Twitter

Twitter said to delay verification check mark rollout until after US midterm elections • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 6, 2022Posted in election security, Elon Musk, Social, Startups, Twitter, twitter blue, verificationNo Comments

Twitter is reportedly delaying the rollout of verification check marks to subscribers as the social network attempts to steer clear of possible impact to Tuesday’s midterm elections. The Elon Musk-owned social media company had planned to rollout the revamped version of its subscription service, Twitter Blue, on Monday. The firm started testing the new features on Saturday, according to an app update note. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The reported move to delay the rollout of verification badges comes just days before the U.S. midterm elections, with polls closing on November 8. The New York Times reports that the move was aimed at limiting the potential fallout of verified users impersonating political or government figures, such as President Biden, or news outlets claiming false results that may discourage others from voting. Jen Easterly, the director of CISA, the U.S. government agency tasked with overseeing election security and protecting voting infrastructure, said last week that the agency it found “no information credible or specific about efforts to disrupt or compromise,” but warned of the ongoing risks that disinformation campaigns sown by foreign actors aimed at undermining confidence in the elections system. Security experts like Chris Krebs, the former CISA director who was fired by President Trump for refuting false claims of election fraud, warned that Twitter’s new verification rules would be a “major risk” ahead of the midterm elections. At the time of writing, several verified users were impersonating Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, despite the risk of having their accounts suspended for impersonation. The revamped Twitter Blue, which will cost $7.99 a month in the U.S., includes a range of new features including the coveted blue check mark to anyone who subscribes as well as cuts down the number of ads served to them on the platform. Musk is betting on turning the subscription service into a major revenue source for Twitter, which he acquired last month for $44 billion. Musk financed $13 billion for the purchase from banks and needs to pay more than $1 billion a year in interest payments. The company began cutting costs earlier this week, laying off roughly half its workforce, or about 3,700 jobs. In a series of tweets earlier this weekend, Musk claimed the company’s revamped Twitter Blue “can beat” the ad-revenue YouTube offers to creators, and that he was also working on fixing the search functionality on Twitter. Twitter will soon allow users to attach long-form texts to tweets, he said. Twitter plans to roll out the revamped Twitter Blue to subscribers in many markets in the coming months. In response to a tweet, Musk said he is hopeful that Twitter Blue will roll out to users in India “in less than a month.”

Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue subscription with verification may launch in India in ‘less than a month’ • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 6, 2022Posted in Apps, Asia, Elon Musk, india, Social, Twitter, twitter blueNo Comments

Twitter may extend its subscription service to India in “less than a month,” its owner and chief executive Elon Musk said, offering a glimpse at just how aggressively he plans to roll out Twitter Blue to the larger world. Twitter launched Twitter Blue in four markets — US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — last year. The Elon Musk-owned firm plans to launch a revamped version of the subscription service in those four markets on Monday. Musk has ramped up Twitter Blue’s offerings, promising a verified checkmark to anyone who subscribes, among other features, including long form video content and having to sift through fewer ads. Those who already have the verified checkmark will need to subscribe to Twitter Blue over the coming months to retain it, Musk said in another tweet. He has previously said that Twitter Blue, which is priced at $7.99 a month in the U.S., will be more affordable in some countries to account for local purchase parity. “Power to the people,” Twitter’s iOS app update note said in anticipation of Monday rollout. “Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.” Musk is betting on turning the subscription service into a major revenue driver for Twitter, which he acquired last month for $44 billion — $13 billion of which he lent from banks. Musk needs to pay more than $1 billion a year in interest payments. The company this week laid off roughly half the company’s workforce, or about 3,700 jobs. In a series of tweets over the weekend, Musk offered a few more updates on Twitter Blue. He claimed the company “can beat” YouTube’s ad-revenue split to creators, and that fixing the search functionality on Twitter “is a high priority” for the firm. Twitter will soon allow users to attach long-form texts to tweets, he said. Many users who have wished to post longer texts have over the years posted screenshots of texts written on a note app. Musk said the new revamp will end such “absurdity.”

