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☆ Elon Musk's 2-year-old son ran around Twitter's office and played with toys while his dad talked to advisors about moderation, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk's son X Æ a-Xii was present during Twitter meetings after the purchase went through, WaPo reported. Two-year-old X Æ a-Xii, Musk's first child with Grimes, ran round while he met with Yoel Roth, per WaPo. The Post reported that toys were scattered round the room and X Æ a-Xii ran around. X Æ a-Xii may have been at Twitter's HQ to attend the office Halloween party that day, where some staff brought their children. X Æ a-Xii, who he had with his musician and ex-partner Grimes, was Musk's seventh child.

WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Top Senate Republican Chuck Grassley urged Elon Musk, who recently acquired Twitter, to conduct a threat assessment at the social company to better protect U.S. user data, following up on concerns raised by a whistleblower. read moreIn a letter to Musk dated Tuesday and released on Wednesday, Grassley, the top Republican on the U.S. Judiciary Committee, asked Twitter to perform a threat assessment "of Twitter's current security posture and systems to better protect user data and privacy." "Twitter collects vast amounts of data on American citizens. Zatko testified that a foreign agent could use malware to steal Twitter users personal information, and use that to gain access to sensitive data on the person's phone, among other dangers. According to Grassley, Agrawal did not respond to the letter, citing litigation with Musk.

☆ Elon Musk's 'hardcore' work ultimatum was a deliberate plan to push Twitter employees out after he was warned against cutting more than 50% of staff
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk laid off half of Twitter's staff. But he agreed to laying off just 50% to start with after he was advised again making bigger cuts, Platformer reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Instead, he sent staff a now-infamous email telling them to commit to "hardcore" work as a deliberate ploy to push more employees to leave, Platformer reported. Immediately after taking control of Twitter, Musk fired some key execs including CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal. Some staff who committed to Musk's "hardcore" Twitter, meanwhile, were laid off by the company, Platformer and Bloomberg reported.

☆ Elon Musk has been preaching the value of 'hardcore' work to employees for over a decade, early Tesla emails show
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk is mirroring his Tesla management style at Twitter. The CEO has told Tesla employees to "go super hardcore" and "ultra hardcore" in the past. Last week, the billionaire gave Twitter employees an ultimatum: commit to working "extremely hardcore" or resign. While the note spurred a mass exodus of Twitter staffers, it was a move that is all too familiar to Tesla employees. Musk's more utilitarian leadership style style represents a sharp departure from that of Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal.

Elon Musk on Saturday reinstated former President Donald Trump's Twitter account. Musk polled Twitter users about whether to bring back the account, with 51% of respondents voting "yes." Trump's return to Twitter was widely anticipated after Tesla CEO Elon Musk closed a $44 billion deal to buy the company. "I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump," Musk said at a Financial Times conference in May. "I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH," Trump told Fox News in April, referring to the website Truth Social.

That plan quickly falls through — and Twitter decides to adopt a poison-pill strategy to fend off a hostile takeover from Musk. At this point, shares in Musk's automotive company, Tesla, began to decline; by mid-November, they will have lost close to half their value. “Musk’s conduct simply confirms that he wants to escape the binding contract he freely signed, and to damage Twitter in the process,” Twitter says. In the meantime, Musk and Twitter jockey for position ahead of the October trial — with Judge Kathaleen McCormick increasingly siding with Twitter in key pre-trial motions. Within 48 hours, the site was flooded with users who bought blue checkmarks only to turn around and impersonate official accounts, including Musk's.

☆ Elon Musk just unfollowed ex-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, the latest escalation in a lengthy feud that has included blunt texts, clashes over bots, and lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Musk & Agrawal appeared to first talk in MarchElon Musk. Susan Walsh/APTesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk started buying Twitter stock on an almost-daily basis in January. Messages between Musk and Agrawal were released in September as part of a lawsuit Twitter filed against Musk. Musk, Agrawal, and Twitter chair Bret Taylor met for a meal near San Jose on March 31. "Memorable for multiple reasons," Agrawal texted.

☆ Elon Musk mocks Twitter staff fired for criticizing him, saying 'these geniuses' will 'no doubt be of great use elsewhere'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk on Tuesday used a sarcastic tweet to mock Twitter staff he'd fired for criticizing him. Several employees were reportedly fired after criticizing Musk on internal chats and Twitter itself. In a follow-up tweet Tuesday, Musk wrote: "Important to admit when I'm wrong & firing them was truly one of my biggest mistakes." This week, Musk posted a since-deleted tweet saying Eric Frohnhoefer, a Twitter software engineer, had been fired after Frohnhoefer tweeted criticism of Musk. Two other engineers said they'd been fired within 24 hours of criticizing Musk.

