Elon Musk Proposes to Follow Through With Twitter Acquisition

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2 weeks before the trial Musk sent a letter to Twitter proposing to follow through with the acquisition.

Legal team for Musk sensed judge would not rule in favor
Proposal likely eliminates need for court trial this month

Elon Musk revived his bid for Twitter Inc. at the original offer price of $54.20 a share, potentially avoiding a courtroom fight over one of the most contentious acquisitions in recent history.

Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Shares in Twitter climbed as much as 18% on the news, and trading has since been halted. Musk and representatives for San Francisco-based Twitter didn’t respond to requests for comment on the letter or whether the company would accept the proposal…

Twitter is mulling whether to accept Musk’s offer – put out in an overnight letter – to end all litigation and proceed with the deal. There’s huge distrust on both sides.

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Wonder if they’ll accept or proceed with the trial..
one to watch if the offer is declined as a return gesture
Starlinked twitter platform for the PiPhone?

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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I thought he was throwing bird seed into the wind.  However, today’s action put that to rest – it’s a done deal.  Hopefully he will rebuild this derelict birdhouse on Mars.

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Rumor is… on twitter no less… that there was something incriminating on his past text messages that he didn’t want out

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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While Musk is busy with Twitter he had found the time for Ukraine – Russia war peace proposal offer.

Ukraine tells Elon Musk to ‘f–k off’ after his peace proposal to end war with Russia sparks outrage

Elon Musk tried his hand at some armchair diplomacy by proposing a compromise that would end the Russian invasion of Ukraine — sparking outrage among Twitter users who did not take too kindly to suggestions that Kyiv should give up territory to the Kremlin.

The Tesla CEO posted a “Yes, No” survey on his Twitter feed which included his own ideas for how to end the impasse in Eastern Europe, which has dragged on for some six months and has destabilized oil markets.

Musk called for a “redo” of “elections of annexed regions under UN supervision.”

“Russia leaves if that is [the] will of the people,” the world’s richest man tweeted.

“F— off is my very diplomatic reply,” tweeted Ukrainian diplomat Andrij Melnyk. ..

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What is this Libertarian going to do with Twitter?
1. Make tweets (re: musket fire) censorship free, no matter how offensive (potential misinformation/disinformation pellets yet to be addressed by Musk)
2. Reinstate previously banned tweeters (mostly the high profile ones).
3. Right-size the company (many will face the musket firing squad)
4. Remold Twitter as an app that enables instant messaging, social media & mobile payment (Lyrebirds can mimic anything)
5. Ad-free subscription service & an increase in fees for commercial & govt. users. Increase ad revenue  (of cluster proportion).
6. Monetize viral tweets
7. Authenticate all accounts – must be Musket humans.
8. Occupy Mars (his t-shirt says so)

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Musk wants to turn Twitter into super-app do-it-all just like WeChat..

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1577428272056389633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1577428272056389633%7Ctwgr%5E1d9905256ef9d62d504868b3d66f346fe6ef0775%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.calcalist.co.il%2Fcalcalistech%2Farticle%2Fhj110kg3go

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Biz critics are panning this – many believe that the remoulding of Twitter into ‘WeChat-like’ is not really on. It is included in Musk’s ‘X’ abstract concepts, but ‘X’ itself has yet to be better explained by Musk. Cost cutting at Twitter may delay it’s implementation if he actually has something more concrete on ‘X’ in the wings. He has the DNA to create something powerful and exceptional – he could also produce the proverbial pig’s ear.

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The trial Twitter vs Musk has been moved to October 28 by which date Musk has to finalize Twitter purchase.
So far banks are reluctant to finance Musk with $12.5B.

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Right on  … follow the money!

This link breaks down which company/group or individual is on the hook for the financing …

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/who-is-financing-elon-musks-44-billion-deal-buy-twitter-2022-10-07/

Feathers have been ruffled.  The Raptors are circling.

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After solving the Ukraine – Russia conflict Musk is now solving China – Taiwan conflict.

Elon Musk says conflict between Taiwan and China could be resolved by making the island a ‘special administrative zone’ similar to Hong Kong

Musk said the zone could be more lenient than Hong Kong.
Musk took criticism last week after suggesting Ukraine concede territory to Russia to end the war.

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Musk, as usual, has mouthed off without thinking it through. He should have considered the secular demand drivers, cloud infrastructure, electric vehicles, the next generation of industrial facilities – they all require chips that are made in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Tesla operates a large factory in Shanghai and it accounted for about half of Tesla’s global deliveries last year. He also has factories in Germany and the USA.  Tesla relies heavily on the world’s largest chip-maker’s supply chain which is not based in China. Taiwan is home to more than 90% of the manufacturing capacity for the world’s most advanced semiconductors, which China would control if they adopted Musk’s ‘compromise’. This would cripple current supply chain partnerships and give China control and leverage over the industry.  Japan and South Korea, the other huge chip-makers in the world, would be vulnerable to blockades and intimidation if the seas in the area around these countries have continuous Chinese military presence meant to keep Taiwan in Beijing’s hands. Chip-makers outside Asia have seen falling demand for their chips, e.g. Micron, Nvidia. Not up to snuff.

