Elon Musk Meeting With Twitter Employees: Layoffs, WFH, Free Speech, Subscriptions | Top Points

Elon Musk told Twitter at the virtual meeting that he doesn’t want its content to be 'boring', and also hinted at job cuts if the company’s financial condition warranted such a measure.

A photo illustration shows phone screen displaying the Twitter account of Elon Musk with a photo of him shown in the background.

Source : AFP

Tesla CEO Elon Musk had his first internal meeting with Twitter employees Thursday, and he shared with them his plans and ideas to “improve” the platform and its business operations. The billionaire businessman is set to buy the microblogging platform for $44 billion, though he has hinted that a lower price could not be ruled out and sought more details from the company about its fake accounts. 

According to media reports, Musk told Twitter at the meeting held over a video call that he doesn’t want its content to be “boring”, and also hinted at job cuts if the company’s financial condition warranted such a measure. He also talked about free speech, content monitoring and integrating payments.       

Here are 6 main points Musk discussed at the meeting.

‘Don’t Be Boring, Be More Like WeChat, TikTok’   

According to a report in The Verge, Elon Musk told Twitter employees he wanted the platform to become more like WeChat and TikTok. Quoting employees who heard his remarks, the report said he complimented TikTok’s algorithm that makes sure it doesn’t become “boring”. “...we could hone Twitter in the same way to be interesting,” Musk was quoted as saying.

Praising WeChat, he specified how the Chinese app mixes social media with payments, games, and also ride-hailing. “There’s no WeChat equivalent outside of China…You basically live on WeChat in China. If we can recreate that with Twitter, we’ll be a great success,” he said.

1 Billion Users

Even though Musk has publicly expressed his doubts over the number of actual users Twitter has, and said he is not convinced by the company’s claim of only 5 per cent bots, The Verge report said he told the employees that his plan for the company is to hit 1 billion users. Twitter’s current user base has been stagnant at around 330 million for some time now. According to the report, it was during this discussion that he brought up TikTok and WeChat, saying Twitter needs to become more like these if it wanted to achieve the target.

Layoffs, Remote Working 

As he answered Twitter employees’ questions, some wanted to know his plans for their future in the company. Musk hinted that there could be layoffs, depending on Twitter’s financial situation, BBC reported. "The company does need to get healthy. Right now the costs exceed the revenue," he was quoted as saying. He, however, said "anyone who's... a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about".

Speaking about remote working, Musk reportedly said though he was not a fan of the work-from-home concept, those “exceptional at their jobs” can work remotely at Twitter.

Incidentally, the Tesla boss has posted about job cuts at his electric car manufacturing company, and asked employees at the firm to spend at least 40 hours in the office. 

Subscriptions And Payments

According to The Verge, Musk also said Twitter should seriously explore subscriptions and payments, though he did not elaborate on how he plans to go about it. He reportedly suggested that people should pay to get ‘verified’. The company is already testing Twitter Blue, a paid subscription feature. About it, however, he said “identification in the system does not change at all” even for those who pay for the service, and it remains “like a normal user ID”.

Musk also said content creators on Twitter should be able to monetise content.

‘Irony’ Level, Twitter After 10 Years 

Musk laid special emphasis on Twitter disseminating serious news in a better way. “I think Twitter can be much better about informing people of serious issues,” he was quoted as saying in The Verge report. Asked how he envisions Twitter’s success five to 10 years from now, Musk said it should be “contributing to a stronger longer lasting civilization where we are better able to understand the nature of reality”. 

At one point during the meeting, he also suggested the idea of introducing an “irony” label for a tweet so someone could show the intention behind the post.

Free Speech, Trolls, Content Moderation

Musk has always said he supports free speech, and that he is against censoring content on the platform. Talking about content moderation, he said during the meeting that Twitter must encourage diverse opinions. “We should allow people to say what they want,” he said, according to a report in Insider. 

Musk said people should be allowed to say “pretty outrageous things that are within the bounds of the law” but it should not “get amplified”. He reportedly said some balancing is required because people would not be happy if harassed and would stop using the platform. Stating that free speech should stay within the context of the law, he said “we will get shut down” otherwise. 

Musk stressed that transparency is important, and Twitter should make sure it is not “driving (a) narrative in order for people to have trust in Twitter”.