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Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs and ready to hire again

Elon Musk is hiring again after firing roughly two-thirds of Twitter’s 7,500 employees in only three weeks.

According to a tweet from a The Verge reporter, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk assured employees in an all-hands meet that the business does not expect future layoffs and is hiring for engineering and ad sales positions. Musk stated that Twitter is hiring for engineering and ad sales positions and that there are no further planned layoffs.

According to The Verge, Musk declared during the meeting that he planned to decentralize Twitter by establishing technical teams in Brazil, Japan, India, and other countries. He asserted throughout the discussion that Twitter’s technological stack has to be completely rebuilt.

Additionally, he asserted that somewhat decentralizing things is a good idea. Musk made a suggestion that engineering teams might also be established in India as part of this.

However, Twitter does not currently have any job vacancies advertised on its website, and Musk did not name the specific technical or sales positions for which the company was recruiting. During the meeting, he stated, “In terms of critical hires, I would say people who are great at writing software are the highest priority.” Last week, The Verge reported that Twitter recruiters had begun contacting engineers and inviting them to join “Twitter 2.0 — an Elon company.”

During a half-hour Q&A session with staff members from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, Musk claimed there are “no plans” to transfer Twitter headquarters to Texas, as he did with Tesla, but that it may make sense to have “dual-headquartered” offices in Texas and California.

Anyone joining Twitter today will do so in a far smaller organization than it was prior to Musk’s takeover. The precise number of exits during his tenure is unknown, but before he fired over half the workforce, there were almost 7,400 workers with access to Twitter’s internal systems.

Long-serving engineers, some of whom had served the company for over ten years, as well as an increasing number of corporate leaders, have left the company. On Musk’s first day, Twitter’s CEO, CFO, and chief legal officer were all fired.

The executives of Twitter’s biggest content and advertising partnerships have either left their positions or been fired. As per former and current employees, several “essential” teams were totally destroyed by the layoffs and resignations.

Another significant change is the suspension of Twitter’s $8 subscription-based “Blue Verification” mark’s re-launch. Elon Musk has also temporarily suspended the “Blue Verified” badge “until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation”.

According to Musk, the social media giant is delaying the rollout of a new system for awarding verified ticks to users and may instead employ other “colour checks” to verify businesses and people. Musk also mentioned that Twitter will soon be in a position to compete with YouTube in terms of offering a video streaming service, dropping a hint that Twitter may do so with “higher compensation for creators” and a pleasant video experience.

The new Twitter CEO today advised Twitter critics to go on other social media sites and ended his statement with the Hindi greeting “Namaste.” He tweeted,” Hope all judgy hall monitors stay on other platforms – please, I’m begging u.”

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Elon Musk puts Twitter’s Blue Verified relaunch on hold

If you didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to give Elon Musk 7.99 USD for a blue check for your Twitter account while you could, you may even have to wait a little longer. Originally scheduled to reintroduce on November 29, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter on Monday evening that the twitter’s blue verified feature will be postponed, indefinitely, until there is a greater probability of stopping identity theft.

The initial release of Twitter Blue Verified or known as the “I-paid-Elon-$7.99” Blue Tick was a complete disaster. Obviously, the feature instantly became favourable to assist bad actors in trying to impersonate celebrities, corporate entities, and political figures.

one user account tried to imitate the drug manufacturer Eli Lilly and was announcing that insulin is free in the name of the company. Before it was removed, the tweet had been viewed a million times. The stock of the company fell 4.37 per cent.

Elon Musk went on to say that Twitter will most likely use a check of a different colour for organisations than individuals. Twitter has already experimented with using a grey official classification underneath high-profile accounts, although the feature has been turned on and off numerous times since it was first introduced.

According to The Verge, Musk also discussed working to develop features such as encoded personal messages and videoconferencing in an intrinsic presentation termed Twitter 2.0. This isn’t the first time he has mentioned implementing end-to-end encrypted DMs.

Musk insinuated that Twitter is progressing on this feature in a tweet in response to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong’s tweet, which outlined code related to that. The Twitter CEO stated earlier this month that the “goal of Twitter DM is to superset Signal.”

As some Twitter users experiment with alternative platforms such as Mastodon and Hive, Elon Musk claims that Twitter added 1.6 million monetizable daily active customers in the recent week, bringing the company’s total to 259.4 million. Notably, Musk engaged in a months-long legal battle after deeming these same metrics inaccurate in an attempt to backtrack on his Twitter purchase.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Meta rolls out new privacy updates in bid to keep teen users safe

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

New online safety precautions have been introduced by social media behemoth Meta to protect teenage users.