☆ Elon Musk got a team to trawl Twitter's internal chat platform and create a list of insubordinate employees, resulting in some firings, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk ordered his Twitter team to make a list of insubordinate staff, the New York Times reports. The team scanned Twitter's internal chat platform and employees' tweets for criticism of Musk. Just shy of two dozen employees were fired overnight on Tuesday for criticizing Musk either publicly or internally through Slack. After one Twitter user said "you probably don't want this guy on your team," Musk responded in a now-deleted tweet that "he's fired." Twitter staff who made mention of Frohnhoefer's firing in internal chats were also cut from the company, The Times reported.

☆ I'm still at Twitter and have a front-row seat watching everything fall apart. At this point, I'm just trying to collect a paycheck.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

From the week leading up to Elon Musk's acquisition to the lay-offs week and this week gone, it's been a very weird and tiring time. It happened to be the same day that the Twitter offices were holding big Halloween events and had it decorated. Remote work was a big cultural hitA lot of people work remotely full-time or for at least two days a week. I'm sitting around and just collecting my paycheckI'm now interviewing around and trying to find something with big players. The Twitter that we had as an employer is gone and it won't be a fun place to work.

☆ Elon Musk has 'worked every day to find new and creative ways to screw over the company's workers,' attorney suing Twitter over layoffs says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Amanda Goh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The attorney suing Twitter has filed an emergency motion to protect employees from signing away their rights. Musk sent his first email to employees on Wednesday, giving them only one day to return to office. Musk "has worked every day to find new and creative ways to screw over the company's workers," Liss-Riordan added in the statement. In the email, Musk said the company will no longer allow remote work — giving workers just one day to get back to the office. "Through this litigation, Twitter employees are going to show the richest man in the world that even he is not above the law," she added.

Elon Musk is overhauling Twitter after taking overMichael Gonzalez/Getty ImagesTesla CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest man, sealed the deal and acquired Twitter for $44 billion on October 27 after months of costly litigation. Following his takeover, one of his first moves was to fire four top executives. In the days since, others have also decided to leave on their own terms. Musk had already put in motion wide-ranging plans for Twitter, including charging users for verification, bringing back video-sharing app Vine, and laying off staff, as he plans to overhaul the company. Here are all the executives and top managers who have either been fired or left the social media company following Musk's takeover.

☆ Elon Musk failed to give laid-off Twitter employees previously promised severance packages, lawsuit alleges
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Laid-off Twitter employees are suing the company saying they were promised a range of severance benefits. The lawsuit says they were assured these benefits would hold after Elon Musk bought Twitter. However, recently laid-off employees say Twitter reneged on the promised severance pay. Twitter employees "reasonably relied" on this promise in the weeks leading up to Musk's purchase and chose not to look for jobs elsewhere, the lawsuit shows. This claim appears to contrast a November 4 tweet from Musk, which said that all exited employees were offered three months' severance.

☆ Elon Musk persuaded Twitter's top sales executive to stay after she and other senior leaders quit, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk persuaded a top Twitter executive to stay after she resigned, Bloomberg reported. Reports said Robin Wheeler had quit, but she tweeted later on Thursday "I'm still here." Robin Wheeler, Twitter's head of advertising sales, on Wednesday moderated a Q&A with Musk called "Advertising & the Future." The following day, The New York Times reported Wheeler had left Twitter. After Twitter's chief information security officer, chief privacy officer and chief compliance officer quit, the Federal Trade Commission said in a statement to the Washington Post it was "tracking the developments at Twitter with deep concern."

Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty have also resigned, according to an internal message seen by Reuters. He announced plans to cut half its workforce last week, promised to stop fake accounts and is charging $8 a month for the Twitter Blue service that will include a blue check verification. "We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern," Douglas Farrar, the FTC's director of public affairs, told Reuters. "Elon puts rockets into space, he's not afraid of the FTC," the attorney quoted Spiro as saying. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on the FTC warning, the note from the attorney or the departures.

☆ Twitter information security chief Kissner to leave
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc's information security chief Lea Kissner is leaving the company, Kissner said in a tweet on Thursday. loadingKissner joined Twitter last year as head of privacy engineering and was made the chief information security officer in January. He then moved quickly to push out some top executives including Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and announced layoffs affecting about half of Twitter's workforce. Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty have also put down their papers, the Verge reported earlier on Thursday, citing sources and messages on Twitter's internal channels. Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

An image of new Twitter owner Elon Musk is seen surrounded by Twitter logos in this photo illustration in Warsaw, Poland on 08 November, 2022. "We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern," an FTC spokesperson said in a statement. Since then, other executives have announced their departures, including most recently Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner. According to internal communications obtained by CNBC, three execs involved in information security, privacy and compliance all resigned in recent days, including Kissner. Under that order, Twitter agreed to install an enhanced privacy program and information security program with specific requirements.