Elon guts Twitter, Google shutters Hangouts, and the tech layoffs continue • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in Layoffs, Media & Entertainment, Startups, Twitter, Week in ReviewNo Comments

Hey, all — welcome back to Week in Review, the newsletter where we sum up the most read ZebethMedia stories from the past week. And oof, what a week it was. Want this newsletter in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Signed up? Let’s just dive right in. most read Mass layoffs at Twitter: It was Elon’s first full week as the boss of Twitter post-$44 billion acquisition. Sweeping layoffs were said to be on the way — and, well, they’ve begun. After a painfully impersonal heads-up email went out Thursday evening, entire teams are waking up to find their access suddenly revoked. With reports suggesting layoffs could impact up to half the company, Twitter employees have reportedly taken to referring to the whole thing as “the snap” (à la Thanos). A class action lawsuit has already been filed alleging that Twitter isn’t following the proper legal processes here. Layoffs everywhere: Meanwhile, news of tech industry layoffs continues to pour in. Lyft let go of 13% of its workforce, Stripe cut 14%, Opendoor reduced its workforce by 18%, Chime parted ways with 12%, and more. Meanwhile, both Apple and Amazon have reportedly gone into hiring freezes. Google kills Hangouts: We knew it was coming, but this week Google put the final nail in Hangouts’ coffin, shutting down the chat-focused web app (the Hangouts Android/iOS apps were shuttered last year) in favor of Google Chat. Of course, given Google’s history with chat apps, I expect at least two more to be launched and/or shuttered by the time I finish this newsletter. Falcon Heavy returns to space: This week SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time since 2019, finally moving forward on a mission that had been delayed (“due to payload readiness issues”) since late 2020. Amazon expands its Music service: “The company said it will now offer Prime subscribers a full music catalog with 100 million songs, instead of the previously more limited selection of just 2 million songs,” writes Sarah, “and will make most of the top podcasts on its service available without ads.” audio roundup Whats up in TC podcast land this week? Here’s some of the highlights: The Equity crew chatted about the ever-evolving role of the venture capitalist, and our friend Melia Russell from Business Insider stopped by to fill us in on her recent story about how “investors are rewriting the playbooks when it comes to maternity leave policies at their firms.” Amanda joined Darrell on the TC Podcast to discuss Elon’s “questionable plans” to change up how identity verification works on Twitter The Chain Reaction team dive into the growing list of troubles that have developed for Bitcoin miners in the last few months. techcrunch+ Not a part of ZebethMedia+ yet? Here’s what TC+ members were reading most behind the paywall: Pilot’s CEO tears down their $60 million Series C deck: Published in early 2021, this one blew up for some reason this week! Just a few weeks after raising a big Series C, Pilot CEO Waseem Daher sat down with Lucas Matney to break down what worked about their pitch deck. The most common pitch deck mistakes: Speaking of pitch decks, TC’s resident pitch expert, Haje Jan Kamps, has a list of the mistakes he’s tired of seeing in decks, having reviewed thousands of them.

Twitter begins rolling out $7.99 Twitter Blue plan with verification, fewer ads • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in Apps, Elon Musk, Media & Entertainment, Social, social media, Twitter, twitter blueNo Comments

