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Musk to overhaul Twitter

Musk, who has acquired Twitter for $44 billion after a bitter battle, said in April this year that the micro-blogging platform needs long-form tweets which is “way overdue”….reports Asian Lite News

Elon Musk on Sunday said that Twitter can soon expand or even get rid of the 280-character limit on the platform.

He also confirmed that the company under him will look into increasing the length of videos so that users can post longer videos.

Responding to a user who asked if we can get rid of character limits, or at least greatly expand it, Musk said: “Absolutely”.

Another user asked him about posting longer videos on Twitter, to which he said: “100 per cent”.

Musk, who has acquired Twitter for $44 billion after a bitter battle, said in April this year that the micro-blogging platform needs long-form tweets which is “way overdue”.

Twitter currently allows people to post in 280 characters.

Reacting to a follower’s tweet thread, Musk said: “My most immediate takeaway from this novella of a thread is that Twitter is way overdue for long form tweets!”

Earlier, Musk demanded an Edit button, and the micro-blogging platform announced that it is working on such a feature that will allow users to correct errors in their tweets, albeit with some rules.

Twitter launched 280 characters in November 2017 to all users in supported languages, including English.

The company first announced the controversial plan to move beyond its traditional 140 characters in September 2017 with a small group of users.

Several Twitter users had argued that 280 characters would make Twitter less readable as the platform’s defining characteristic is the brevity of posts.

However, Twitter’s decision to double its character count from 140 to 280 characters did not dramatically change the length of Twitter posts.

According to the company, Twitter is still a place for briefer thoughts.

Only 1 per cent of tweets hit the 280-character limit, and only 12 per cent of tweets were longer than 140 characters, according to the data provided by the company a couple of years back. Only 5 per cent of tweets were longer than 190 characters.

ALSO READ: With Musk on helm, will Trump stage a Twitter comeback?

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With Musk on helm, will Trump stage a Twitter comeback?

Hours after news of Musk’s takeover broke, a fake statement from Trump regarding restoration of his account began circulating online, reports Asian Lite News

Former US President Donald Trump lauded Twitter’s new ownership under billionaire Elon Musk on Friday.

“I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country,” Trump said in a Truth Social post following Elon Musk’s completed takeover.

On Thursday night, Musk fired a number of Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s longtime head of legal, policy and trust, who was in charge of significant account decisions, including suspending Trump.

The former president said Twitter “must now work hard to rid itself of all of the bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly. It will be much smaller, but better.”

Elon Musk said that the social media company “will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.” That means suspended accounts like those held by former President Donald Trump won’t immediately return to Twitter.

“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” Musk added.

On Thursday, Musk wrote in a posted note to Twitter advertisers that “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences! In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all.”

Hours after news of Musk’s takeover broke, a fake statement from Trump began circulating online.

“Congratulations to Elon Musk on his purchase of Twitter. Many people are saying that change was needed, as the old management was too concerned with the woke agenda,” the fabricated statement read.

“I have been told that my account will be back up and running on Monday — we will see. Happy to be able to engage with an African-American-owned business!”

In July, in a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk who had long been showing his interest to buy Twitter terminated the deal. The Tesla CEO did so by alleging that Twitter violated their mutual purchase agreement by misrepresenting the number of spam and fake bot accounts on its platform.

After Musk put out the deal termination announcement, the market saw a sharp decline. Later, Twitter sued Musk accusing him of using bots as a pretext to exit a deal. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Won’t cut 75% of jobs, Musk tells Twitter staff

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Twitter to sue Musk as he abandons $44 bn takeover deal

Musk’s legal team said he is terminating the deal because Twitter was in “material breach” of their agreement and had made “false and misleading” statements during negotiations.

Micro-blogging platform Twitter on Saturday announced it was going to sue Tesla CEO Elon Musk for terminating the $44 billion takeover deal.

In a surprising move, Musk’s legal team said in a US Securities and Exchange (SEC) filing that he is terminating the deal because Twitter was in “material breach” of their agreement and had made “false and misleading” statements during negotiations.

In a following tweet, Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor said that the “board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement”.

“We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” he added.

Musk had put the deal on hold over the actual number of spammy/fake accounts and bots on the platform, and sought a reply from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.

On Thursday, Twitter claimed it is suspending more than 1 million spam accounts a day.

“That is indeed the real question,” Musk replied on Friday.

The new figure doubled the previous update from Agrawal who said that the platform removes 500,000 spam accounts a day.

“We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter. We also lock millions of accounts each week that we suspect may be spam — if they can’t pass human verification challenges (captchas, phone verification, etc),” Agrawal had tweeted in May.

In an internal memo to Twitter employees sent Friday and obtained by The Verge, the company’s general counsel, Sean Edgett, told staffers to “refrain from Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the merger,” and that management would be “very limited on what we can share”.

“I know this is an uncertain time, and we appreciate your patience and ongoing commitment to the important work we have underway,” Edgett wrote.

ALSO READ: US lawmaker pitches for CAATSA sanctions waiver to India

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Here’s what Musk plans for Twitter

Musk expects a huge growth in total Twitter users as well, growing from the 217 million users reported last year to 600 million Twitter users in 2025 and, eventually, 931 million in 2028….reports Asian Lite News

Tech billionaire Elon Musk expects Twitter to earn almost $10 billion in revenue from subscriptions by 2028, a projection that doubles the $5 billion in total revenue the platform made last year, as per a report from The New York Times.

In a pitch deck viewed by the Times, Musk gave investors a taste of what to expect under his ownership.

This reportedly includes driving up Twitter Blue subscribers to 69 million by 2025 and more than doubling that number to 159 million by 2028, reports The Verge.

Launched last year, Twitter Blue is the service’s $2.99/month subscription that gives users access to an “undo tweet” button, app customisation, ad-free articles, and other exclusive features.

Musk expects a huge growth in total Twitter users as well, growing from the 217 million users reported last year to 600 million Twitter users in 2025 and, eventually, 931 million in 2028.

The pitch deck also outlines plans for an unnamed subscription service outside of Blue, called “X”, which Musk expects to bring in nine million subscribers in 2023 and 104 million by 2028.

Recently, Musk hinted at charging governments and corporations a “slight cost” to use Twitter.

Whatever subscription “X” may be, revenue from it and Blue combined is supposed to hit the $10 billion mark by 2028, making up a large fraction of the $26.4 billion in total revenue Musk thinks the service will reach that same year, the report said.

ALSO READ: Musk has a serious ‘warning’ for Twitter staff

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Musk has a serious ‘warning’ for Twitter staff

The Tesla CEO also said that he strongly believes that all managers in a technical area “must be technically excellent”….reports Asian Lite News

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has warned that Twitter staff may face ‘extreme’ workloads if he takes over the micro-blogging platform.

While replying to an earlier tweet he shared about his plans for the micro-blogging site, he mentioned that he will still graft even harder than them to make the firm a success.

“Also, work ethic expectations would be extreme, but much less than I demand of myself,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, Musk had revealed that Twitter will focus deeply on hardcore software engineering, design, and more, following the completion of the acquisition of the micro-blogging site.

The Tesla CEO also said that he strongly believes that all managers in a technical area “must be technically excellent”.

“If Twitter acquisition completes, the company will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec and server hardware,” Musk tweeted late Friday.

“I strongly believe that all managers in a technical area must be technically excellent. Managers in software must write great software or it is like being a cavalry captain who cannot ride a horse!”

He tagged an article from Fortune, along with one of his tweets that said “Job interest in Twitter skyrocketed more than 250 per cent since Musk moved to take over”.

ALSO READ: Musk likely to take charge as temporary CEO of Twitter