Is Twitter in crisis mode?

This past month Elon Musk successfully bought twitter to the tune of $44 billion. As a result, the company has undergone some major changes, many of which, employees at Twitter and the general public are upset about. Since Musk purchased Twitter by buying out all of its shares, the company is no longer public, which means Musk is at liberty to change any part of the platform he desires to. However, many of his decisions have put the brand in a state of crisis, which could serve problematic for Musk moving forward.

Firing Employees

One of Musk’s first order of business was to fire several employees at Twitter. This included the firing of several top executives, including the CEO of the company. Many people found Musk’s firing of employees to be heartless as it arrived unexpectedly and left many without income and a job. However, this was not the only issue that people found with Musk’s purchasing of the platform.

Controlling the Narrative

Musk defended his reason for purchasing the platform by stating that it was to ensure “free speech”. However, netizens are not so sure. People are afraid that Musk is changing this platform to promote hate speech and that he will reinstate several banned accounts. Additionally, people have claimed Musk’s purchasing of Twitter is a sort of vanity since he is ultra-rich and has the ability to buy a platform that people can freely use and make it private, revealing that most users are not supportive of this decision in general.

Verification Fee

The last issue with Musk’s purchasing of Twitter is the paid verification fee proposal. Musk has stated that he seeks to charge people $8 per month for Twitter verification citing that “income from advertisements are not enough to pay the bills”. However, this has been met with hostility from celebrities and others who are already verified on the platform. However, others have said that paying for verification levels the playing field, thus there are people who fall on both sides of the argument.

Can it be avoided?

It is safe to say that the situation more than likely cannot be avoided since Musk has total control of the platform. At this point, Musk has yet to truly manage the situation and instead responds to criticisms with Tweets on the platform instead of releasing official company statements. It is evident that these issues are the fault of Musk and not the company itself. However, since the shareholders willingly sold the company to Musk, it is safe to say that they were okay with these changes being undertaken as they allowed Musk to make the company into a private, non publicly-funded entity.