Just days after newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk floated changes to Twitter’s system for verifying user accounts, including charging $8 per month for the privilege, Twitter appears to have begun rolling out a new tier of Twitter Blue, its premium subscription service, that reflects some of the changes that Musk has proposed. According to an in-app iOS notification viewed by ZebethMedia, the upgraded Twitter Blue, starting at $7.99 per month, will add the blue verification checkmark previously reserved for accounts that applied through Twitter’s free verification process. Other benefits include “half the ads” seen by non-paying Twitter users as well as ostensibly “twice as relevant” ads, and the ability to post longer videos to Twitter (although it’s not clear just how long; the notification doesn’t specify). Image Credits: ZebethMedia The new, pricier Twitter Blue will also offer priority ranking for “quality content,” promising to boost subscribers’ visibility in replies, mentions and search. Twitter’s making the claim that this will help “lower the visibility of scams, spam and bots,” but time will time will tell whether that’s truly the case. Image Credits: ZebethMedia Musk earlier claimed that Twitter, which recently ended support for ad-free articles offered under Blue, would create a new program for bypassing paywalls for publishers willing to work with the company. But if he intends to follow through with the proposal, the program doesn’t appear to have made it into the new Blue — at least not at launch. Available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. on iOS to start, the new Twitter Blue arrives after mass layoffs at Twitter affecting roughly half of the company’s staff, including employees on key human rights, accessibility, AI ethics and curation teams. Musk has claimed that the cuts — along with the introduction of new paid features — are necessary to bring Twitter to profitability, as the company faces an estimated $1 billion a year in interest payments on $13 billion in debt. It’s likely to be an uphill battle. Data from analytics firm Sensor Tower suggests that Twitter’s app has generated only $6.4 million in in-app purchases to date, with Blue being the top purchase. Musk’s management of Twitter doesn’t appear to have instilled much confidence in major advertisers, however, many of whom have paused campaigns on the platform. In a tweet on Friday, Musk blamed a “massive drop” in Twitter revenue on “activist groups pressuring advertisers,” likely referring to an open letter sent Tuesday by civil society organizations urging Twitter advertisers to suspend their ads if Musk didn’t commit to enforcing safety standards and community guidelines.

Jack Dorsey breaks his silence, owns “responsibility for why everyone is in this situation” at Twitter • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 5, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, jack dorsey, Layoffs, Media & Entertainment, Startups, TwitterNo Comments

Jack Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter CEO less than one year ago, finally addressed the layoffs that impacted approximately 50% of the company he co-founded in 2006. The workforce reduction, led by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk, impacted thousands of people – and key teams working on human rights, accessibility, AI ethics and curation. “Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient,” Dorsey said on Twitter on Saturday morning. “They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.” Dorsey, who also stepped down from Twitter’s board five months ago, added that he’s “grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked at Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment…or ever…and I understand.” Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that. — jack (@jack) November 5, 2022 This is Dorsey’s first public comment since Musk took over the platform last week. In the past, Dorsey said that Musk is the “singular solution I trust.” Leaked documents from the Elon Musk v. Twitter trial give some insight into how Dorsey was thinking about the future of the social media company. Dorsey texted Musk that he left because Twitter needed to become a new platform – one that isn’t a company. “I believe it must be an open source protocol, funded by a foundation of sorts that doesn’t own the protocol, only advances it. A bit like what Signal has done. It can’t have an advertising model,” Dorsey texted Musk. Yesterday, impacted Twitter employees used the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked, a riff on the internal hashtag #LoveWhereYouWork, to thank each other, say goodbye and share personal news. As one former employee put it, the new hashtag is a “bittersweet phrase — not because I’m gone, but because it’s gone.” Despite Dorsey’s departure from his official roles at Twitter, his silence was noticed. Musk, meanwhile, addressed the layoffs on Friday evening. “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over [$4 million a day],” Musk tweeted. “Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.” Current and former Twitter employees can reach out to Natasha Mascarenhas at @nmasc_ or Signal, a secure messaging app, at (925) 271 0912.

Elon Musk just axed key Twitter teams like human rights, accessibility, AI ethics and curation • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Social, TwitterNo Comments

