Elon Musk has said Twitter will do a lot of dumb things in coming months. (AFP Photo)
Elon Musk became the new owner of social media platform Twitter late last month. And since then, he has fired top Twitter executives, laid off hundreds of employees and launched a number of features which were later rolled back. He has also said that
Here are the features launched and discarded by Elon Musk
- Shortly after becoming the "Chief Twit", the world's richest man announced a plan that led to huge uproar - to charge $8 for joining the exclusive club of those who have the coveted blue tick. Many celebrities criticised the plan, but Mr Musk justified it citing the cost to operate the company. But the scheme saw proliferation of many fake verified accounts after which it was suspended.
- The company also rolled out a "grey official" tick for celebrities to signify that the account is official. But Mr Musk "killed it" within 48 hours. However, the feature will now be available only to governments, media outlets, corporations and some public figures. And it is not for sale.
- Mr Musk also banned a number of parody accounts with blue tick that used the $8 feature to get verified. He said no one is allowed to parody anyone without clearly mentioning the word "parody" in their name and not just bio. In a tweet on November 12, Mr Musk said the company is introducing a 'Parody' subscript.
- A number of users, particularly celebrities, left Twitter after Mr Musk bought it. These include Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles, Grammy-winning R&B star Toni Braxton, retired professional wrestler and actor Mick Foley, Academy award winning actor Whoopi Goldberg, model Gigi Hadid and several others. The common complaint was the platform is becoming "a cesspool of hate and bigotry."
- Mr Musk has hired engineers from his other companies like Tesla and SpaceX to review codes that run Twitter. More than 50 Tesla workers, two from Boring Company and one from Neuralink have joined the social media platform, according to a CNBC report.
