Elon Musk completed his buyout of Twitter in October 2022, purchasing the social media app for a staggering $44 billion (approx. £39.5 billion).

In what might be the biggest case of buyer’s remorse known to mankind, it’s been nothing but trouble ever since.

From selling Tesla shares and taking a big hit on his net worth, to having up to a million users leaving the app in protest, the Chief Twit has been facing an uphill battle.

There have also been numerous changes announced since Musk’s takeover – and some have been particularly controversial, such as laying off key members of staff.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest changes.

The biggest changes Elon Musk has announced for Twitter, so far

A new CEO?

Staff layoffs

Within his first hours as Chief Twit, Musk began letting go of some of Twitter’s top management.

He fired top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.

Layoffs then began and were believed to hit around half of the company’s workforce, or around 3,700 staff, according to internal plans reviewed by Reuters.

Of course, Elon isn’t the only tech mogul to cull jobs.

Mark Zuckerburg of Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) announced in November that 11,000 jobs were being made redundant – equalling 13% of the company’s workforce.

Twitter, Meta and even Intel have begun laying off large portions of their workforces. But why are these giant companies suddenly getting rid of their staff? Metro explains. #twitter #meta #layoffs #jobs #costofliving #techsector #elonmusk #bigtech

Ending remote working for employees

In his first personal email to Twitter staff, Musk warned on November 9 that staff should prepare for ‘difficult times ahead,’ as he also ended remote working unless he personally approved it.

Musk said there was ‘no way to sugarcoat the message’ about the economic outlook and how it will affect a company dependent on ad spend, like Twitter.

According to the email, as reported by Bloomberg News, the new rules will expect employees to be in the office for at least 40 hours per week.

Charging for Twitter

Twitter has always been free – but Musk has a vision which he thinks will give the company ‘a revenue stream to reward content creators’ while ensuring the site isn’t as dependent on advertisers.

Twitter Blue is currently rolling out for UK users from £8 per month and US users from $8 per month.

The optional subscription model eventually provides blue tick verification, along with a number of customisation features and, its website states, the option to ‘Undo Tweet’ before anyone reads it.

Musk tweeted on December 13 that a version of Twitter Blue without ads is also being planned.

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A new content moderation process

Part of the reason Musk’s appointment as Twitter boss led to protests and outrage is his stance on what content can be posted online.

A firm advocate for free speech – including the good, bad, and ugly – some fear the lack of restrictions could lead to a rise in hate speech and discrimination.

Perhaps addressing these fears, Musk has previously said that the company will set up a content moderation council with ‘widely diverse viewpoints.’

He had said that the council will be accountable for all main content-related decisions and no formerly banned users would be reinstated without the council convening first.

Double-verification checks (already discontinued)

In a confusing run of events, double-verification was added, meaning people had their official blue tick verification and a second grey badge.

After briefly rolling out these new grey badge verifications in mid November, they were gone the next day.

‘I just killed it,’ tweeted the billionaire app owner, responding to a tweet about the grey check disappearing. ‘Blue check will be the great leveler. [sic]’

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