What has changed at Twitter since Elon Musk took over

Musk is reportedly interested in reviving Vine, the short-form video service Twitter discontinued in 2016.

It's been a little more than a week since mercurial billionaire Elon Musk assumed control of Twitter. But the social media firm has already undergone a significant transformation.

This includes massive layoffs, top management exits, a revamped verification programme, and a new content council among others.

Let's take a look at the most significant reforms he's implemented or is mulling over:

Mass layoffs

On the day Musk closed the $44 billion takeover, everything changed. CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and policy head Vijaya Gadde were all sacked by Musk.

On November 4, nearly half of the company's 7,500-person staff was let go as a way to trim the company's costs. Employees also filed a class action lawsuit because they didn't think they were given enough notice.

The firm is now reaching out to dozens of laid-off employees and asking them to return after realising that their work and experience were needed to build features Musk wants, according to Bloomberg.

Twitter Blue @ $8

Twitter rolled out its new Twitter Blue subscription service over the weekend, delivering a verification checkmark to any user who pays $8 per month. The company added that more features, such as lesser ads, the option to post longer videos, and priority ranking in replies, mentions, and searches, would soon be available.

However, it is now delaying the implementation of verification check marks to customers until the midterm elections in the United States on November 8, according to The New York Times.

Read: Elon Musk’s famous lawyer who had key role in Twitter layoffs

Advertiser exodus

A large number of advertisers put Twitter on hold and distanced themselves from the platform. General Motors, General Mills, Audi of America, Mondelez International, Pfizer, and Ford are just a few examples. In a tweet to advertisers, Elon Musk had earlier expressed his desire for Twitter to be "the most respected advertising platform".

However, he recently complained that Twitter has had a "massive drop in revenue", due to activist groups pressuring advertisers. Musk also threatened to "name and shame" advertisers who were withholding their ad spends due to these boycotts.

Read: Twitter 2.0: Five men in Elon Musk's inner circle

Content moderation

Musk has said that the company will set up a content moderation council with "widely diverse viewpoints". He had said that the council will be responsible for all major decisions about content and that no account will be reinstated before the council convenes.

However, earlier today, Musk said that any Twitter handles that engage in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended. This is quite a reversal from Musk's earlier stance of not suspending anyone permanently on the platform.

Charging for video content

Musk is also considering charging for video content. This feature would allow users to upload videos and charge users to see them. However, the proposal has been marked as high-risk internally, per the Washington Post.

Changes to the homepage

The landing homepage for logged-out users was one of the first things Musk changed at Twitter. All logged-out users who are visiting Twitter.com are now redirected to the Explore page that shows trending tweets and news stories. This development was first reported by The Verge.

Vine reboot

Musk is reportedly interested in reviving Vine, the short-form video service Twitter discontinued in 2016. He has instructed Twitter engineers to work on a Vine reboot that could be ready by year end, Axios reported.

The Tesla chief executive has also said that Twitter will soon add the ability to attach long-form text to tweets followed by creator monetisation for all forms of content. Meanwhile, the company is shutting down its newsletter platform Revue.

Read: Elon Musk, under financial pressure, pushes to make money from Twitter