That was Elon Musk’s first week as Twitter boss – and tomorrow it will probably be even worse Musk: Blue Twitter tick only in the $8 subscription

To summarize the beginning of Elon Musk’s Twitter odyssey very briefly: On April 4, it was announced that Musk had acquired a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, making him the largest shareholder. Ten days later, he announced his intention to buy Twitter at a price of $54.20 per share. His stated goal: to use Twitter’s extraordinary potential to promote freedom of expression and democracy in the world.

There is a long back and forth: Musk does not want to buy Twitter after all, Twitter accuses Musk, Musk files a counterclaim, the court gives the fighters until October 28 to finalize the deal.

With that deadline approaching, Musk will make an appearance at Twitter HQ on October 26, heralding some very turbulent days for the Twitter community. An overview.

26th of October: A strange appearance

Tesla founder Elon Musk appears at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on October 26 with a sink in his hands. He comments on his appearance on Twitter with “Let that sink in”. A pun that unfortunately doesn’t work in German.

It is not clear whether the deal for the Twitter acquisition has been finalized. Musk, however, changes his Twitter profile description and now calls himself “Chief-Twit”.

October 27: Musk fires senior management

Even on the next day, October 27, the deal has not been officially announced. That doesn’t stop the Tesla founder from getting involved in the Twitter business, though.

In an open letter to Twitter advertisers, the Tesla boss reiterated his motives for the $44 billion deal and dismissed concerns that the platform could become a hotbed of hate speech.

He spits big tones:

The purchase was not made for financial reasons, but out of love for humanity, which he wanted to help.

On Friday evening, it was announced that Musk would have already started layoffs on the executive floor. As will be confirmed later, former CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal have to leave their places.

October 28: The deal is official

On October 28, the time has come: “The bird is free.” With these words, Musk announces the purchase of Twitter and the resolution of the associated legal dispute. Twitter notifies the US Securities and Exchange Commission of the withdrawal from the stock exchange, thereby confirming the completion of the acquisition.

The brand new Twitter owner immediately takes action with new measures. For example, he wants to set up a new committee to tackle controversial content. Before such a council meets, there will be no major decisions about content policy or account recovery, Musk said on Twitter.

Speaking of moderation, Musk’s takeover of Twitter also fueled speculation about a Donald Trump comeback. Musk described the former US president’s ban as “morally wrong and just plain stupid”.

But the former US president is not in the mood, he tells Fox News. He doesn’t want to go back to Twitter, even though it should be possible with Elon Musk as the new owner. Instead, he sticks to his own service, Truth Social. “I like it better here,” Trump said. “I like Elon, but I’m sticking to the truth.”

He wishes Musk the best of luck, but intervenes: “I don’t think Twitter can be successful without me.”

29 October: The Troll’s Attack

With the Twitter takeover, countless trolls have crawled out of their holes to test the limits of Musk’s proclaimed “free speech.” For this, they publish so-called test tweets, which mainly consist of insults and claims about Musk. For example:

Not only that, the Washington Post reports that use of the N-word on Twitter increased by 500 percent within 12 hours of the acquisition’s completion.

Musk then released a tweet highlighting that no changes had been made to content moderation yet.

30 October: The Pelosi Conspiracy Theory

On October 30, Musk’s own tweets are again causing a stir. This time, however, not in connection with his new position as Twitter owner. Instead, he provokes by spreading a conspiracy theory to attack the husband of top American politician Nancy Pelosi. “There’s a slim chance there’s more to this story,” the billionaire wrote of the forwarded link. A few hours later, he deleted the tweet.

October 31st: The board of directors needs to pack

After Musk had already kicked the top management out, it was announced on October 31 that the board of directors also had to believe in it. All nine board members have resigned, Twitter announced. Musk has called himself the only new member to date.

November 1st: Twitter verification costs in the future

On November 1, Musk announced a highly unpopular change: the coveted white checkmark on a blue verification badge costs eight dollars a month in the United States.

Until now, Twitter had given away the check marks, which guarantee the authenticity of the Twitter profile, for free. Especially the accounts of celebrities, companies and users with a lot of followers, such as politicians or journalists, were marked with it.

In the past, however, there were always controversial discussions about verification, because the award criteria were not transparent enough for many users. Musk is also not a fan of this system, as he openly declares on Twitter:

Musk wants to integrate the verification hook and other benefits into the existing “Twitter Blue” subscription, which so far includes bookmarks, a special reading mode and the ability to correct a tweet already sent. So far, though, it’s only available in Canada and the US and costs just under five dollars. Prices of up to $20 per month have been discussed for the extended subscription.

November 2nd: Musk stays strong

Criticism trickles down for the ticks who will soon be subject to a fee. But Musk is not impressed:

Critics were not only bothered by the price of the verification. They fear, among other things, that the actual purpose of the verification check mark may be compromised. This was previously there to guarantee the authenticity of an account.

Nov 3: Half of all employees should go

Apparently the matter was not over with the dismissal of the board of directors and the board of directors. According to Bloomberg, Musk is planning to cut about 3,700 jobs. He wants to try to keep the costs of the acquisition low. Because even though Elon Musk is one of the richest people in the world, he couldn’t handle the $44 billion Twitter purchase himself. In addition to his own fortune, he had to take out bank loans and get other investors on board for the purchase.

Laying off 3,700 employees equates to half of all Twitter employees. The affected employees will be informed on Friday.

Musk meanwhile feels the Twitter users with a small voice on the tooth. He wants to know what advertisers should support: freedom of speech or political correctness.

It remains to be seen whether he will really listen to the opinions of the users.

(with material from the news agencies sda, dpa and awp)