Musk Cuts 1000’s of Contract Workers, Hints at Further Verification Components

Critically, on daily basis Elon is throwing out new concepts for what’s coming subsequent at Twitter, a few of which most likely will eventuate, and others that’ll get misplaced within the shuffle. And there’s actually 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 cut 4,400 of the company’s 5,500 contract staff.

Twitter customers native contractors for numerous duties, together with content material moderation and website administration, however these should not staff, as such, so that they weren’t included within the original staff cull, which noticed Musk minimize half of Twitter’s staff final week (earlier than asking some of them to come back).

Based on studies, many of those contractors weren’t advised 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 can have isn’t clear, however it appears as if Twitter’s moderation, and even day-to-day repairs, may begin to deteriorate because of this.

Musk has been up-front about the necessity to minimize prices, with Twitter, apparently, losing $4 million a day when he initially took over on the app. Job cuts will definitely handle this, a minimum of partially, however you would need to additionally count on that dropping so many workers and contractors (now as much as round 8k roles in whole) must have some affect on the service.

If issues begin falling aside within the subsequent few weeks, this may very well be why.

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

In abstract, workers relations at Twitter are seemingly not going nice in the mean time.

Delayed Verification

As has been properly documented, Elon’s $8 checkmark program has, this far, been pretty messy, resulting in a variety 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 major stock impacts for some big-name companies.

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 ‘needs some tweaks’, however he does count on the $8 checkmarks to be made accessible once more by the end of this week.

Although seemingly with one vital replace:

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

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

In different phrases, imposters gained’t so simply be capable to dupe individuals with parody accounts, as a result of they gained’t have this further seal of approval – no matter it might be – which might affirm that it is a consultant of mentioned group.

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

However then, I suppose, you wouldn’t be capable to cost $8 to herald some fast money – and for context, 140,000 people reportedly signed up to the new $8 checkmark program within the days that it was accessible final week.

We’ll little doubt 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 folks will quickly be capable to listing their employment and training historical past on Twitter, increasing Twitter search into an entire new aspect.

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

That would add extra credibility, or not, to what a consumer is saying. For instance, if someone’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, perhaps that lessens the worth of their enter.

Or perhaps they simply make it up. I don’t know, however it seems like Musk is attempting to department out into new areas, which can be aligned along with his broader view of id verification. Or it may very well 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 individuals’ and the ‘media elite’.

I’m not precisely certain the place this stems from, because the unfavorable protection round Musk’s Twitter takeover to this point has associated to workers cuts, and the best way through which they have 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 could go bankrupt at some stage.

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