Here’s a look back at Elon Musk’s chaotic first month on Twitter

CNN
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Sunday officially marks one month since the world’s richest man took the helm at Twitter.

In that time, Elon Musk initiated mass layoffs and gave remaining staffers a cryptic ultimatum, reinstated the accounts of controversial figures including former President Donald Trump, and launched – then punted – a plan to charge for Twitter’s iconic blue checkmarks.

After spending months embroiled in an unsuccessful legal battle to get out of his initial proposal to buy Twitter, Musk made his first splashy entrance into the company’s offices on Oct. 26, carrying a sink. (In a video of the incident shared on Twitter, he wrote: “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!)

Since then, the billionaire has seemingly left no stone unturned during his whirlwind first month as “Chief Twit.” Here is a look at the range of ways Musk (who is still, simultaneously, CEO of his other companies Tesla and SpaceX) has already left his mark on one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.

Musk fired Parag Agrawal, the former CEO of Twitter and other executives almost immediately after completing his drama-plagued $44 Billion deal to purchase it. A securities filing stated that he then became the sole CEO and director of the platform.

However, the dramatic leadership change was just the beginning of a major staffing overhaul. Musk initiated wide-ranging layoffs throughout the company. The total headcount was reduced by approximately 50% within a matter of days.

Many former Twitter employees posted on the platform that their company email accounts were locked as the job cuts became more dramatic and publicized.

Layoffs affected departments such as ethics AI, marketing, communication, and public policy. Musk, despite being silent about the job cuts, was there as the workers said goodbye online to their colleagues (many of them sharing blue hearts or salute emojis to signify they had lost jobs at Twitter).

Musk fired another software engineer who survived the first round of cuts. Musk then publicly fired him.

In a late-night internal email after the mass staff cuts, Musk asked Twitter’s remaining employees to commit to “extremely hardcore” work or else leave the company with severance pay.

“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” Musk wrote in the memo sent out on Nov. 16. “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

In the memo, Musk goes on to outline how Twitter will be “much more engineering-driven” and then gives staff an ultimatum. “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” directing staff to what appears to be an online form.

Musk announced that employees who have not completed their work by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday will be terminated. On Thursday, Musk announced that employees who fail to do so by 5 p.m. ET would be terminated for three months.

A departure of advertisers was also in the works, as the mass exodus of workers was looming.

Since Musk’s takeover, a handful of brands – ranging from General Mills to the North Face to the Volkswagen Group – confirmed a pause in advertising on the social network as civil society organizations raised new concern over the direction of the company under Musk.

Approximately a week after he took over the company, Musk said that it had seen a “massive drop in revenue.”

“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” he said in a tweet on Nov. 4. “Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”

Another aspect of Twitter that Musk quickly upended is one of the platform’s most familiar features for its users: the verified blue check marks that had long been used to confirm the authenticity of government officials, journalists, and other public figures.

“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullsh*t,” Musk tweeted on Nov. 1. “Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”

Twitter released an updated version its iOS app on Nov. 5. It allowed users to pay a monthly fee to get a blue checkmark on their profiles. The update, as outlined on Apple’s App Store at the time, stated that users would now have to pay $7.99 per month for the company’s Twitter Blue subscription to receive a check mark on the platform, “just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.”

Twitter became swamped within days of the subscription service’s launch. A wave of corporate and celebrity impersonators quickly used the system to pretend to be brands and other prominent figures.

Chaos ensued. One viral example was a fake Eli Lilly account that featured a recently purchased blue check mark. It claimed to be Eli Lilly and tweeted that a crucial diabetes drug would now be available for free.

Musk finally announced that it would delay rolling out the subscription service until the last day of the month in the wake of all the chaos.

“Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid,” Musk tweeted on Nov. 15.

Musk, who gave a slightly different target for the relaunch on Nov. 24, offered more details about future services, including a range check mark colors to signify the type and level of verified accounts.

Musk restored the Twitter account for former President Donald Trump on November 19, nearly two years after it was banned permanently following the attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

This move was made shortly after Twitter had restored accounts of several other controversial users previously suspended or banned by Twitter, including Jordan Peterson (conservative Canadian podcaster), right-leaning satire site Babylon Bee, comedian Kathy Griffin, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Ahead of restoring Trump’s Twitter account, Musk posted a poll asking the platform’s users if Trump should be reinstated – where a slim majority (51.8%) voted in favor of it.

“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” (Latin for “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”).

Trump stated previously that he would continue on Truth Social instead rejoining Twitter. Trump has not tweeted since his account went back online.

Trump has stated that he will be seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. However, a change of his approach could have significant political implications.

Musk announced on Nov. 24, that he would begin to restore all previously suspended accounts on Twitter beginning next week, after conducting another Twitter poll. This would mark his most far-reaching move yet to undo the social media platform’s policy of permanently suspending users who repeatedly violated its rules.

The Thanksgiving Day announcement came after most respondents voted in favor of his poll over whether to offer “general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.”

Once again, Musk tweeted that “the people have spoken.”

Musk’s recent decision to ban previously barred accounts based on results from his polls on the platform is strikingly at odds with how he previously stated he would handle such matters.

Just a day after his takeover of Twitter, Musk said that the social media company “will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.”

“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” Musk added

It isn’t immediately clear whether that council was ever formed, convened, or participated in the decision-making behind Trump’s bringing back of exempt accounts.