Elon Musk fires entire Twitter board and makes himself sole director | US News

Elon Musk fired Twitter’s board of directors and appointed himself as its sole member.

Brett Taylor, former chairman of the board, and Parag Agrawal, former chief executive, are among the nine ousted directors, according to the company’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr. Musk completed a $44 billion takeover social media platform last week after months of legal wrangling.

The the richest man in the world is considering major changes as he begins his first week as the company’s new chief executive.

It is believed to be toying with the idea of ​​asking users to pay for the verification – known as the “blue tick” – provided to celebrities, politicians, business leaders and journalists.

Jason Calacanis, a venture capitalist who works with Mr Musk, tweeted a poll asking users how much they would be willing to pay for the blue tick that Twitter uses to verify high-profile accounts so others know they’re real they are

Mr. Musk responded to the survey by saying, “Interesting.”

In response to a user’s request for help with verification, Mr Musk tweeted on Sunday: “The entire verification process is being upgraded right now.”

On the same day Mr Musk bought Twitter, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced he was selling $1.9bn (£1.7bn) of his shares, making him the largest shareholder companies after Mr. Musk.

The move has raised concerns among some politicians, including Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy.

“A matter of national security”

Mr Murphy has since asked the Committee on Foreign Investment to investigate the national security implications of his investment in Twitter.

“We should be concerned that the Saudis, who clearly have an interest in suppressing political expression and influencing US policy, are now the second largest owner of a major social media platform,” Mr Murphy tweeted.

“There is an obvious problem of national security at stake [the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] you need to do an inspection.”

Shortly after the deal closed on Thursday, Mr. Musk fired Mr. Agrawal and other top executives. It is not yet clear if and when he might start larger layoffs.

Read more:
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Super App or Wild West? The future of Twitter under Elon Musk

Since the beginning of this year, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX has made several statements about how to “fix” Twitter.

He promised to ease some of the platform’s content restrictions to promote free speech, but announced on Friday that no major decisions on content or the reinstatement of banned accounts would be made until a “content moderation board” with diverse viewpoints was created.

He later clarified the statement by tweeting that “anyone suspended for trivial and questionable reasons will be released from Twitter Jail.”

There is speculation that Donald Trump, the former US president who was banned from Twitter after the January 6 uprising at the Capitol, may be allowed back on the platform after Mr Musk takes office.