Musk may get special status in China for being ‘China-friendly’,  but how will he fulfill his chip requirements in Germany and the USA if his ‘compromise’ is adopted?

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Financial Times : Lunch with Elon Musk

The Tesla chief talks to Roula Khalaf about moving to Mars, saving free speech via Twitter — and why ageing is one ‘problem’ that should not be solved

Dinner with Elon Musk begins with a drive in a Tesla. I am seated in the back, next to X, the billionaire’s two-and-a-half-year-old son. It’s around 7pm in Austin, and X is, as one would expect, cranky. We had set off to Fonda San Miguel, Musk’s favourite Mexican restaurant, after a visit with an FT colleague to the Tesla Gigafactory on the banks of the Colorado river. In this massive site Musk is producing the Y electric SUVs, the latest model in the Tesla collection that has catapulted him to the top of the world’s rich list (net worth: $232bn). Musk, with X perched on his shoulders, had proudly shown off the factory floor as he periodically raged against sluggish investment in lithium refining, which is desperately needed to ease battery shortages around the world.
..

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Alex5723 wrote:

I am seated in the back, next to X, the billionaire’s two-and-a-half-year-old son.

* Wonder if the Tesla was on auto-pilot.

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Elon Musk reportedly wants to fire 75% of Twitter employees

Twitter’s workforce is likely to be hit with massive cuts in the coming months, no matter who owns the company, interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post show, a change likely to have major impact on its ability to control harmful content and prevent data security crises.

Elon Musk told prospective investors in his deal to buy the company that he planned to get rid of nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000…

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Business analysts agree that the Musket Firing Squad is inevitable. They are of the opinion that about 2000 Twitter employees will definitely be on the chopping block.  The 75% expressed by Musk, if he is being serious, will be a circular firing squad.  He is unpredictable but not stupid.

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https://time.com/6224380/elon-musk-twitter-open-letter/

Staff, Elon Musk, and Board of Directors:

We, the undersigned Twitter workers, believe the public conversation is in jeopardy.

Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation. A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation.

Twitter has significant effects on societies and communities across the globe. As we speak, Twitter is helping to uplift independent journalism in Ukraine and Iran, as well as powering social movements around the world.

A threat to workers at Twitter is a threat to Twitter’s future. These threats have an impact on us as workers and demonstrate a fundamental disconnect with the realities of operating Twitter. They threaten our livelihoods, access to essential healthcare, and the ability for visa holders to stay in the country they work in. We cannot do our work in an environment of constant harassment and threats. Without our work, there is no Twitter.

We, the workers at Twitter, will not be intimidated. We recommit to supporting the communities, organizations, and businesses who rely on Twitter. We will not stop serving the public conversation.

We call on Twitter management and Elon Musk to cease these negligent layoff threats. As workers, we deserve concrete commitments so we can continue to preserve the integrity of our platform.

We demand of current and future leadership:

Respect: We demand leadership to respect the platform and the workers who maintain it by committing to preserving the current headcount.

Safety: We demand that leadership does not discriminate against workers on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs. We also demand safety for workers on visas, who will be forced to leave the country they work in if they are laid off.

Protection: We demand Elon Musk explicitly commit to preserve our benefits, those both listed in the merger agreement and not (e.g. remote work). We demand leadership to establish and ensure fair severance policies for all workers before and after any change in ownership.

Dignity: We demand transparent, prompt and thoughtful communication around our working conditions. We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires.

Sincerely,

Twitter workers..

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Twitter Tumbles as US Weighs Security Reviews for Musk Deals

Biden administration officials are discussing whether the US should subject some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national security reviews, including the deal for Twitter Inc. and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, according to people familiar with the matter.

They are also concerned by his plans to buy Twitter with a group of foreign investors…

One element of the $44 billion Twitter deal that could trigger a CFIUS review is the presence of foreign investors in Musk’s consortium. The group includes Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, Binance Holdings Ltd. — a digital-asset exchange founded and run by a Chinese native — and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund…

* The US government can free Musk off the hook ? Twitter purchase has to be finalized by next Friday.

https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1583258922475204608

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Specious at best!
SpaceX has military contracts – they carry the top secret payloads for Space Force, known as the eyes of USA national security. Musk owns SpaceX.  I would hazard a guess that the impact of a breach here would far outweigh the security risk of Musk owning Twitter. His viral rants and having friends in ‘dark places’ amuses this Libertarian twit.   Having the SEC coming down on him is more likely than the Biden Administration.

