Musk Cuts Hundreds of Contract Employees, Hints at Extra Verification Parts

Severely, each day Elon is throwing out new concepts for what’s coming subsequent at Twitter, a few of which in all probability will eventuate, and others that’ll get misplaced within the shuffle. And there’s definitely numerous shuffling happening at Twitter HQ.

Right here’s the Elon Musk/Twitter replace for right this moment:

Extra Job Cuts

Over the weekend, Musk’s transition group reportedly minimize 4,400 of the corporate’s 5,500 contract employees.

Twitter customers native contractors for numerous duties, together with content material moderation and website administration, however these aren’t workers, as such, so that they weren’t included within the unique employees cull, which noticed Musk minimize half of Twitter’s workers final week (earlier than asking a few of them to return again).

Based on reviews, many of those contractors weren’t instructed that their contracts could be canceled, they came upon after discovering that their entry to Twitter’s techniques had been shut off.

The impacts that these newest cuts could have isn’t clear, but it surely appears as if Twitter’s moderation, and even day-to-day maintenance, may begin to deteriorate in consequence.

Musk has been up-front about the necessity to minimize prices, with Twitter, apparently, shedding $4 million a day when he initially took over on the app. Job cuts will definitely tackle this, at the least partially, however you would need to additionally anticipate that shedding so many employees and contractors (now as much as round 8k roles in complete) should have some influence on the service.

If issues begin falling aside within the subsequent few weeks, this could possibly be why.

On the similar time, Musk is now additionally partaking in public back-and-forth with former Twitter employees, who’ve questioned his claims about mismanagement on the firm.

In abstract, employees relations at Twitter are seemingly not going nice in the intervening time.

Delayed Verification

As has been properly documented, Elon’s $8 checkmark program has, this far, been fairly messy, resulting in a spread of impersonations, misrepresentations, and doubtlessly defamation, amid confusion over the brand new blue ticks, and what they really imply.

The following chaos has even resulting in main inventory impacts for some big-name corporations.

In consequence, Twitter’s now taken a step again, with the brand new program faraway from reside deployment late final week. Musk has admitted that it ‘wants some tweaks’, however he does anticipate the $8 checkmarks to be made obtainable once more by the tip of this week.

Although doubtless with one important replace:

So the brand new course of, which is seemingly designed to deal with the aforementioned points with impersonation, will allow Twitter to supply an official linkage between, say, a media group and their precise employees within the app, with possibly a brand new variation of the ‘official’ grey tick, that can be displayed along with the blue checkmark.

How precisely that can work isn’t clear, however the thought is that it will present extra granularity to verification – so the blue checkmark will not be considered as a sign of authority, as such, however as a marker of verified id in affiliation with a model.

In different phrases, imposters received’t so simply be capable of dupe folks with parody accounts, as a result of they received’t have this additional seal of approval – no matter it could be – which might verify that it is a consultant of mentioned group.

Which makes some sense, however in all probability simply sticking with the unique blue tick system, and reviewing the rules for that, would have been simpler.

However then, I assume, you wouldn’t be capable of cost $8 to usher in some fast money – and for context, 140,000 folks reportedly signed as much as the brand new $8 checkmark program within the days that it was obtainable final week.

We’ll little question hear extra in regards to the subsequent iteration of Twitter verification quickly.

Twitter x LinkedIn

It is a extra left-field possibility, however Elon Musk additionally says that individuals will quickly be capable of checklist their employment and training historical past on Twitter, increasing Twitter search into an entire new factor.

Musk famous this in response to a consumer query about employment historical past and resumes, which Musk mentioned could be ‘coming quickly’ to the app.

That would add extra credibility, or not, to what a consumer is saying. For instance, if any person’s commenting on local weather change, and also you examine their Twitter resume and discover that they haven’t any historical past of local weather analysis expertise, possibly that lessens the worth of their enter.

Or possibly they only make it up. I don’t know, but it surely seems to be like Musk is attempting to department out into new areas, which can be aligned along with his broader view of id verification. Or it could possibly be one other alternative to earn cash through job listings within the app.

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These are the massive notes from Musk’s numerous feedback and updates over the weekend, other than his ongoing provocation of battle between ‘the folks’ and the ‘media elite’.

I’m not precisely certain the place this stems from, because the destructive protection round Musk’s Twitter takeover to this point has associated to employees cuts, and the best way through which they had been dealt with, verification adjustments, and the rushed nature of the brand new $8 checkmark program, and issues on the app, which Musk himself mentioned simply final week may go bankrupt at some stage.

It looks as if these points have all been reported fairly precisely, even when they’re not flattering to Musk. However possibly I’m lacking one thing – or possibly, Musk simply advantages from inciting class warfare that pits his supporters towards his perceived enemies.