Elon Musk is wasting no time making extremely deep cuts at Twitter, calving off many teams doing essential work at the company in the process. News of layoffs swept the platform on Friday, showing that Twitter’s billionaire owner is painting in broad strokes when it comes to trimming down the team by half. The same day that Musk complained about supposed activists impacting Twitter’s ad revenue, he cut some departments outright — actions that are sure to make advertisers all the more skittish about Musk’s ability to steer a ship with a skeleton crew. As he’s only owned the company for a single week, it’s impossible to imagine that such sweeping layoffs won’t lead to dysfunction at Twitter, from the content moderation policies sure to prove crucial for Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections to product teams keeping the platform humming. Here are some of the teams either eliminated outright or hit hard by the layoffs and what the new incarnation of Twitter will be losing in the process. Human Rights Former Twitter Former Human Rights Counsel Shannon Raj Singh shared news that the company’s human rights team was eliminated Friday. The team worked to protect users facing human rights violations around the globe, including activists, journalists and people affected by conflicts like the war in Ukraine. Yesterday was my last day at Twitter: the entire Human Rights team has been cut from the company. I am enormously proud of the work we did to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, to protect those at-risk in global conflicts & crises including Ethiopia, — Shannon Raj Singh (@ShannonRSingh) November 4, 2022 Accessibility Experience Twitter now former head of accessibility confirmed that the company cut the accessibility experience team, which improved the product for people with disabilities. The team appears to have had a lot still in the works before it was disbanded. So, the Accessibility Experience Team at Twitter is no longer. We had so much more to do, but we worked hard! There aren’t very many people that have had the opportunity to make such an important global platform like Twitter accessible, but we understood the mission. — Gerard K. Cohen (@gerardkcohen) November 4, 2022 November #TwitterA11yStatusLaunched:– Image description reminderIn progress:– ALT badge copy/paste for mobile– Improved image description educationNext:– Setting to disable keyboard shortcuts on WebExploring:– Closed captions toggle– Anniversary images missing alt text — Twitter Accessibility (@TwitterA11y) November 1, 2022 Communications It’s not yet clear what parts of Twitter’s communications team have been cut outright, but the cuts are deep enough that many prominent comms employees at the company, including many contacts that ZebethMedia has spoken with over the years, were affected. Musk signaled his distaste for internal communications immediately after taking over the company, conveying little information to Twitter employees about the changes, so it’s no surprise that the internal communications team is affected as well, including the head of internal comms. Twitter is so special. After 4 yrs, I’m leaving with the fullest 💙, experiences I never imagined, and unbreakable bonds with so many Tweeps. My head is held high, knowing I gave it my absolute all. @TwitterComms: We have so much to be proud of. Time to fly even higher! #OneTeam pic.twitter.com/5tVUP575A6 — Julie Steele (@juliezsteele) November 4, 2022 Many don’t know all the details that went into internal comms this year, but I do. I also know that the people at Twitter embody #OneTeam . No one goes harder than @TwitterComms. Ultimately, I get to leave with the best people alongside me. Cheers — Colette Zakarian (@colzakarian) November 4, 2022 Machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability Musk dissolved a team known internally as META, which was well-respected for its exploratory work in ethical AI and algorithmic transparency. Rumman Chowdhury, the team’s director, was eliminated, along with the team’s engineers and other members. 🫡 Yep, the team is gone. The team that was researching and pushing for algorithmic transparency and algorithmic choice. The team that was studying algorithmic amplification. The team that was inventing and building ethical AI tooling and methodologies. All that is gone. — Joan Deitchman (@JoanDeitchman) November 4, 2022 Curation Some of the layoffs make sense given the things Musk apparently has little regard for (human rights and accessibility, alarming!), but Twitter’s new owner apparently also made cuts to teams that seemed poised to help him extract more value from the company. The curation team curated the moments tab, programmed the trending topics section, provided context on those topics and also handled live events — many of the things Twitter does best. So Twitter’s Curation team is no more. This site 👇 was recently launched to tell the world about our work. Give it a look for two reasons: 1) to see how it will impact your experience 2) if you want to hire the people behind it, get in touch via DM — Andrew Haigh (@AndrewHaigh) November 4, 2022 Looks like Elon Musk fired the entire curation team. These were the folks who tackled misinfo, contextualized conversations via the ‘Explore’ page, and helped make Twitter an unmatched source for breaking news. This will make Twitter noisier, more dangerous & less interesting — Richie Assaly (@rdassaly) November 4, 2022 Public policy Politico reports that half of the company’s public policy team was let go, including Michele Austin, the former director of public policy and elections in Canada and the U.S. who was actively working on the U.S. midterms. Those cuts reportedly also included Twitter team members who work to verify the accounts of political figures. I helped lead the 2022 US midterms on platform. Same with #Elxn44 in Canada. I was responsible for social impact work in both countries. Twitter gave me amazing opportunities. — Michele Austin (@_MicheleAustin) November 4, 2022 This story is developing…