 

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Elon Musk-Twitter Deal Is Set to Close Friday

What a long strange trip it’s been.

That might be the best way to sum up the Elon Musk-Twitter saga that has played out over the past six-plus months. Today marks 193 days since Musk first offered to buy Twitter on April 14.

It finally appears an end is in sight*, or at least the closing of a transaction. Earlier this month a judge ruled that the deal must be closed by October 28, which is this Friday, or a trial will be held….

* Question : Can Musk show the money.

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Looks like he has the bank’s money!  It is going to cost him $1b per year to carry the loans, plus a chunk in severeness payments.   It would be interesting  to see what the estimated rebuild costs will be.

Friday, October 28 is the unveiling.  I consulted the Oracle on this (aka, Googled it)…

1. When the number 28 appears in your life, it may be an indication that something new is going to take shape finally. Through this number, you can quickly turn your visions into reality. Have trust that your material needs will be taken care of in every way.

2. Number 28 is considered to be unlucky and unwanted in Chaldean numerology. The person with 28 in numerology will face stiff competition and obstacles in all their endeavors. It makes a person to start up his life again and again. Initially they tend to attain success in a very short span of time, but in the end they lose everything.

The Oracle is schizophrenic or has an evil twin!

 

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Twitter is losing its most active users, internal documents show

The reality, according to internal Twitter (TWTR.N) research seen by Reuters, goes far beyond the handful of examples of celebrities ghosting their own accounts. Twitter is struggling to keep its most active users – who are vital to the business – engaged, underscoring a challenge faced by the Tesla (TSLA.O) chief executive as he approaches a deadline to close his $44 billion deal to buy the company.

These “heavy tweeters” account for less than 10% of monthly overall users but generate 90% of all tweets and half of global revenue. Heavy tweeters have been in “absolute decline” since the pandemic began, a Twitter researcher wrote in an internal document titled “Where did the Tweeters Go?”..

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Elon Musk Completes $44 Billion Deal to Own Twitter

After months of waffling, lawsuits, verbal mudslinging and the near miss of a full blown trial, Elon Musk now owns Twitter.

On Thursday night, Mr. Musk closed his $44 billion deal to buy the social media service, said three people with knowledge of the situation. He also began cleaning house, with at least four top Twitter executives — including the chief executive and chief financial officer — getting fired on Thursday. Mr. Musk had arrived at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday and met with engineers and ad executives…

The Twitter executives who were fired on Thursday include Parag Agrawal, the chief executive; Ned Segal, the chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, the top legal and policy executive; and Sean Edgett, the general counsel, said two people with knowledge of the matter. At least one of the executives who was fired was escorted out of Twitter’s office, they said…

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Elon Musk bought Twitter and immediately Ye’s (Kante West) Twitter account is publicly visible again

The Twitter account of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was publicly visible again Friday morning — less than a day after Elon Musk completed his takeover of the company.

Driving the news: He was suspended on Twitter earlier this month for posting antisemitic remarks.

Axios could not independently verify that Twitter granted Ye access to his account, and it’s not clear if he has posting privileges.
Musk plans to avoid lifelong bans on users, Bloomberg reports. He previously indicated he would allow former President Trump back on the platform.
The move came days after Ye was dropped by Adidas and other brands for his comments….

Apple Music pulls Kanye West ‘Essentials’ playlists

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Elon Musk Just Fired Twitter’s Entire Board Of Directors

Twitter informed the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday that the Board of Directors has been dissolved and replaced with Musk, who will act as the sole director of the social media company.

Musk became the sole director of Twitter “in accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement,” according to the SEC filing as reported by The Hill.

“On October 27, 2022, and as a result of the consummation of the Merger, Mr. Musk became the sole director of Twitter,” the filing read. “In accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement, effective as of the effective time of the Merger, the following persons, who were directors of Twitter prior to the effective time of the Merger, are no longer directors of Twitter: Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li and Mimi Alemayehou.”..

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Twitter’s Hunger Games

Twitter’s Hunger Games: Elon Musk oversees a weekend of coding sprints, stack ranking, boot-licking

Musk just took control of Twitter. Many engineers and department heads worked the weekend.
Several Musk allies have been added to a company directory, with Musk being named CEO internally.
Layoffs are widely expected to occur on Monday, but could happen as soon as Sunday night.

Elon Musk put Twitter employees to the test this weekend to see who is capable, and willing, of surviving under his new reign.

Many engineers worked Saturday and Sunday, even as they have been left to wonder about their employment status and who among the billionaire’s handpicked allies may be leading them in the days to come.

A current manager characterised Musk’s takeover as “unlike anything in my 20-year career.” …

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Musk ordered some workers to 12 hours a day 7 days a week work.

