Elon Musk fired Twitter’s board and named himself the sole member — testing the waters by asking users if they would pay for verification on the social media platform.
Former board chairman Brett Taylor and former CEO Parag Agrawal were among the nine directors ousted, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition After months of legal wrangling, the social media platform’s remarks came in last week.
This World ‘s richest man In his first week as the company’s new CEO, he’s considering big changes.
He’s considering the idea of having users pay for verification — known as a “blue tick” — awarded to celebrities, politicians, business leaders and journalists.
Jason Calacanis, a venture capitalist working with Musk, tweeted a poll asking how much users would be willing to pay for the blue tick that Twitter uses to verify high-profile accounts in order to Others know it’s really them.
“Interesting”, Mr. Musk said in response to the poll.
“The whole verification process is now improving,” Musk tweeted on Sunday in response to users seeking help with verification.
On the same day Musk bought Twitter, Saudi Arabia’s billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced he would hold $1.9bn (£1.7bn) in stock, making him the successor to Musk. The company’s largest shareholder.
The move has raised concerns among some politicians, including U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
Musk’s first hour as Twitter boss
“National Security Issues”
Mr Murphy has since asked CFIUS to investigate the national security implications of the Saudi investment in Twitter.
“We should be concerned that Saudis with a clear interest in suppressing political speech and influencing US politics are now the second largest owners of major social media platforms,” Mr Murphy tweeted.
“There is a clear national security concern that should be reviewed by CFIUS.”
Another big investment came from cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which has committed $500 million (£436 million) to the acquisition.
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Its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, told CNBC that Mr. Musk would turn Twitter into a company that supports cryptocurrencies and a concept known as Web3, which many cryptocurrency enthusiasts see as the next generation of the internet.
“We want to make sure that encryption has a place in free speech,” he said.
“There’s more tactical stuff like we want to help bring Twitter to Web3 when they’re ready.”
After taking ownership of Twitter, Musk invited a group of tech friends and investors to help guide the San Francisco-based company’s transformation, which could include a restructuring of its employees.
Musk fired Agrawal and other executives shortly after closing the $44bn (£38.3bn) deal on Thursday.It is uncertain if and when he can start Mass layoffs.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss has made numerous statements about how to fix Twitter since the start of the year, and it’s unclear which proposals he will prioritize.
He has pledged to cut some of the platform’s content restrictions to promote free speech, but announced on Friday that no major decisions would be made on content or reinstating banned accounts until a “content moderation committee” with disparate views was formed.
He later qualified the statement, tweeting that “anyone suspended for minor and suspicious reasons will be released from Twitter jail.”
Mr Calacanis said the Twitter team had “developed a very comprehensive plan to reduce the number (and visibility) of bots, spammers and bad actors on the platform”.
He also asked users in a Twitter poll if they would pay $5 to $15 a month to “be verified and get a blue checkmark” on Twitter.
Twitter is free for most users because its revenue depends on advertising.