Elon Musk makes himself sole director of Twitter after dissolving entire board

Steve Hopkins

Elon isn’t getting board at Twitter just yet

Elon Musk has binned Twitter’s entire board and made himself the “sole director” of the company he took over last week.

All previous members of the board have been removed from that role, leaving only Musk as a director, according to a new filing which was made public on Monday.

The action was taken on Thursday as part of Musk’s $44bn purchase of the social media platform, according to that same SEC filing.

The nine person board previously included its chairman, Bret Taylor, as well as recently ousted chief executive Parag Agrawal. Musk axed a number of top Twitter execs hours after taking over.

The move is one of a number of substantial changes Musk has already made, or is trying to usher in over the coming days.

Others include the suggestion that he will set up a council “with widely diverse viewpoints” that will review content moderation decisions, that he will fire a significant number of employees, and that he could allow previously banned users – like Donald Trump – back. Kanye West has already returned to the platform, but Musk has said that had nothing to do with him.

Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.

No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022

Musk, according to multiple reports, also plans to raise the cost of Twitter Blue from $5 (£4.30) to $20 a month (£17), with verified users given 90 days to sign up or lose their blue tick.

Twitter engineers were reportedly told they have until next week to make the change happen, or they will lose their jobs.

Twitter has not commented on the plans, but Musk responded to questions from users on the platform about verification by saying that the “whole verification process is being revamped right now”.

Twitter Blue is only available in a select few countries around the world – not including the UK – and allows subscribers to access additional functions, including in some areas the ability to edit tweets after sending them. There had been suggestions Musk would use subscription to boost the platform’s revenue.

Musk is also said to be trying to revamp and relaunch Vine, the short-form video app which Twitter shut down in 2016 and was an early forerunner to the likes of TikTok.

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