the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
It’s the latest diktat from the tech billionaire as he brings sweeping changes to the company to align it with his vision.
In an email, Musk asked Twitter’s employees to sign a pledge if they wished to stay on with the company. “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” read the email, which had an online form attached, and also formally ended Twitter’s work-from-anywhere policy.
Anyone who failed to sign the pledge by 5 pm US Eastern Time on Thursday would be handed a three-month severance package, Musk wrote.
Musk also sent an email to the Washington Post later in the night, saying, “Twitter will need to be extremely hardcore” going forward. He added: “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”
Second shot at Twitter Blue
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Meanwhile, Musk is in the midst of making his first first key product change since taking over the company last month – paid verified accounts starting at $8 a month. He said on Wednesday that Twitter would relaunch the subscription service on November 29.
The initial launch was withdrawn after several accounts, maliciously impersonating companies and well-known people, paid for a blue tick and
proceeded to spread chaos and misinformation on the platform.
Fake accounts were created for companies such as Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, Eli Lilly, and Twitter itself, in addition to political leaders such as former US President George W Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Twitter had also rolled out a grey ‘Official’ tag for some brands and media outlets, which is separate from the ‘Verified’ tag that users will pay for.
Threat to ads
The Washington Post report said the new service failed to gain much traction after its initial launch, titling towards just a few communities and threatening Twitter’s core advertising revenue.
Twitter has been facing flak from advertisers, some of which – such as General Mills, Pfizer and Volkswagen – have paused putting out ads on the platform after Musk’s takeover.
The pullback came amid growing concerns that misinformation and objectionable content may be allowed to proliferate on the platform under Musk’s leadership, and that ads could appear alongside such content.
We reported on November 7
that some of India’s biggest brands have also paused advertising on Twitter while many others said they are being cautious.
“We have paused paid advertising on Twitter as we seek clarity on the new direction and controls within the platform,” a spokesperson for Mondelez India, the country’s largest chocolate maker, told ET in an email. She said the company has taken this stance “because it takes brand safety very seriously”.
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