Elon Musk says Twitter will do 'lots of dumb things' under his leadership
Musk's statement came as the company scrapped a new 'official' badge hours after introducing it
Twitter will do "lots of dumb things" under Billionaire Elon Musk's leadership, the newly-minted CEO of the platform announced Wednesday.
Musk took over Twitter at the end of October and promptly made sweeping changes to the company, firing top executives and thousands of other employees. The company's new strategy will be to try numerous options to see what sticks.
"Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months," Musk wrote. "We will keep what works & change what doesn’t."
Musk's statement came as Twitter rolled out — and then promptly killed — a new "official" badge, which first began appearing on accounts Wednesday morning.
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Elon Musk attends Heidi Klum's 2022 Hallowe'en Party at Sake No Hana at Moxy LES on October 31, 2022 in New York City. ((Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
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The "official" badge appeared to have been deemed necessary due to Musk's plans to allow users to pay for the existing blue "verified" badge. The company has had a halting rollout of its subscription program, which will cost between $4 and $8 per month.
Only a smattering of accounts featured the "official" badge before it was removed, including major news outlets, political organizations and some politicians.
Musk has also said creators will be able to monetize their content on Twitter, though he has not elaborated on the program.
Another potential feature is the ability to attach long-form statements to the existing 280-character format.
Elon Musk’s Twitter account is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in front of the homepage of the Twitter website. (Chesnot/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Musk's stated goal in purchasing Twitter was to protect the freedom of speech, saying in a statement last week that a public square open to diverse opinions is necessary for democracy to thrive.
Musk announced the firings of several top executives at the company to that end, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde.
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Gadde led the company's push to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story first published in the New York Post prior to the 2020 election.