Twitter employees say managers instructed them to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week to hit Musk’s aggressive deadlines and that their jobs are at stake…

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For everyone who says “who cares” may I just say that there is a lot of good security information shared on twitter that I’m personally not sure I’d be aware of in other venues.  Musk’s increased fees of the ‘blue check’ ignores the fact that people are the content.  Like this forum site, the value is not the software or the hardware running the site — it’s the PEOPLE of the site that give it value.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

2 users thanked author for this post.

NoLoki, Alex5723

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and on the flip-side, there’s also good information available on the darkweb.
Yes, that’s where real security begins like it or not.

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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Elon Musk begins mass layoffs at Twitter (Today).

Elon Musk is beginning mass layoffs at Twitter, sharply reducing the company’s workforce of 7,500 and kicking off his wholesale overhaul of the company.

An email went out to the company’s employees late Thursday notifying employees of plans to cut jobs, informing them that by 9 a.m. Pacific time Friday, workers would receive an email with the subject line: “Your Role at Twitter.”

Those keeping their jobs would be notified on their company email. Those losing them would be told via their personal email.

“Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” the email said. “We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”.

“We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted,” the email continued. “We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process.”..

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Twitter Sued for Mass Layoffs by Musk Without Enough Notice

Twitter Inc. was sued over Elon Musk’s plan to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at the social-media platform, which workers say the company is doing without enough notice in violation of federal and California law.

A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court…

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act restricts large companies from mounting mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice…

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an order requiring Twitter to obey the WARN Act, and restricting the company from soliciting employees to sign documents that could give up their right to participate in litigation.

“We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who filed Thursday’s complaint, said in an interview…

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Activist groups are trying to destroy free speech in America.

“Elon Musk
@elonmusk

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.

Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”

Musk just fired Twitter’s entire ethical AI team (META) and many from product and content curation, communications, and engineering and employees of Twitter Blue, the subscription service.

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I’ll translate:

Companies are taking a wait and see attitude while things shake out.  This combined with increased interest rates means that businesses are pulling back on advertising in general.  Bottom line, this is not a good time to purchase a company with inflated market values and now try to figure out how to pay back your investors.

Businesses with a brand don’t like risk.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Companies are taking a wait and see attitude while things shake out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byazeV3gfis

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We were all once "Average Users". We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems, we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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https://twitter.com/abierkhatib/status/1588959411401547776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1588959411401547776%7Ctwgr%5Eb5f648365a9ff6e88923a2642f3e265b887acbe3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macrumors.com%2F2022%2F11%2F05%2Ftwitter-ios-updated-8-month-subscription%2F

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These Muskets shoot and ask questions later.

Musket scope: I ordered myself a pair of high tech wearable rose colored glasses today. I now see things only as absolutes. These wearables expose the ingrates and inbreds out there who do not see things as I do.

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Twitter i asking workers that left/fired to return.

Multiple sources and Twitter Blind chats now saying that the company has begun to reach out to some people it laid off yesterday asking them to come back. Whoops!

From Twitter Slack: “sorry to @- everybody on the weekend but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back. I need to put together names and rationales by 4PM PST Sunday.

“I’ll do some research but if any of you who have been in contact with folks who might come back and who we think will help us, please nominate tomorrow before 4..

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Meanwhile, Facebook Parent Meta Is Preparing to Notify Employees of Large-Scale Layoffs This Week

Social-media company’s planned cuts expected to affect many thousands of its workforce

Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in what could be the largest round in a recent spate of tech job cuts after the industry’s rapid growth during the pandemic.

The layoffs are expected to affect many thousands of employees and an announcement is planned to come as soon as Wednesday, according to the people. Meta reported more than 87,000 employees at the end of September. Company officials already told employees to cancel nonessential travel beginning this week, the people said…

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Musk discusses putting all of Twitter behind a paywall

…As today began at Twitter, there were essentially two groups at the company, one employee told me: those working on projects that Musk has been deeply involved in, such as the revamped Twitter Blue subscription, and everyone else.

“The couple of teams that are on his pet projects are doing 20-hour days,” one employee told me. “But the majority of the company is kind of just sitting around. No chain of command, no priorities, no organization chart, and in many cases, no idea who your manager or team is.”…

But all of that could be a prelude to the biggest change of all: charging most or all users a subscription fee to use Twitter.

Both Musk and Sacks have discussed the idea in recent meetings, according to a person familiar with the matter. One such plan might allow everyone to use Twitter for a limited amount of time each month but require a subscription to continue browsing, the person said.

It could not be learned how serious Musk and Sacks are about the paywall; Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. It also does not appear imminent, as the Blue team is wholly occupied with the launch of expanded verification…

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Today a media host, who is a Twitter user, said that the Russian bots are back in droves.

They are like flies to rotting meat – ‘the meat’ being an election that is underway.

