Elon Musk has wasted no time making sweeping changes after finally purchasing Twitter on Friday. The self-proclaimed “Chief Twit” has fired the company’s top management and has plans to retrench more employees and charge verified users money to keep their blue ticks. But for most users, the most visible revamp can be found on the homepage itself.
According to The Verge, those who have not logged in now see the Explore feed showing trending tweets and hashtags—a change that was made less than 24 hours after the USD44 billion deal was finalised. Previously, the Twitter homepage only showed the login screen, encouraging users to make an account to view tweets.
An anonymous source said the directive came from Musk himself and required vice president involvement to override a code freeze preventing employees from making changes during the takeover.
While the world’s richest person did not give a reason for the move, the article stated that staffers saw it as a clear statement of intent—that nothing is sacred. Previously, such a big change would’ve been fought over internally for weeks, The Verge wrote. A former executive said: “That’s definitely one way to make it clear you’re in charge now.”
Other fast-tracked tweaks include changing the name of the Super Follows subscription service to “Subscriptions”, which was included in a rushed update to the mobile app. He has also reportedly discussed using his satellite-based Internet service Starlink to bring Twitter to areas where it is hard to access, presumably for political reasons.
The news comes as employees are braced for widespread layoffs, with many fearing they’ll be retrenched before they’re set receive stock grants tomorrow, November 1—although Musk has shot down those rumours.
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