Musk

A look at the life of SA-born billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP.

Chaotic? Four things that happened since Musk took over Twitter

From R145 for verified accounts to firing Twitter’s board of directors, here’s four things that happened since Elon Musk’s Twitter take over.

Musk

A look at the life of SA-born billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP.

Since South African-born billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter on Thursday 27 October there has been quite a few controversies. Here are four things that have happened since the Tesla and SpaceX CEO took over the micro-blogging platform.

1. ELON MUSK FIRED TWITTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS, BECAME SOLE DIRECTOR 

Billionaire Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s board of directors according to the documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday 31 October. So, he has become the sole director which gives him unfettered control over the micro-blogging platform.

He said that the arrangement would be temporary via a tweet on Monday 31 October.

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Elon Musk left South Africa at the age of 17 and just missed mandatory military service – here’s why. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

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2. THE BILLIONAIRE TO CHARGE $8 (R145) A MONTH FOR VERIFIED ACCOUNTS 

According to BBC, as an attempt to beat “spam and scam”, Musk seems to want to charge Tweeps $8 (R145) a month for verified accounts. These are accounts with the blue tick on the profile.

“Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” he tweeted.

3. MUSK SHARED CONSPIRACY THEORY ABOUT NANCY PELOSI’S HUSBAND’S ATTACKER 

The billionaire tweeted then deleted a link to an article with an unfounded theory about the Paul Pelosi attack. Paul Pelosi is the husband of House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. 

The since-deleted tweet had a link to an article by the Santa Monica Observer. The article suggested Pelosi left a San Francisco gay bar with DePape prior to his assault. 

Musk was replying to a tweet by Clinton. She posted an LA Times article about the suspected attacker, DePape and criticised Republicans for generally spreading “hate and deranged conspiracy theories”.

“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” tweeted Musk in response. The tweet has since been deleted.

The latest story by the outlet read “The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning”.

4. HIGH PROFILE FIGURES HAVE LEFT THE PLATFORM 

Multiple high profile figures – such as singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles and television producer and creator Shonda Rhimes – who have millions of Twitter followers, have left the platform.

“Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned,” write Rhimes on Saturday.

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