In a nutshell: Now that Elon Musk has finally taken control of Twitter, the world's richest man is implementing some big changes. Top executives, including its CEO, were quickly removed, and now it looks like Musk is considering more alterations: bringing back Vine and introducing paid verification.
Musk charged into Twitter HQ late last week with a sink under his arm and his sights set on removing execs, including CEO Parag Agrawal. He's now looking at changes to the service, starting with the verification process.
The whole verification process is being revamped right now
--- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2022
"The whole verification process is being revamped right now," Musk tweeted yesterday. According to The Verge and Platformer, this will involve making Twitter Blue---the optional $4.99 per month subscription that gives users extra features---more expensive, but it will also verify subs.
The new Twitter Blue price is said to be $19.99 per month. The current plan would see those who are already verified given 90 days to subscribe, or they will lose their blue checkmark. Musk is reportedly giving employees working on the project until November 7 to launch it. If this deadline isn't met, they will be fired.
Musk could also be bringing back a long-gone Twitter feature: Vine. Twitter bought the short-form video hosting service for $30 million back in 2012 ahead of its official release a year later. In a time before social media apps introduced the same format, Vine made stars of the those whose clips went viral. But with Instagram, Facebook, and others embracing short-form videos and Vine content creators fighting for better compensation, Twitter decided to discontinue Vine in 2016, a year before the international launch of TikTok.
If you did that and actually competed with tik tok that'd be hilarious
--- MrBeast (@MrBeast) October 31, 2022
Almost 2 million people have voted yes in Musk's poll asking if Vine should be brought back. YouTube star MrBeast joined the conversation, noting that it would be "hilarious" to see new Vine competing with TikTok and that original, hard-to-copy content would help it achieve that goal.
Elsewhere, Musk is said to be cutting Twitter's headcount this week. The new boss previously told staff that he wouldn't slash employee numbers by a reported 75%, but a significant number of layoffs are coming.