Musk Disbands Twitter Board, Appoints Himself ‘Sole Director’
By ARI BLAFF
Elon Musk has dissolved Twitter’s board of directors and appointed himself the company’s “sole director,” according to a Monday securities filing.
Immediately after completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on Thursday, Musk fired several senior executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal. The board included nine directors.
Musk’s move is the latest in a series of overhauls he is planning on implementing.
On Sunday, Musk announced that Twitter was contemplating revamping its entire approach to the blue verification badges displayed on profiles to authenticate users.
“Whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk cryptically tweeted at the time.
According to Musk’s proposed plan, authenticated users will have 90 days to decide whether they wish to pay a monthly $4.99 fee or face the potential of losing their “verified” status, technology newsletter Platformer reported.
Among Musk’s most provocative plans include openly considering laying off as many as 75 percent of Twitter’s workforce due to bloat as well as “its strong left-wing bias.”
For their part, Twitter employees have pushed back against many of Musk’s initiatives. In response to Musk making mass layoffs, employees circulated an open letter condemning the move.
“A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation,” the letter read in a copy obtained by Time.
A centerpiece of Musk’s plans has been his public commitment to free speech and correcting Twitter’s political censorship bias, which disproportionately targets conservative voices.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk tweeted.
However, Musk noted, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk has proposed a new content moderation council for Twitter to determine how to better address viewpoint diversity, hate speech, permanent bans, and account reinstatements.
Righting the ship will be a delicate process in the first months of Musk’s tenure.
Many will look to how Twitter responds to high-profile cases such as Kanye West’s recent suspension and Donald Trump’s potential return as barometers of the platform’s new leadership. Trump said last week that he will continue to post exclusively on his social-media platform Truth Social, even if he’s invited back to Twitter.
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