Elon Musk changed Twitter significantly after acquiring the platform for $44 billion. The new Twitter leadership focused on eliminating old efficiencies, improving internal communications, and increasing the pace of releasing new features.
Given how different things are on this social media platform, let’s take a closer look.
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Twitter Executives: Removal of the Old Guard
The Twitter, now X, buyout was one of the biggest stories in 2022. Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder in March 2022. In April 2022, the billionaire businessman offered $44 billion to buy X from its previous owners.
However, this process wasn’t smooth, as Musk tried to back out of the deal. Finally, on October 28, 2022, he agreed to the buyout and became the owner of this social media platform.
One of the first moves was overhauling the company from the ground up. This started with the removal of several Twitter executives, like:
- Parag Agarwal, the social platform’s former chief executive officer (CEO)
- Vijaya Gadde, the Head of Policy
- Sean Edgett, the Deputy Counsel
- Ned Segal, the Chief Financial Officer
Musk brought several advisors to smooth the transition from the old leadership to the new one. Joining him were angel investor Jason Calacanis, attorney Alex Spiro, and The Boring Company’s CEO, Steve Davis. Sriram Krishnan, who previously worked at Twitter as the consumer-product director, was also part of Musk’s inner circle.
Several engineers from The Boring Company, Neuralink, and Tesla joined the businessman. His cousins, James and Andrew Musk, also joined the social media network’s workforce.
The billionaire investor fired over 3,000 people as part of his vision to make X’s workforce lean. Several employees also resigned from their positions after the takeover. Twitter’s Safety and Trust department head, Yoel Roth, left his position.
Ella Irwin, the vice president of Twitter, took his role in December before leaving the company in October 2023.
Twitter Organizational Structure: The Executives Taking X in a New Direction
Musk became Twitter’s CEO after purchasing the company. During his tenure, he focused on making quick moves to bring the social media platform closer to his vision.
He conducted a Twitter poll, asking people whether he should remain the platform’s CEO. Over 17 million X users participated in this poll, and 57.5% preferred that Musk step down.
In June 2023, Musk announced Linda Yaccarino’s arrival as the new CEO of Twitter. She previously worked at NBCUniversal as a marketing executive. He became this social network’s chief technology officer (CTO) and executive chairman.
These executives are part of the new Twitter organizational structure and are responsible for taking X in a new direction:
- Keith Coleman: Keith Coleman was the CEO of Yes Inc. for over two years before joining Twitter in 2016. He is now the platform’s Vice President of Product.
- Michael McGonigle: Michael McGonigle joined Twitter in 2017 and now serves as Senior Director of Financial Planning and Analysis.
- Mary Hansbury: Mary Hansbury has been part of Twitter’s Senior Legal Counsel, Employment Law, and Associate Director since 2015. She is now the Global Head of Employment Law at X.
- Renato Monterio: When Renato Monteiro worked at Twitter, he started as the Data Protection Counsel Lead in Brazil and Latin America. He is currently the Global Head of Privacy for X.
- Eric Fararo: Eric Fararo is another former Twitter employee who was the company’s Director of Engineering. He held the same position even after the company changed hands.
8 Changes Introduced by the New Twitter Leadership Team
The new Twitter leadership team introduced the following changes to overhaul X.
1. Replacing the Old Verification Process With a Subscription-Based Approach
One of the biggest changes by X’s leadership was transforming the platform’s verification process. Accounts had to pass the authentic, notable, and active requirement check to qualify for Twitter’s iconic blue tick. Most of the accounts with this checkmark were journalists, celebrities, and brands.
However, Musk wasn’t a fan of this system and wanted to change everything. Esther Crawford, a former product manager, was put in charge of the platform’s subscription service.
Twitter introduced Twitter Blue for $8 a month and offered several exclusive features to its subscribers. They later rebranded it to X Premium.
This subscription service bundled the verification process, giving eligible users the blue tick.
X used the following criteria to check if an account should get the blue checkmark:
- The account holder doesn’t engage in any deceptive, spam, or misleading activities.
- The user verified their phone number and was active for 30 days before becoming a subscriber.
- There isn’t anything missing on the user’s profile page.
The platform also launched Verified Organizations, giving brands a gold checkmark, X Premium, priority support, access to advertising, and more.
2. Working on Video Content Features To Bring It on Par With Other Social Platforms
X is no longer only a micro-blogging social media platform due to the significant increase in video content consumption. This is due to the new leadership’s efforts to provide better video content features to its users.
For example, the platform allowed people to upload 2-3 hour-long videos, depending on the content’s resolution. The social media giant also introduced vertical video, as this was a popular format among younger generations.
Over time, it introduced a feature to allow premium subscribers to download specific videos.
3. Growing Twitter’s Data Licensing Business
The social media giant wanted to grow its data licensing business. The platform increased the fees to access its application protocol interface (API) as part of this goal.
The free tier gives developers a taste of what it’s like to use Twitter’s API. X continued offering free support for various public utilities to ensure these services don’t break.
They expanded the API tiers to ensure there’s always a suitable package for companies and developers.
However, this move had a side effect. Several third-party services that relied on the platform’s API found the new pricing plans unfeasible. As a result, they shut shop permanently.
4. Allowing Creators To Earn From the Platform
Twitter also released several features to help creators generate revenue from this platform. One example is the Ads Revenue Sharing program, which is tied to organic impressions on the ads in the reply section.
X also relaunched Super Follows as Subscriptions, allowing creators to create exclusive content on Twitter for their subscribers.
5. Introduction of X Hiring To Connect Brands With Candidates
The social media platform also took inspiration from LinkedIn by introducing X Hiring. With this service, brands can put job listings on this social network to find candidates. News travels fast on this social network, speeding up the hiring process.
6. Improving Content Moderation via Community Notes
Twitter’s old leadership introduced Birdwatch as part of its efforts to tackle misleading information. The new ownership rebranded it to Community Notes and focused on improving this service.
This community-driven program relies on contributors from more than 65 countries to prevent the spread of wrong information. It places notes below misleading content to ensure readers get accurate and verified information.
The platform continues growing this program, regularly adding new contributors and regions.
7. Rebranding Twitter to X
Rebranding Twitter to X was the biggest change introduced by the new leadership during their tenure. They overhauled the platform’s iconic blue bird and replaced it with “X.” This was to indicate that the platform was going in a new direction. It was also a move from being only a micro-blogging platform to an everything app.
8. Developing Grok, X’s First Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbot
The social media giant introduced Grok, an AI-powered chatbot, to its X Premium subscribers. Grok trained on the data available on X, allowing it to provide relevant, real-time answers to users’ queries.
The platform also integrated it into its trending page to give people summaries of the latest topics.
TweetDelete Offers Features That the New Leadership Is Yet To Provide
Is X’s new leadership taking the social media platform in the right direction? Although this is debatable, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, supports some of Musk’s decisions. He agrees that moving away from advertising and reducing the workforce is good for the platform.
Although the new owners regularly introduce new features, you still can’t mass-delete tweets. The only option is using the built-in delete feature, which removes a single post per tap.
With TweetDelete, you can bulk-delete your posts, giving you more control to manage your account. This tool helps you protect your privacy and prevents your older tweets from damaging your reputation.
Another way to remove multiple posts is with the auto-delete task. It targets specific tweets in your profile and periodically removes them. This way, you can continue doing what you enjoy on X without worrying about what’s on your profile.
Also, the unlike tweets feature is useful. It removes your likes on other users’ posts, helping to avoid controversies and protecting your reputation.
Join TweetDelete today to maintain your profile using features the new Twitter leadership has yet to offer!