2016 reloaded!

 

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Twits staying and/ or moving elsewhere..
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/mastodon-now-has-over-1-million-users-amid-twitter-tensions/

One can download Mastodon via Google Play or the apple store. The network can also be accessed via your web browser.

Choose a server, one can opt for general, all purpose instances like mastodon.social or servers geared to specific interests like kpop.social.

There are some servers that you can join right away but, you may have to join a waiting list for some instances

NOTE: (as per Askwoody) There are some ground rules you need to follow within your server including no discriminatory or explicit language or posting any content that could incite violence etc..etc.

Once you’re in a server, you can set up your username and verify your email address

You can then navigate freely, find people to follow and post your ‘toots’ those within your server and not the entire Fediverse, unlike its Twitter counterpart.

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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After the Blue check mark come Gray check mark

You can pay for a blue check mark with Twitter Blue, but select accounts and organizations will get a gray check mark with an ‘Official’ label.

Twitter is rolling out another type of check mark to help distinguish accounts that users actually need to know are real. Although you can pay $7.99 per month for a blue check mark with the new version of Twitter Blue, select accounts for governments, companies, or public figures will get a gray “Official” check mark, according to a thread from Twitter’s Esther Crawford, who is heading up the new Twitter Blue initiative.

“A lot of folks have asked about how you’ll be able to distinguish between @TwitterBlue subscribers with blue checkmarks and accounts that are verified as official, which is why we’re introducing the ‘Official’ label to select accounts when we launch,”..

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The “Official” gray tag has been killed by Musk after less than 24 hours.

I just killed it

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Elon musk has Sriram Krishnan in the wings who is a software engineer/ crypto expert..Wonder what’s next for twitter?

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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The Blue tag is out but only for iOS devices.

ps. Musk announced no more work from home and 40 hours week work.

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Twitter is on the brink of financial collapse.

‘Economic Picture Ahead Is Dire,’ Elon Musk Tells Twitter Employees

Two weeks after buying Twitter, Elon Musk painted an increasingly bleak financial picture for the company and outlined changes in a meeting with staff on Thursday and in his first companywide emails, amid an exodus of executives including the officials who oversaw content moderation and security.

At the meeting on Thursday, Mr. Musk warned employees that Twitter did not have the necessary cash to survive, ..

The social media company was running a negative cash flow of several billion dollars, ..

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$8 Blue-Tick Option Vanished

The move follows an upsurge in fake accounts on the platform after new boss Elon Musk allowed users to pay $8 for the coveted blue tick that was previously reserved for verified accounts.

Twitter Inc said on Friday it had reinstated the “official” badge given to some accounts, days after removing it, while several users reported the new $8 subscription option for the blue verification tick had disappeared.
The move follows an upsurge in fake accounts on the platform after new boss Elon Musk allowed users to pay $8 for the coveted blue tick that was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, actors and other major personalities.

Fake accounts of several big brands have popped up with the blue tick, including Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX as well as Eli Lilly and Co, Nestle and Lockheed Martin.

“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account, which has the “official” tag, tweeted on Friday. Elon Musk on Wednesday tweeted he had “killed” the new label, just hours after rolling it out…

1 user thanked author for this post.

Microfix

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https://github.com/wseagar/eight-dollars Fortunately he killed it but someone coded that up in the meantime.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

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If Musk does not get his act together quickly he may face a mutiny from what is left of his inner circle – it happened to Steve Jobs when he exhibited megalomaniac tendencies.  It may be the only way to save Twitter  from imminent collapse.  However, if they are mere sycophants then they will go down with the captain.

All of this chaos management probably means that ‘X’ is also in jeopardy.

 

 

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40 hours work per week turned into 80 hours per week

Elon Musk told Twitter staff to expect 80-hour work weeks and fewer office perks, report says

Elon Musk told Twitter staff that they should expect to work 80-hour weeks, per Bloomberg.

Musk previously got rid of remote working, telling workers 40 hours in the office was a minimum.

He also said they should expect fewer perks like free food, warning of possible bankruptcy.

Elon Musk issued a series of stern warnings during an address to Twitter staff on Thursday, including an expectation of 80-hour work weeks, per Bloomberg.

Twitter’s new owner earlier rolled back the company’s work-from-home policy in an email sent to staff at 2:39 a.m. Musk said: “Everyone is required to be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week” unless they were “physically unable” to travel to an office…

Per The Verge’s transcript of Musk’s Q&A and with employees, Musk told staff to work with “a maniacal sense of urgency.”..

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Musk to Appear in Court Over $56B Tesla Pay Package

Elon Musk could appear in court on Tuesday to defend against allegations by a Tesla shareholder that the billionaire rigged his $56 billion pay package using easy performance targets. The shareholder, Richard Tornetta, accused Musk of deceiving Tesla investors into approving the package in 2018…

Tornetta has asked the court to revoke Tesla’s pay package, whose size is six times greater compared to the top 200 CEO salaries combined in 2021,..