Musk blames ‘activist groups’ for major advertisers pausing spending on Twitter • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in advertising, content moderation, Government & Policy, report, Social, social media, TwitterNo Comments

As mass layoffs begin at Twitter, major advertisers are pausing their campaigns on the social network — a move that’s gotten the attention of newly-minted CEO Elon Musk. In a tweet this morning, Musk blamed a “massive drop” in Twitter revenue on “activist groups pressuring advertisers,” likely referring to an open letter sent Tuesday by civil society organizations urging Twitter advertisers to suspend their ads if Musk didn’t commit to enforcing safety standards and community guidelines. Musk bemoaned the activist efforts, claiming that “nothing has changed with content moderation” on Twitter. But recent developments tell a different story. Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022 Sarah Personette, Twitter’s chief customer officer, who managed the company’s relationships with advertisers, resigned from the company late last Friday. According to Bloomberg, Twitter shut off employee access to certain content moderation and policy enforcement tools, prompting workers to cite concerns about misinformation ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. (Musk later agreed to restore access to the tools.) And as a part of the layoffs today, Twitter eliminated its curation team, which was responsible for providing factual context — and corrections, if necessary — to trending terms and conversations on the platform. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that General Mills, Audi and Pfizer have joined the growing list of companies temporarily pausing their Twitter ads. (Automaker GM last week became the first major brand to announce a pause.) Oreo maker Mondelez and Volkswagen are also reevaluating their ad spend with the network, reportedly spooked by the departure of top executives over the past week including chief marketing officer Leslie Berland and VP of global client solutions Jean-Philippe Maheu. Mondelez, whose brands also include Ritz, Chips Ahoy!, Trident and Tate’s Bake Shop, is among the top largest 20 advertisers on Twitter in terms of ad spend. Given that ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter’s revenue in Q2 2022, its pullback alone is likely to have a substantial impact on the platform’s bottom line. On Tuesday, a New York Times report revealed that that IPG — one of the world’s largest advertising companies, with customers such as Coca-Cola, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel and Spotify — issued a recommendation for clients to temporarily pause their spending on Twitter because of moderation concerns. According to the piece, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a coalition of platforms, advertisers and industry groups fighting harmful content on social media, also said it was monitoring how Twitter planned to uphold previous commitments to deal with content moderation. Musk has made increasing efforts to reassure advertisers that Twitter remains “brand safe,” publishing an open letter to advertisers saying that Twitter wouldn’t become a “free-for-all hellscape” and announcing plans to form a council to advise on content moderation. In recent days, Musk has also participated in video calls with ad companies including WPP PLC, according to the Wall Street Journal, during which he’s promised to rid Twitter of bots, add community management tools and introduce new ways to give advertisers the ability to choose which content to be near. Musk has little choice but to make good with Twitter’s sponsors. His deal to buy the company included making Twitter take on $13 billion in debt from banks, which means the social network will owe about $1 billion a year in interest payments.

Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper legal notice • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in Apps, elon buys twitter, Elon Musk, Government & Policy, Layoffs, Social, TwitterNo Comments