Last year, Meta introduced some of the steps that might be taken to keep teenagers away from possibly suspicious adults. For instance, the company forbids adults from contacting minors with whom they are not connected or from seeing adolescents in its People You May Know suggestions.

On Monday, Meta said that it would add new safeguards to its social networking sites Facebook and Instagram to safeguard young users from harm online. Facebook announced in a blog post that anybody below 16, or 18 in some regions, will now automatically have more private settings for their accounts.

The company is experimenting with additional safeguards to prevent teens from communicating with questionable adults they are not related to, and they won’t display them in the People You May Know section for teens.

The company is also completely eliminating the message button from teen Instagram profiles when they are visited by suspicious adults as an additional degree of security. According to Meta, an adult account that has lately been reported or blocked by a youngster qualifies as suspicious.

The updated tools come with more standard privacy settings and safety notifications. Some privacy options allow kids to control who may view their friends list, posts that they’re tagged in, and who can add comments on their public posts.

Meta noted, “We’re working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to build a global platform for teens who are worried intimate images they created might be shared on public online platforms without their consent.”

In order to combat the online proliferation of self-generated personal photographs, new tools and training are also being developed. Meta is collaborating with Thorn and their NoFiltr brand to develop instructional resources that will assist youngsters in lessening the shame and stigma associated with intimate photographs.

Meta noted, “We found that more than 75% of people that we reported to NCMEC for sharing child exploitative content shared the content out of outrage, poor humor, or disgust, and with no apparent intention of harm. Sharing this content violates our policies, regardless of intent.

We’re planning to launch a new PSA campaign that encourages people to stop and think before resharing those images online and to report them to us instead.”

Teens can use a variety of tools created by Meta to inform the platform when something in one of its apps causes them to feel uncomfortable. They are encouraged to use these tools through new notifications the company has introduced.

For instance, the company sends teens safety notifications with instructions on how to deal with abusive messages from adults and prompts them to report profiles to the platform when they block someone.

Over 100 million users viewed safety notifications on Messenger in a single month in 2021. Additionally, the company has made it simpler for users to access the reporting tools. As an outcome, the company received over 70% more reports from minors, in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2021, on Instagram DM, and Facebook Messenger.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Bob Iger is returning to head Disney as Bob Chapek steps down

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

One of Disney’s most successful CEOs, Bob Iger, is coming back to lead the media conglomerate once more.

Disney has reverted the CEO change that caught everyone off guard in 2020, with Bob Iger resuming his position as the CEO and taking the place of Bob Chapek, his replacement. Iger, who also holds the majority of the company’s stock, will now begin a fresh two-year tenure as CEO.

Susan Arnold, Chairman of the Board for Disney stated, “We thank Bob Chapek for his service to Disney over his long career, including navigating the company through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic. The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period”.

As per Disney, Susan Arnold will continue serving as the chairperson and there has been no change to the board. Iger led Disney as CEO for 15 years, from 2005 to 2020, before choosing to step aside and transfer control to Bob Chapek.

Notably, Chapek and Disney agreed to a three-year contract extension in June. Iger declared upon his return that he was excited to rejoin Disney and that he was hopeful about the company’s future.

Bob Iger noted, “Disney and its incomparable brands and franchises hold a special place in the hearts of so many people around the globe — most especially in the hearts of our employees, whose dedication to this company and its mission is an inspiration.

I am deeply honored to be asked to again lead this remarkable team, with a clear mission focused on creative excellence to inspire generations through unrivaled, bold storytelling.”

Iger managed Disney’s significant deals with Marvel, Pixar, and 21st Century Fox during his previous stint. The returning CEO also informed the Disney workers, including the cast members, via email that they would learn more about this decision “tomorrow and in coming weeks” from the leadership.

The corporation had not benefited greatly from Chapek’s 11-month tenure as the CEO. The share price of the company decreased by over 40% during his tenure. He was also criticized for not actively opposing Florida’s anti-gay law. Under his leadership, the corporation terminated senior content executive Peter Rice and missed the chance to secure digital streaming rights for the Indian Premier League.

The news was well received by investors, who drove Disney stock up 9% on Monday after it had lost about 36% of its worth this year.

The announcement comes at a pivotal time for Disney. A little more than two weeks have passed since Disney released its Q4 2022 financial results, stating that both its media and park sectors fell short of analyst expectations. Its streaming sector has expanded as more subscribers choose a package option that combines Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, and Hulu, but streaming fees are also rising.