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Twitter will soon let organizations verify related accounts

The announcement comes after the recent Twitter Blue disaster.

…After the company began rolling out its new $8 per month Twitter Blue subscription on Wednesday, the website was quickly overrun by trolls who used the service to impersonate celebrities and brands. In particular, the situation was a nightmare for businesses and advertisers. As one example, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly’s stock fell by 4.37 percent on Friday after a fake “verified” account said the company was making insulin free. The prank erased about 15 billion from Eli Lilly’s market cap and forced an apology from it…

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So half the staff has been eliminated, the content reviewers are gone, all the executives have been fired, the Advertisers have suspended their accounts and now he has managed to lock out the users… he has shut down microservices calling them “bloatware.”

However, reversing these knee jerk decisions has become a habit… he has tried to lure back some of the staff who were fired, tried to get the Advertisers to come back even though their ad for ‘whatever’ might be placed near a vile or racists tweet, he has tried using some insiders to do content review, but they are currently not operational… and now he is trying to reinstate the microservices.

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NoLoki wrote:

he has shut down microservices  calling them “bloatware.”

Remember Samsung, Huawei… Tweeting about Android from an iPhone ?
Now you won’t see ‘via Twitter for iPhone’ any more as Musk wants to remove that line

Tweet
Elon Musk
@elonmusk

And we will finally stop adding what device a tweet was written on (waste of screen space & compute) below every tweet. Literally no one even knows why we did that…

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1592178009410531330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1592178009410531330%7Ctwgr%5Eccb8b36efeedc248e9a127b6dc02afd0fe1d04a8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macrumors.com%2F2022%2F11%2F14%2Ftwitter-removing-device-tweet-info%2F

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Free speech but not for Twitter’s employees.

Elon Musk is firing Twitter employees even when they criticize him in private

Musk confirmed he’d fired employees after they spoke out in Twitter and even the company’s private Slack. Platformer’s sources say 20 people have been fired for Slack posts so far.

After purging half of Twitter’s staff with a snap of his fingers and firing as many as 5,500 additional contract employees without so much as a goodbye, “free speech” maximalist Elon Musk is now additionally getting rid of anyone who dares criticize him, both on Twitter and even in the company’s private Slack.

Yesterday, Musk admitted to firing an engineer who attempted to correct him publicly on Twitter, and Eric Frohnhoefer wasn’t the last to go that way — Twitter software engineer Sasha Solomon also tweeted that she got “fired for shitposting” after a series of now-deleted tweets criticizing Musk, adding “kiss my ass elon.”..

https://twitter.com/nickrw/status/1592187240905867265

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Elon Musk demands Twitter staff commit to ‘long hours’ or leave:

New Twitter CEO and sole director Elon Musk sent a companywide email to Twitter employees on Wednesday, demanding they commit to working “long hours.”
The companywide ultimatum, sent around midnight San Francisco time and shared with CNBC, comes after Musk has already fired key Twitter executives, laid off half of Twitter’s full-time employees and slashed the number of contractors working with the company without notice…

From: Elon Musk

To: Team [at Twitter]

Subj. A Fork in the Road

Date: Nov. 16, 2022 [time stamp removed]

Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.

Twitter will also be much more engineering-driven. Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway.

At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company, so l think this makes sense.

If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below:

[Link removed]

Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance.

Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful.

Elon..

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Musk’s ‘Hardcore’ Ultimatum Sparks Exodus, Leaving Twitter at Risk

Offices to be shut immediately, reopening Monday, memo says

Elon Musk gave Twitter Inc. employees an ultimatum to either commit to the company’s new “hardcore” work environment or leave. Many more workers declined to sign on than he expected, potentially putting Twitter’s operations at risk, according to people familiar with the matter.

So many employees decided to take severance that it created a cloud of confusion over which people should still have access to company property. Twitter closed its offices until Monday, according to a memo viewed by Bloomberg. “Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential information on social media, with the press or elsewhere,” the memo added…

Twitter’s internal communications channels filled with employees offering a salute emoji, which has become a symbol for departing the company. Former staff tweeted the salute publicly, too, along with their internal Slack messages. ..

Hundreds of employees say no to being part of Elon Musk’s ‘extremely hardcore’ Twitter

Hundreds of Twitter’s remaining employees have resigned ahead of Elon Musk’s “extremely hardcore” cultural reset of the company, according to internal Slack messages seen by The Verge and employee tweets…

After the deadline hit, hundreds of employees quickly started posting farewell messages and salute emojis in Twitter’s Slack, announcing that they had said no to Musk’s ultimatum.