Twitter is being sued for not giving employees advanced written notice of a mass layoff, in violation of worker protection laws including the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act as well as the California WARN Act, both of which require 60 days of advance notice. Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the company began mass layoffs early on Friday in an effort to reduce costs by eliminating 3,700 jobs, or 50% of its total workforce. Bloomberg first reported the news of the lawsuit, filed on November 3, 2022 in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. The complaint notes that Twitter began its layoffs on November 1, when it terminated the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Emmanuel Cornet, without providing the proper written notice in violation of U.S. and California law. Additional plaintiffs, Justine De Caires, Jessica Pan, and Grae Kindel said they were terminated on November 3 by being locked out of their accounts. Twitter is also enacting widespread layoffs across its workforce today, on Nov. 4, 2022, it stated, adding that California’s Employment Development Department had not received a notice related to the event. The suit reminds the court that Musk had previously laid off employees without notice at another company he owns, Tesla. A federal judge later ruled that Tesla must inform workers of the proposed class action lawsuit, as the termination agreements they had signed may have been misleading and caused them to waive their rights under federal law, Reuters reported at the time. Musk had dismissed that lawsuit as “trivial,” when commenting on the lawsuit at the Qatar Economic Forum organized by Bloomberg. In the new complaint against Twitter, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that Twitter has violated the federal and California WARN Acts and certify the case as a class action suit. It’s also asking the court to stop Twitter from having the laid-off employees sign documents that would release their claims without informing them of this lawsuit. And it’s seeking a range of relief, including compensatory damages (including wages owed), as well as declaratory relief, pre- and post-judgment interest, plus other attorneys’ fees and costs. Under Twitter’s takeover deal terms, Musk had agreed to keep employee compensation and benefits the same. That means the laid-off employees should receive 60 days of salary and the cash value of the stock they were to receive within three months of their last date at the company, per law. “Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has made clear that he believes complying with federal labor laws is ‘trivial’ We have filed this federal complaint to ensure that Twitter should be held accountable to our laws and to prevent Twitter employees from unknowingly signing away their rights.” Shannon Liss-Riordan, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit told CNN in a statement. Twitter hasn’t responded to requests for comment — but that could also be because its comms staff has been included in the layoffs. The company has gone about its mass layoffs in a chaotic and fairly cold fashion. Instead of being informed personally, Twitter employees were to receive an email with an update about their employment status by Friday 9 AM PT. If they still had a job, the email would come to their work inbox. If not, they’d receive a personal email as access to internal systems was cut off. A number of Twitter employees around the world have already posted tweets indicating that they have been laid off and are sharing sympathies with their fellow “tweeps.” Twitter also closed its offices temporarily as the layoffs were underway by disabling badge access. The transition has been one of confusion for Twitter staff. It’s been reported that Twitter’s new owner hadn’t officially communicated with employees following the deal’s closure on Oct. 27, leading staff to learn of events by following Musk’s tweets, through private chats, on workplace gossip site Blind, and by reading news media reports. Immediately after the takeover, Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde. Other top executives like Chief Consumer Officer Sarah Personette and Chief of People and Diversity Dalana Brand handed in their resignations the following day. General manager for core technologies Nick Caldwell, Chief marketing officer Leslie Berland, Twitter’s head of product Jay Sullivan, and its vice president of global sales, Jean-Philippe Maheu, have also left. The company canceled its upcoming developer conference Chirp and it appears that Twitter’s head of its developer platform, Amir Shevat, is also out, as he tweeted he’s “better out than in” and thanked the developer community for the amazing journey they had. In addition to reducing the number of employees, Musk has also been overhauling Twitter’s product at a rapid pace. Earlier this week, he announced his intention to enact a new version of the Twitter Blue paid subscription, which will cost $8 per month and offer users the verification check mark, fewer ads, and the ability to post longer videos. According to a report by The Platformer, Twitter is also planning to shut down its long-form writing product Notes and newsletter product Revue, which was acquired in 2021. Tweets indicate that staff that worked on Twitter Communities were also laid off, suggesting that product may also be shut down. The new legal complaint is embedded below. Twitter class action lawsuit over mass layoffs by ZebethMedia on Scribd

Twitter’s mass layoffs are set to begin tomorrow morning • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Layoffs, Social, TwitterNo Comments

