Twitter has been under Elon Musk’s leadership for close to two weeks, in which time he has dismissed roughly half its workforce and most of its executive suite..Possible paywall.As the week started, Musk mulled a paywall for access to all Twitter content, according to a report from Casey Newton at Platformer.."Most or all users" could be charged a subscription fee, and under one plan, users would only be able to browse Twitter for a "limited amount of time" monthly before needing to pay, says the report. .It’s not clear yet whether the $8 per month charge for a Twitter Blue subscription would be included in the paywall fee. The subscription would offer features such as the ability to post longer video and audio and receive fewer ads. ."We need to pay the bills somehow!" Musk tweeted at author Stephen King to defend the subscription fee. "Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers." .A threat to US security?.On Wednesday, a Bloomberg reporter asked President Joe Biden “Do you think Elon Musk is a threat to US national security?”.“And should the US, and with the tools you have, investigate his joint acquisition of Twitter with foreign governments, which include the Saudis?”.After Musk took control of Twitter, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal retained his long-standing stake in the company..“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” said Biden. “Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that it’s worth being looked at.”.“How?” asked another journalist. .“There’s a lot of ways,” Biden said, without elaborating..Biden’s press office said Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is not under federal investigation. His other companies receive large US government subsidies, though Biden snubbed Tesla last year from an electric vehicle expo at the White House, apparently because it lacks a unionized workforce..A ban on working remotely.Also on Wednesday Musk sent his first email to Twitter staff, preparing them for “difficult times ahead” and banning remote work unless he personally approved it..There was “no way to sugarcoat the message” said Musk, about the economic outlook and how it will affect an advertising-dependent company like Twitter, according to the email reviewed by Bloomberg News. .The new rules are for employees to be in the office for at least 40 hours per week, he added..It was one of the first topics discussed with staff, when Musk addressed them at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters..He said then he was against remote work and would only grant exceptions on a case-by-case basis, as he’s doing now..He has also ended “days of rest” from Twitter staff calendars, Bloomberg News reported, which was a monthly, companywide day off introduced during the pandemic period. Its expiration gave another sign of Musk’s impatience with Twitter’s existing work culture..“The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” Musk wrote in his note to employees. In a separate email, he added “over the next few days, the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam.”.Bankruptcy not out of the question.Musk told employees on Thursday he is not sure how much run rate the company has, and that bankruptcy is not out of the question, the managing editor of tech newsletter Platformer tweeted..The possibility arose after reports that several top executives have jumped Musk’s sinking ship, including Yoel Roth, the company’s Head of Safety & Integrity, and Chief Security Officer Lea Kissner..Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty have also resigned, according to an internal message seen by Reuters..The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it was watching Twitter with “deep concern” with the departure of the company’s top privacy and compliance officers, potentially putting it at risk of violating regulatory orders..“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” Douglas Farrar, the FTC’s director of public affairs, told Reuters..“No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them,” Farrar said..An attorney on Twitter’s privacy team reported the executive departures in a note seen by Reuters and posted to Twitter’s Slack messaging system on Thursday..In the note, the attorney mentioned hearing Twitter’s legal chief Alex Spiro say that Musk was willing to take a “huge amount of risk” with Twitter. “Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC,” the attorney quoted Spiro as saying..Since taking charge, Musk has fired top management, and the company’s advertising and marketing chiefs left soon afterwards, adding to concerns that Twitter does not have enough people in place to monitor that it remains compliant with regulations.
