It has been an eventful few days for tech billionaire Elon Musk since he walked into Twitter HQ carrying a sink — he sacked the board of directors and declared himself the new CEO.
Mr Musk announced an intention in April to buy the social media platform, kicking of months of on-again-off-again commentary and legal threats.
The matter did not go to trial and Mr Musk eventually completed the purchase, paying $US44 billion ($64 billion) for the company. So what does he plan to do now?
New CEO and director
After arriving at his new office, Mr Musk changed his Twitter bio to 'Chief Twit'.
In a filing to financial markets on Monday, he said that he would serve as Twitter's chief executive, alongside running car-maker Tesla, rocket company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunnelling firm the Boring Company.
In a separate filing, he revealed he became the sole director of Twitter as a result of the takeover.
"The following persons, who were directors of Twitter prior to the effective time of the merger, are no longer directors of Twitter: Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li and Mimi Alemayehou," Mr Musk said.
Shortly afterward, Mr Musk tweeted that the move to dissolve the board was "just temporary", without elaborating.
European rules
Mr Musk has assured the European Commission that, under his ownership, Twitter will abide by tough European rules on illegal online content policing, European Union sources said on Monday.
In an exchange that was previously unreported, Mr Musk told Thierry Breton, the EU's industry chief, that he planned to comply with the region's Digital Services Act, which levies hefty fines on companies if they do not control illegal content.
The exchange came after Mr Breton took to Twitter to warn mr Musk about the new European legislation on Friday.
"In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules," Mr Breton tweeted.
EU lawmakers approved the landmark rules to rein in tech giants over the summer, which will require online platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content, with big platforms required to have more moderators than small ones.
Companies will face fines of up to 6 per cent of annual global turnover for breaches of Digital Services Act.
The assurances from Mr Musk appeared to suggest a pragmatic attitude, despite previously expressing his desire to see Twitter with fewer limits on content.
Motivated 'to help humanity'
Mr Musk has shared few details about his plans for Twitter beyond cutting jobs, leaving 7,500 employees uncertain about their future.
In a Tweet addressing Twitter's advertisers, he explained his reasons for acquiring the platform.
"The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence."
Mr Musk also mentioned the danger of social media splintering into far right- or left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and division.
"I didn't do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love."
Paying for blue-tick verification?
A venture capitalist working with Mr Musk recently tweeted a poll asking how much users would be willing to pay for the blue check mark that Twitter has historically used to verify higher-profile accounts, so that other users know it's really them.
Without going into details, Mr Musk on Monday tweeted that the verification process was being revamped.
Technology newsletter Platformer cited two people familiar with the matter stating that Twitter was considering charging for the coveted blue check mark.
Users would have to subscribe to Twitter Blue at $4.99 a month or lose their "verified" badges if the project moves forward, according to the report.
The CEO of Tesla has not made a final decision and the project could still be scrapped, but according to Platformer, it is likely verification will become a part of Twitter Blue.
Separately, The Verge reported on Sunday that Twitter would increase the subscription price for Twitter Blue, which also verifies users, from $4.99 a month to $19.99 a month, citing internal correspondence seen by them.
Twitter Blue was launched in June last year as the platform's first subscription service, which offers "exclusive access to premium features" on a monthly subscription basis including an option to edit tweets.
The feature to edit tweets was also made available earlier this month after Musk launched a Twitter poll in April asking his millions of followers whether they wanted an edit button. More than 70 per cent had said yes.