According to an internal memo sent to Twitter employees, the new management under Elon Musk will begin conducting layoffs Friday morning. These layoffs have been rumored since before Musk’s takeover, with the most recent report estimating that half of the 7,500 employees will lose their jobs. On Thursday evening, all employees received an email stating that they will be informed of their employment status at 9 A.M. PT on Friday. Each email will be sent with the subject line “Your Role at Twitter.” If an employee is keeping their job, they’ll be notified via their work email — if they’re let go, they’ll be notified on a personal address. “To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended,” the email reads. “If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.” The email was impersonally signed “Twitter.” According to a post from a Twitter employee, staff members have been flooding an internal Slack channel with blue heart emojis as they wait to learn their fate tomorrow. Musk’s team has already tried to evaluate the productivity of Twitter employees by asking engineers to print out the code that they have written in the last 30 to 60 days. Musk also brought in Tesla engineers to look over Twitter code. Still, it’s not clear what divisions of the company will be impacted. At Tesla, Musk axed the entire PR team a few years ago — by that notion, it’s likely that he will get rid of Twitter’s PR team. When Musk first took over last week, he immediately fired four key executives: CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde. Twitter’s Chief Consumer Officer Sarah Personette and Chief of People and Diversity Dalana Brand resigned the following day. This story is developing…

Substack targets Twitter with launch of discussions feature, Substack Chat • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Apps, chat, newsletters, Social, Substack, TwitterNo Comments

Another company hoping to capitalize on Twitter’s upheaval in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover is the newsletter platform Substack. The company has openly targeted Twitter’s user base over the past few days and has now thrown its hat into the ring as a more direct competitor with the launch of Substack Chat. The new feature allows Substack writers to communicate directly with their most avid and loyal readers right in the Substack mobile app. With Chat, Substack is not only taking on Twitter, where many back-and-forth threaded discussions between writers and readers already take place, but also other online communities where writers have been building out networks of their own, like Discord, Slack and Telegram. The company says the new Chat feature will eliminate the need for its writers to “frankenstein together different software tools and cross-reference subscriber lists,” it explains in its announcement. Image Credits: Substack Chat is not a Twitter clone by any means — though there is overlap with how writers have used Twitter in the past. For starters, the Chat feature will be opt-in, meaning not every newsletter may have chats enabled at this time. Publications will have to first enable the feature on their Settings page or by simply starting a new thread in the Substack app for iOS. Already, Substack says writers including sports journalist Joe Posnanski, pop culture writer Hunter Harris, and comics writers 3 Worlds / 3 Moons have launched chats on the service. In some cases, these chats have been used to discuss live events — like Game 3 of the World Series — or they’ve been used in place of email or other ways writers may have chosen to interact with their readers in the past. Readers can react to posts using emojis and add their own comments in the chat threads. The feature could benefit those who spend a lot of time reading on Substack or those who want to more closely network with fellow creators or readers. However, it isn’t really a direct replacement for tweeting more publicly as it lacks Twitter’s reach. Plus, the user interface is designed more like a traditional chat app — not a timeline you scroll. Still, the launch could relocate some of the discussions that would have normally taken place on Twitter to a more private networking space. Combined with the ongoing exodus to alternative social networks like Mastodon, and later perhaps, Bluesky, Twitter may lose access to some of the conversations that it would have otherwise hosted. Chat’s launch isn’t the only way Substack has attempted to capitalize on the Twitter chaos in recent days. It also took a more direct shot at Twitter, when it warned in a post on Oct. 31 that “Twitter is changing, and it’s tough to predict what might be next.” The post had encouraged creators of all sorts to port their Twitter follower base to Substack, given the current uncertainty around Twitter’s future. The launch of Chat arrives at a time when there’s been a broader shift to more personal and private social networks, which we’ve seen with the rise of friends-only apps like BeReal as well as the launch of private discussion groups on WhatsApp, called Communities. Substack Chat also reflects Substack’s larger goal of becoming a more private social network itself. The company alludes to its plan, writing in its post that “these are just the early days for Chat and all of Substack’s social features,” and adding there’s “more to come” in the future. Given the company’s propensity to host controversial writers and the otherwise deplatformed, however, this direction could see it wading even deeper into the culture wars surrounding what constitutes free speech — an area Musk’s Twitter is also having to grapple with. The more Substack associates its brand with the more extreme personal brands of divisive media personalities, the less it will be able to attract the larger (and typically more moderate) readers that constitute the majority of any network’s user base. That could limit Substack’s ability to go mainstream, no matter how clever its social features may be. Substack Chat is only available in the Substack iOS app at launch but will come to Android soon, the company says.