Elon Musk’s first week at Twitter: Mass firings, a blue tick subscription drama and bringing back banned users

It feels like it could be a week to forget for Elon Musk since his acquisition of Twitter for a reported Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon_Musk">£38.1 billion. The entrepreneur, known for his success with SpaceX and Tesla and for creating PayPal, vowed to unlock the untapped potential the micro-blogging platform had before his initial move to buy the company.

Even the negotiations regarding his deal to buy Twitter was marred with controversy and uncertainty. Originally, Musk wanted to back out of the deal unless Twitter demonstrated their audience analytics and proved that the majority of their user base were not bots. His rallying cries about freedom of speech on the platform also felt like a case of dog whistling for many.

Nonetheless, Musk’s acquisition of Twitter went ahead, with the now infamous video circulating of the billionaire businessman walking into Twitter’s offices with a kitchen sink, informing followers to “let that sink in.”

But it’s hardly been the smooth sailing Musk has expected; a raft of faux pas, cost cutting measures and murmurs of a subscription based “verification” process have been among the many public facing issues that the new owner had faced in the space of one week.

Musk has not shied away from the criticisms either; characteristically taken to the platform to bemoan the barbs he has faced throughout this short tenure as Twitter’s owner, Musk recently changed his Twitter bio to “Twitter Complaint Hotline Manager” and his most recent tweet telling critics “trash me all day, but it’ll cost $8.”