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It has been slightly more than 72 hours and Elon Musk has already started to revamp Twitter. The first on his list is changing the verification process.
Musk is setting up his A-team to get the platform rejigged. The first name to come up as a part of the team is Sriram Krishnan.
Krishnan, who is a general partner at a16z crypto, said in a tweet that he is helping Musk temporarily. He tweeted: “I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people. I (and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen.”
Krishan’s LinkedIn profile describes him as a builder, engineer, Youtuber and venture capitalist. He invests in crypto/web3 as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
He was earlier heading product teams at Microsoft, Twitter, Snap and Meta. According to LinkedIn he is has studied in SRM Engineering College, Anna University.
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Twitter is considering charging for the coveted blue check mark verifying the identity of its account holder, technology newsletter Platformer reported on Sunday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Users would have to subscribe to Twitter Blue at $4.99 a month or lose their "verified" badges if the project moves forward, according to the report.
The CEO of Tesla Inc has not made a final decision and the project could still be scrapped but according to Platformer it is likely that verification will become a part of Twitter Blue.
Separately, The Verge reported on Sunday that Twitter will increase the subscription price for Twitter Blue, which also verifies users, from $4.99 a month to $19.99 a month, citing internal correspondence seen by them.
Twitter Blue was launched in June last year as the platform’s first subscription service, which offers “exclusive access to premium features” on a monthly subscription basis including an option to edit tweets.
The feature to edit tweets was also made available earlier this month after Musk launched a Twitter poll in April asking his millions of followers whether they wanted an edit button.
Over 70 per cent had said yes.
Musk has also requested that logged out users visiting Twitter’s site be redirected to Explore page which shows trending tweets, according to a separate Verge report on Sunday citing employees who were familiar with the matter.
Musk has denied a New York Times report about laying off Twitter employees at a date earlier than November 1 to avoid stock grants due on the day.
In a response to a Twitter user asking about the layoffs, Musk tweeted: “This is false.”
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Musk has ordered job cuts across the company, with some teams to be trimmed more than others and that layoffs would take place before Nov. 1 date, when employees were scheduled to receive stock grants as part of their compensation.
Citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, the Times reported the cuts could begin as soon as Saturday.
Musk’s appeal to EU industry chief
Musk has assured the European Commission that Twitter will abide by tough European rules on illegal online content policing now that the social network has passed under his ownership, European Union sources said on Monday.
In a previously unreported exchange last week, Musk told Thierry Breton, the EU’s industry chief, that he planned to comply with the region’s Digital Services Act, which levies hefty fines on companies if they do not control illegal content.
The self-described free speech absolutist agreed to hold a meeting with Breton, a former French finance minister, in the coming weeks, two EU officials familiar with the discussions told Reuters.
The exchange came after Breton took to Twitter to warn Musk about the new European legislation on Friday.
“In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules,” Breton tweeted on Friday.
EU lawmakers approved the landmark rules to rein in tech giants over the summer, which will require online platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content, with big platforms required to have more moderators than small ones.