☆ Twitter’s cybersecurity chief quits amid company turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter,” Kissner tweeted. Their resignation was the latest example of the internal turmoil that has rocked Twitter following mass layoffs at the company. It could even put Twitter’s own employees in legal jeopardy, the message suggested, after the employee claimed Musk was unconcerned about Twitter’s potential liability before the FTC. The message outlined plans at Twitter to devolve FTC compliance responsibilities to the individual workers remaining at the company. “This will put huge amount of personal, professional and legal risk onto engineers,” the message warned, according to The Verge.

☆ Musk reportedly considers locking all of Twitter behind a paywall
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has considered putting the entire platform behind a paywall, according to a report from Platformer. But, it shows how Musk is exploring ways to generate new revenue from the platform he acquired for $44 billion. A platform-wide paywall marks Musk's latest musings about how to generate revenue for Twitter. In a thread of tweets, Musk said he will give "power to the people" by offering verification through Twitter Blue for $8 a month. Twitter began rolling out changes to its platform for some users on Saturday in preparation for the launch of its revamped Twitter Blue service, but reportedly plans to delay the launch the until after Tuesday's midterm elections.

☆ Billionaire IAC chairman Barry Diller says Elon Musk bought Twitter as a toy: 'How long he will use it, like toys, we don't really know'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Billionaire IAC chairman Barry Diller has mixed feelings about Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition. On CNBC's Squawk Box, Diller said Musk "bought a toy, and how long he will use it, like toys, we don't really know." "You've got this extraordinarily wealthy person, and he bought a toy," Diller said. "He bought a toy, and how long he will use it, like toys, we don't really know, but he's not going to walk away, I don't think." By headcount, however, Twitter is already much smaller in the days since Musk bought it.

☆ Barry Diller says Twitter is a toy for Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Barry Diller, chairman of IAC and Expedia, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday that Twitter, which he said is a toy for Elon Musk, will "much smaller business" under its new owner. Diller said he believes Musk is "quixotic" but "very rational," and he thinks Musk will stick by the company. Diller said he thinks Musk will figure out how to improve Twitter and make it more appealing, but he's not convinced that it will become the next super-app. Twitter laid off approximately half of its employees days later. Since closing the $44 billion deal, Musk has laid out a series of ideas for a new user verification process for Twitter through its subscription service Twitter Blue.

☆ Who would want to join Twitter now? It's still hiring for more than 90 roles despite cutting thousands of jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter is still hiring to fill more than 90 roles despite laying off half of its workforce. Seven roles were posted on LinkedIn's jobs section a few days before Elon Musk took over Twitter. Seven roles were first advertised by Twitter a fortnight ago on LinkedIn, all of which are based in London. The Tesla founder took control over Twitter last week after his $44 billion deal to buy the platform was completed. Some Twitter staff have disputed that claim.

☆ Elon Musk ruthlessly fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. He's the latest in a long line of Silicon Valley giants to face Musk's wrath, from Jeff Bezos to Mark Zuckerberg.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Parag AgrawalKevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesMusk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal met for a meal in March. But eight months later, Musk took ownership of Twitter and one of his first moves was firing Agrawal and a number of other top execs. Musk had been set to join Twitter's board in the spring after becoming the company's biggest shareholder. Agrawal understandably didn't like the tweet and told Musk that "it's not helping me make Twitter better in the current context." Within days of Musk terminating the deal, Twitter sued him to force him to complete the deal, accusing him of "refusing to honor his obligations."

☆ Twitter co-founder Dorsey apologizes for growing the company 'too quickly' in wake of mass layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey addresses students during a town hall at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India, November 12, 2018. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey apologized Saturday for growing the company "too quickly," a day after the company laid off approximately half of its employees under new owner Elon Musk. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment," Dorsey wrote in a tweet. Twitter's reduction in force extended beyond California, and CNBC could not immediately confirm whether Musk's description is accurate. Dorsey stepped down as Twitter's CEO last year and has since shifted his focus to solely managing his payments company Block, formerly known as Square.

Elon Musk seems determined to remake Twitter in his own image — with some help from the men in his trusted inner circle. They are joined in Musk’s orbit by Alex Spiro, a trial attorney with a roster of celebrity clients who reportedly led the first round of Twitter layoffs. Bloomberg reported Wednesday night that Twitter is preparing to eliminate about 3,700 jobs, or roughly half its workforce. Musk's personnel decisions suggest a possible road map for the future of Twitter, one in which policies and internal rules are drawn at least in part from the views of Musk’s consiglieres. Sacks, Calacanis, Spiro and Birchall did not immediately respond to questions about the company’s future and the nature of their roles there.

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