Twitter roundup: bankruptcy threat, top staff leave, Musk’s payment system plans

TL;DR: To say Twitter goes by an upheaval following Elon Musk’s takeover could be an understatement. With a lot information coming from the platform every single day, this is a abstract of what is occurred just lately, from discuss of the corporate going bankrupt and FTC warnings to the chaotic verification system and Musk’s plan to show Twitter into WeChat.

Rather a lot has occurred at Twitter since Musk arrived, together with the billionaire shedding half of its workers and suspending accounts for impersonating others (typically Musk himself).

Speaking to workers for the primary time, Musk warned that “chapter is not out of the query,” in line with a number of experiences.

Musk has different issues to take care of: three of Twitter’s prime safety officers—chief data safety officer Lea Kissner, chief privateness officer Damien Kieran and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty—together with Twitter’s head of shopper options, Robin Wheeler, and Yoel Roth, the top of security and integrity, all left the corporate on the identical day Musk warned of the chapter. Roth had been there to guarantee customers and advertisers that each one was properly at Twitter, so his departure will come as a blow.

The lack of prime safety personnel prompted a warning from the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC). The company stated it was “monitoring the developments at Twitter with deep concern” and would take motion to make sure the corporate was complying with a 2011 settlement, a part of which requires Twitter to keep up a complete safety plan.

Musk had a warning for the remaining Twitter personnel, highlighting the significance of the brand new $8 pm Twitter Blue service that launched on Wednesday. “With out vital subscription income, there’s a good likelihood Twitter won’t survive the upcoming financial downturn,” he wrote in an e-mail to workers. “We want roughly half of our income to be subscription.”

Talking of Twitter Blue, the service now offers subscribers verified standing. To handle the issue of customers pretending to be somebody they don’t seem to be, public entities obtained grey examine marks beneath the blue ones. These ‘official labels’ had been rolled again earlier than the top of the primary day. Following extra impersonations—an motion that ends in permabans—from verified customers, the grey checks had been introduced again.

Musk has additionally stated there are too many corrupt legacy blue “verification” checkmarks on the platform—as in, these from unpaid pre-Musk accounts—so they’re being eliminated.

Elsewhere, the Twitter boss talked about his plans to show the corporate into what appears like a financial institution of types, full with debit playing cards, checks, and loans. Musk says that Twitter customers will obtain a stability that may be despatched wherever within the system, which may very well be a approach of tipping individuals or paying for paywalled content material. He added that the positioning will arrange a “high-yield cash market account in order that having a Twitter stability is the highest-yield factor that you are able to do,” and that as a substitute of a conventional banking system, customers can have “one stability on Twitter that may merely go constructive or a adverse.”

Customers can even get a debit card tied to their stability to make use of in locations that do not settle for Twitter funds, and Musk hinted that he would possibly provide bank-style loans, too.

Musk has talked about turning Twitter into “the all the pieces app,” suggesting one thing like China’s WeChat social media app that can be utilized to order meals, e book rides, make funds, and extra. Implementing banking options is an bold plan that may carry loads of regulatory scrutinies, however Musk sounds decided to make it a actuality; Twitter registered with the US Treasury as a funds processor right now.

Within the closing little bit of Twitter information, Musk has confirmed that workers are anticipated to work within the workplace for a minimum of 40 hours every week, a reproduction of the mandate he carried out at Tesla earlier this 12 months. It reversed the corporate’s stance from 2020 when it stated workers may make money working from home “endlessly” in the event that they wished.

The world’s richest individual has loads on his plate proper now, however he may need much more to take care of following Joe Biden’s announcement that Musk’s relationships with different international locations needs to be checked out.



Source link