Elon Musk has become the sole director of Twitter, after dissolving the social media platform’s board as part of ongoing changes in the company following the acquisition.
A new filing shows that all previous members of the board have been stripped of their authority, leaving only Musk at the helm.
Musk completed the $44 billion Twitter acquisition on Friday, and has since then initiated numerous changes expected to yield significant shift from Twitter as we know it.
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Musk had fired Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of the legal and policy department, Vijaya Gadde, before the board, made up of nine executives was disbanded. He is taking steps to actualize his aim of making Twitter more profitable and free from censorship, a promise he made to investors when he made his acquisition bid.
On Sunday, reports had it that Musk wants to raise the price of Twitter Blue from $5 to $20 a month, and verified users have been given 90 days to sign up or lose their blue tick. Other changes expected on Twitter include the suggestion that he will set up a council that will review content moderation decisions.
He is also planning to bring back Vine. Musk is currently conducting a poll which has nearly 70% of more than 4.5 million responders saying yes to bringing back Vine.
Bring back Vine?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Musk has reportedly reached out to the European Commission, pledging that Twitter, under his ownership, will abide by its stringent rules on illegal online content policing.
In Europe, the bird will fly by our ?? rules.#DSA https://t.co/95W3qzYsal
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 28, 2022
Musk has continued to explore ways to moderate Twitter contents even though he has touted setting up a diverse council that will do the job. In an exchange with another user, he suggested users could select a film-style age rating to filter content when using the site, as a new approach.
“Being able to select which version of Twitter you want is probably better, much as it would be for a movie maturity rating.
“The rating of the tweet itself could be self-selected, then modified by user feedback,” he said.
Though Musk has denied that he plans to lay off 75% of Twitter’s workforce, there is belief that, going by the number of workers laid off within this short time, many more will be fired eventually.
Dissolving the Twitter board, which had former CEO, Parag Agrawal as a member, is a move aimed at giving Musk absolute power when it comes to decision making. Though in response to a tweet, he said “This is just temporary.”