In Q3 2022, the business reported revenues of $20.2 billion, falling short by over $1 billion of analyst estimates. Disney’s CFO at the time, Christine McCarthy, stated that the goal for the company is to become profitable by the 2024 fiscal year.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Jeff Bezos Warns of Economic Recession, Advises People To Avoid Expensive Purchases

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Amazon founder and Billionaire Chief Executive officer, Jeff Bezos, has advised customers and owners of small businesses to postpone major purchases in advance of the holiday period.

He said that he can tell that the economy doesn’t really look good in recent times right in a CNN sit-down interview released on Monday after reporter Chloe Melas asked if the economy was going through a recession.

Jeff Bezos claimed that if we aren’t in a recession right now, we are very probably to enter one very soon.

“Take some risk off the table, keep some dry powder on hand…. Just a little bit of risk reduction could make the difference for that small business, if we do get into even more serious economic problems. You’ve got to play the probabilities a little bit,” Bezos was quoted as saying.

“If you’re an individual considering to purchase a big-screen TV, you might want to wait, hold onto your money, and see what transpires. The same is true with a new automobile, refrigerator, or whatever else. Just remove some risk from the equation,” he added.
Source: tribuneindia.com

It is undoubtedly not the suggestion you hoped to hear out from a person who owns and manages the e-commerce website which pervades Black Friday sales year after year, as well as it is equally hugely profitable Cyber Monday sale a few days later.

Jeff Bezos’ suggestion came not long after The New York Times disclosed that Amazon intends to lay off about 10,000 employees, many from its Alexa, sales, and human resources sections, in one of the company’s largest layoffs in history.

So, it appears that Bezos will be pinching pennies at the cost of thousands of employees, but likely not his wallet. In another section of the interview, Bezos bragged about how he intended to give away his massive wealth, planning to announce a 100 million USD donation to songster and philanthropist Dolly Parton.

Suhani Jain

WhatsApp To Soon Launch New Yellow Pages-Style Business Directory

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

WhatsApp is formally debuting a brand-new business directory feature in the UK, Colombia, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico. The new tools will be introduced for the first time in Brazil, one of Whatsapp’s largest markets, outside of pilot projects.

WhatsApp has revealed the release of a business directory feature that supports in-app transactions. Users can use this feature to find nearby businesses. Users can look up the business by categories including banking, dining, and travel.

After a brief test in So Paulo, Brazil, last year, WhatsApp decided to officially launch the service. In Brazil, the feature is only accessible through Android, however, it is accessible through both Android and iOS in the other four countries.

At a meeting in Brazil devoted to WhatsApp, the company said that the “business search” tool will help people find contacts for businesses more quickly. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, noted, “We want to make it easier for people to get more done on WhatsApp.

Part of that is building better ways to engage with businesses. The ultimate goal here is to make it so you can find, message, and buy from a business all in the same WhatsApp chat.” To start a conversation with a business on Whatsapp, users previously had to enter a mobile number to their phone contacts or follow a link on a different site.

The feature’s release coincides with WhatsApp’s increased marketing of itself as a platform for users to contact businesses in addition to family and friends. According to Meta, more than 175 million users use WhatsApp to communicate with business accounts daily as of October 2020.

Other e-commerce-related features have also been introduced to the service, such as support for in-app shopping.. According to a press statement from WhatsApp, the merchant payments functionality is now being tested in Brazil “with multiple payment partners.”

The business-oriented features of WhatsApp are noteworthy since they represent one of the few means the platform is monetized using the WhatsApp Business API. It doesn’t similarly display ads as Instagram and Facebook, two of Meta’s other top services, do. However, a Meta executive told Reuters a year ago that WhatsApp’s business model “in some form or another” is likely to include adverts in the future.

With the debut of person-to-person payments in 2020, Meta recently announced WhatsApp’s “first-ever end-to-end shopping experience” in India with JioMart earlier this year. However, the expansion in Brazil has been more delayed. The payments function of WhatsApp was shut down by Brazil’s national bank in 2020, not long after it was introduced.

The Financial Times reported in April of this year that Meta was having trouble obtaining payment providers for its payment-to-merchant service.

Over 2 billion people use WhatsApp worldwide. According to the company’s quarterly earnings, which were cited by TechCrunch last month, the click-to-WhatsApp ad business had increased revenue by 80% year over year and was on course to reach $1.5 billion annually.

Recently, Meta reported its first-ever yearly revenue drop and laid off over 11,000 employees.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

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