Another day, another roundup of the Twitter latest developments. These begin with employees worried that Elon Musk would fire them before their stock vested, thus depriving them of the bonuses they were due …
Employee stock payments
CNBC reports that Musk has been repeatedly sued for doing this at Tesla, and Twitter staff were worried that he’d do the same to them.
After Elon Musk closed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter last week, employees at the company braced for job cuts. Some told CNBC they were worried about losing their equity compensation if Musk sent them packing before their shares vested the first week of November.
Musk and Tesla have been sued repeatedly over employees’ claims that they were fired just before their shares vested, depriving them of compensation.
The worry was particularly acute in light of Musk’s repeated comments that Twitter is over-staffed, and reports that he plans to layoff around half of the workforce. The billionaire is said to have already tried to avoid paying millions of dollars in severance payments to fired senior execs, by claiming that they were fired “for cause.”
ProPublica’s Eric Umansky tweeted over the weekend that this was Musk’s plan, and the Twitter owner replied with a three-word denial:
This has been backed by managers telling employees that they will be paid for the value of their stock, starting later this week.
It’s worth noting that Silicon Valley compensation packages frequently offer a relatively low base salary for the expertise and experience provided, with stock grants making up the difference – so these shouldn’t be viewed as pure bonuses, but rather as part of a negotiated package.
Trump won’t be back during the midterms
Twitter last year permanently banned Donald Trump for inciting violence in respect of tweets leading up to the Capitol attack. The company originally suspended Trump’s account, then made it a permanent ban due to a high risk that the behavior would be repeated.
Given Musk’s description of himself as a “free speech absolutist,” it had been widely speculated that this might mean that Trump’s account would be immediately reinstated, giving him access to a large audience for his comments on the midterm elections.
However, Musk has now said that it will take some weeks to assemble a new council to review bans and create a new content policy, meaning that the midterm elections would be over before any potential return of the former president to the platform.
Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
Edit button will reportedly be free for everyone
Twitter resisted introducing an edit button for many years, before finally doing so last month. However, the new feature is currently limited to Twitter Blue subscribers.
Casey Newton cited “internal discussions” that said Musk planned to make the edit feature available to everyone for free.
Weirdly, however, the same documents reportedly show the revamped Twitter Blue subscription available as an annual plan, at $99/year. Given that Musk has said the monthly fee will be $8 (amounting to $96/year), something doesn’t add up. This suggests that the documents in question are outdated.
Paywalled Video plan
There have been reports that Musk wanted to relaunch Twitter’s former video sharing feature, Vine. The Washington Post says that the current plan is for a feature known as Paywalled Videos.
Twitter is working on a feature that would let people post videos and charge users to view them, with the company taking a cut of the proceeds, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post. The company appears to be aiming to rush out the feature, referred to as Paywalled Video, with a target of one to two weeks before launch.
The email says some of those tasked with creating the product are concerned about the legal risks, such as copyright infringement and deep fakes, which they describe as “high.”
That’s the Twitter latest … for today
All in, then, Musk appears to be making things up as he goes, throwing ideas out there (like a $20/month Twitter Blue subscription), then changing his mind when Twitter users reject things.
We can expect the rollercoaster ride to continue for some time yet.
Photo: Xavi Cabrera/Unsplash
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