10 Crucial Moves Since Buying Twitter that Made Elon Musk Infamous

Elon Musk never fails to be in the headlines for too long! This time it's him Buying Twitter

After Buying Twitter, Now Elon Musk's Twitter bio reads, "Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator," and after only seven days of his empire, it's complete chaos in the social networking app.

From revamping the app's verification program to firing top executives to spurring rumors about massive layoffs at the company, Musk has dominated the news cycle over the last week. He generated headlines multiple times a day, drawing widespread criticism, speculation, and lots of celebratory online hate speech from admiring fans. Here are the top 10 crucial moves by Elon Musk after he bought Twitter.

Let That Sink In!

On Thursday, October 27th, a grinning Elon Musk marched into Twitter headquarters holding a bathroom sink, mumbling to the camera "you can't help but let that sink in" and chuckling at his own bizarre pun.

Firing the CEO

Heads rolled in Musk's first orders of business, as he fired Twitter's CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, top policy executive Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett.

Verification for $20

Elon also announced that verification on Twitter would transition to a paid service that runs $20 per month. The billionaire reportedly told a team of engineers they had a week to roll out the feature or they would be fired.

Hate Speech on the Rise

Researchers at Montclair State University examined the status of hate speech on the platform and found an "immediate, visible, and measurable spike" in slurs and racial epithets in the hours following Musk's takeover. Many celebrated Musk's inauguration by just tweeting the N-word over and over.

Not $20, but How about $8?

 In reply to Stephen King's protest against the $20 verification price, Elon Musk mentioned that Twitter can't solely run on the advertisement and negotiated the verification price to be $8.

Not So Happy Advertisers

Advertisers seem increasingly skittish about working with Twitter amid concerns about brand safety on a platform that might soon be rife with distasteful content. HBO released a statement that it "will be assessing the platform under its new leadership," GM stopped advertising on Twitter altogether, and leading ad firm IPG urged its clients to consider pausing Twitter ads.

Bring Back Vine

Just in time for Halloween, Musk tweeted out a poll asking if he should bring Vine back from the dead. Vine was a short-form video app that Twitter purchased and shut down years ago. Since Vine's shuttering, another app you might have heard of which also centers around short videos got some attention, called TikTok.

Question Mark on Unbanning

Musk calls himself a "free speech absolutist. He famously said banning Donald Trump from Twitter wasn't just a mistake, it was also immoral. Musk promised on multiple occasions that he would welcome the former president back onto the platform. In fact, Musk said he's against the idea of permanent bans altogether, and he thinks basically any speech that isn't illegal should be allowed on Twitter. But now he is thinking about whether or not being the home of hate speech would be good for Twitter's bottom line, Musk doesn't seem so sure about all that unbanning anymore.

The 'Firing' Spree

 Reports suggest that Elon Musk has let about 3,700 Twitter employees go. The exact numbers aren't clear yet, but countless staffers found their login credentials revoked overnight.

Cut on Holiday

 Elon has cut down a holiday from Twitter's company calendar: the "Day of Rest." Twitter introduced the holiday in 2020 to combat burnout, a concern Musk doesn't share. Reports from within Twitter say he's been asking employees to work 85-hour weeks to ship new products as soon as possible, with at least one employee electing to roll out a sleeping bag on the office floor.