance will constitute a passing grade" by 5 pm ET on November 17 (10 pm GMT, November 17 / 8 am AEST , November 18), or get a three-month layoff and leave the company.
2022-11-16T17: 21: 03.179ZIs this the light at the end of the tunnel or will the tunnel collapse before we get there? https://t.co/CEIL9mcE1ENNovember 16, 2022
Read more
An interesting side note on Musk's appearance at trial earlier today, where he discusses (opens in a new tab) a €56 billion payment package involving...