“I’m not pressing the button,” one departing employee posted in Slack. “My watch ends with Twitter 1.0. I do not wish to be part of Twitter 2.0.”..

Multiple “critical” teams inside Twitter have now either completely or near-completely resigned, said other employees who requested anonymity to speak without Musk’s permission. That includes Twitter’s traffic and front end teams that route engineering requests to the correct backend services. The team that maintains Twitter’s core system libraries that every engineer at the company uses is also gone. “You cannot run Twitter without this team,” a departing employee said…

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https://twitter.com/kyliebytes/status/1593391167718113280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1593391167718113280%7Ctwgr%5Ed69c3b70cd21abece0f6477b8fe5d93433481942%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fappleinsider.com%2Farticles%2F22%2F11%2F18%2Ftwitter-staff-nearly-decimated-by-musks-extremely-hardcore-demand

“Kylie Robison
@kyliebytes
What I’m hearing from Twitter employees; It looks like roughly 75% of the remaining 3,700ish Twitter employees have not opted to stay after the “hardcore” email.”

* If the 75% total is correct, that leaves ~ 900 employees remaining, versus the 7,600 that were working pre-buy.

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Elon Musk : Twitter’s grave.

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With the mass acceptance of Musk’s severance offer it looks as though the structural members of Twitter has been weakened and at the breaking point. Musk was planning to demolish some of the structure with a controlled implosion but he ignored the experts and chose the explosive power and placement of the detonators himself. He pressed down on the lever and now he is left with a teetering structure with rubble dangling from all sides. It is in partial collapse.

What’s next is the question. Some think he will relocate HQ and hire replacement staff from there. He is obviously looking at building the corporate culture at Twitter that is more in line with his management style (the good, the bad and the ugly), so San Francisco might not be the place to make that happen.

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“Vox Populi, Vox Dei”

Elon Musk polls Twitter: Reinstate Trump?

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Elon Musk
@elonmusk
The people have spoken.

Trump will be reinstated.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei.

* Out of 15 mullion voters 51.8% voted in favor (probably including bots).
Trump’s reinstated account has already 9 million followers.

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Serva me servabo te.

1 user thanked author for this post.

NaNoNyMouse

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Community Notes might be what Twitter needs to survive as the ‘public square’ that Musk envisioned and what the users and advertisers can embrace.

This article describes its origins and  potential…

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-embraces-twitters-radical-crowdsourcing-experiment/

“… If Musk sticks with the project, it has the potential to reach beyond fact-checking to change how social platforms can operate. For Musk, who has loaded Twitter with debt, there is much to love in Community Notes. It is scalable, powered by algorithms, and doesn’t require employing legions of content moderators. Most of all, it transfers responsibility for defining the truth away from Twitter itself and onto its users”.

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“Over the weekend, Phil Schiller, the former  Apple marketing executive who still oversees the App Store, apparently deleted his widely-followed Twitter account with hundreds of thousands of followers”.

“Tweets that function as official company communications are regularly posted under Apple CEO Tim Cook’s account. Apple has advertised new iPhones and its big launch events on Twitter. But the relationship appears poised to change as Musk moves to generate a larger bulk of income from subscriptions”.

Musk  does not want to pay the piper.   Apple and Google could remove the Twitter app from their stores if this tiff is not resolved in a more business like manner.

– reported by CNBC, Nov 23, 2022.

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Elon Musk launches new Twitter poll on whether to allow suspended users back after he reinstated Trump’s account based on another poll

Elon Musk brought Donald Trump (and Kenya West) back to Twitter this week following results from a user poll, and he might do the same with other suspended accounts.

In a tweet Wednesday afternoon, Musk floated the idea of allowing suspended users back onto the platform en masse.

“Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?” his new poll reads. As of this writing, more than 1.8 million users have voted, with 71.9% voting yes, and 28.1% voting no.”..

Here are the suspended Twitter accounts that have been reinstated since Elon Musk took over

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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1596268804413476864?s=20&t=4oDdzuI2CIdFHwhm4RAghQ

Liz Wheeler
@Liz_Wheeler

If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores,
@elonmusk
should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Replying to
@Liz_Wheeler

I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone

* Musk’s ego doesn’t have limit.

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Twitter will roll multicolored verification system

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Replying to
@Cryptoking
and
@RBReich
Sorry for the delay, we’re tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week.

Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates.

Painful, but necessary.

* How will musk provide for color blind people ?

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Alex5723 wrote:

* How will musk provide for color blind people ?

The most common type of color blindness is inability to distinguish between red & green (~5% of the population.)

The less common type of color blindness is inability to distinguish between blue & yellow (< 5% of the total color blind population.)

Complete color blindness (i.e. the inability to see any color) is extremely rare (< .001% of the total color blind population.)

Since the new verification check marks don’t include red or green, color blind individuals won’t have a problem telling which are gold, gray or blue as those will appear as completely different colors to them.

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Just another Forum Poster wrote:

blind individuals won’t have a problem telling which are gold, gray or blue as those will appear as completely different colors to them.

So how will color blind distinguish which is which ?

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Alex5723 wrote:

So how will color blind distinguish which is which ?

As you can see from the below color chart, those with the “common” red/green type color blindness (Protan/Deutran), will see blue, gold and gray the same as non color blind individuals.

For those with the “less common” blue/yellow type of color blindness (Tritan), blue appears greenish, gold appears pinkish and gray looks like gray.

So, anyone who suffers from either of those forms of color blindness should be able to easily tell the different between the 3 different colored check marks… as long as Elon doesn’t decide to add red and/or green check marks into the mix!

As for the extremely small percent of people who are truly color blind, blue, gold and gray will all appear as gray just like in old B&W movies but, each color would still be a “slightly” different shade of gray.

Since those individuals will have adapted to living with their inability to distinguish different colors, they’ll most likely still be able to tell the different between which is which.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

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Just a kind ask, I’m not sure all askwoodyforum members are as interested in Twitter.  I don’t think we need a report each day of what Elon is up to.  Perhaps you can just do a recap once a week or once a month?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Alex,  It’s been fun!   Thanks for all your research.  Mine has paled in comparison.

Bye.

 

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Perhaps you can just do a recap once a week or once a month?

🙂

1 user thanked author for this post.

SueW

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Twitter Blue back on Monday.
Twitter price $8/month. iOS price $11/month.

https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1601692766257709056

”
Twitter
@Twitter

Official
we’re relaunching
@TwitterBlue
on Monday – subscribe on web for $8/month or on iOS for $11/month to get access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark 🧵”

* What is Android price with Google Play 30% cut ?

1 user thanked author for this post.

bassmanzam

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copying my Gravatar /S 🙂

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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“Elon Musk got booed for almost 10 minutes straight at a Dave Chappelle show.

Your take away shouldn’t be the boos but Chappelle insulting the crowd and calling them poor for booing his friend.

Your favorite comedian is cool with white supremacy when it’s a friend of his.🤷🏿‍♂️”

https://twitter.com/ChocnessMonsta/status/1602249830495043584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1602249830495043584%7Ctwgr%5E2d0fdfd8d6eefba969f00fe288c1326fb4b6b84d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.calcalist.co.il%2Fcalcalistech%2Farticle%2Fbkbcqsn00j

Video and poster were removed from Twitter but the video is re-uploading.

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Twitter Considering Making Personalized Ads Location Sharing Contact List, Phone Numbers.. Mandatory

And it’s not just personalized ads that Twitter plans to require. The company is also considering forcing users to share their location, let Twitter share their data with its business partners, and use contact data phone numbers used in two-factor authentication for ad targeting purposes…

Personalized ads have become increasingly important to social networks since the launch last year of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature….Twitter’s solution: require users to opt in to personalized ads and share their location information, or risk losing access to the service. The company is developing plans to prompt existing users to opt in to personalized ads and will make it the default for new users, according to plans shared with Platformer…

This won’t pass Apple’s ATT even if Apple opens to 3rd party app stores or sideloading.

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Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.

The poll is set to close on 6:00 AM ET

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097

50+% voted ‘yes’

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17.5 million votes. 57.5% said ‘yes’, Musk should step down as head of Twitter.

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Wonder how many voters were blue-checkmark holders?
I’d guess his deal will alter on that basis…
(exclusion of unverified votes counted) $8 to vote please

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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nice prediction –
“Elon Musk: Only blue tick users to vote in Twitter polls on policy”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64034892

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https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1621026986784337922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

“Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead”

‘Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us.

We’ll be back with more details on what you can expect next week.”

1 user thanked author for this post.

Fred

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In Latest Round of Job Cuts, Twitter Is Said to Lay Off at Least 200 Employees

The social media platform now has a work force of less than 2,000, down from 7,500 when Elon Musk took it over in October.

..The layoffs came after a week when the company made it difficult for Twitter employees to communicate with each other. The company’s internal messaging service, Slack, was taken offline, preventing employees from chatting with each other or looking up company data, five current and former employees told The New York Times. On Saturday night, some employees discovered that they were logged out of their corporate email accounts and laptops, three of the people said — the first hint that layoffs had begun…

The cuts hit product managers, data scientists and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability, which helps keep Twitter’s various features online..

Among those affected by the layoffs were several founders of small tech companies that Twitter had acquired over the years, including Esther Crawford, who founded a screen-sharing and video chat app called Squad and recently oversaw Twitter’s effort to charge users for verification check marks, and Haraldur Thorleifsson, the creator of the design studio Ueno, which Twitter purchased in 2021…

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