'These damn birds have to go': Biographer lifts the lid on Elon Musk

‘All these damn birds have to go’: What Elon Musk told Twitter lieutenant before tearing down company’s iconic chirpy logo and replacing them with dark gritty X sign – as his biographer lifts the lid on chaotic takeover

• Musk’s raft of controversial changes included allowing Trump back online 

Elon Musk told a Twitter lieutenant ‘all these damn birds have got to go’ as he took on the social media company in October last year it was revealed last night, as his biographer lifted the lid on the reality behind the chaotic takeover.

Writer Walter Isaacson told how the billionaire was initially ‘amused’ by the chirpy logo, before becoming ‘repulsed’ by how it was ‘placed everywhere’ in the company’s offices.

Since his takeover, Twitter has come under fire for a host of changes, most notably Musk’s decision to start charging for users to be verified and the cold way he fired hundreds of members of staff. 

The new insight into the final days before ownership transferred comes after it was revealed that Musk’s daughter cut all ties with him after allegedly becoming a ‘communist’. 

Two days before the $44billion purchase was finalised, Musk visited Twitter HQ in San Francisco, where he took in the bright art-deco building and rapidly became disgusted by the bird synonymous with the company.

Elon Musk celebrates buying Twitter with colleagues on the day of the deal by drinking bourbon

Musk is said to have hated the Twitter logo and planned for months to turn it into an X

For months he had been planning to turn the blue icon into his X label, having purchased the domain X.com years prior. He had been determined to turn X into an ‘everything app’ that would handle all financial and social matters.

Musk had wanted to turn payment giant PayPal into X, but was reportedly denied by business partners who thought it sounded too seedy.

In the months prior to the takeover, Musk had been considering beginning his own social media company similar to Twitter, but eventually ruled that purchasing out the company was the best bet.

But he soon came to regret the pricey $44billion price tag, with the dispute almost ending up in a Delaware Court.

Musk was certain he could win the battle, and is said to have told his lawyers of the Twitter executives: ‘They are s****ing bricks about the dumpster fire they’re in.’

Eventually, his lawyers managed to convince him he would not win any court battle seeking to reduce the agreed sum, and he reconciled himself to the deal. 

On Wednesday October 26, Musk visited Twitter’s HQ to prepare for the deal to be finalised.

Walter describes how Musk ‘relishes dark and stormy drama rather than chipper and light chattiness’ and said he walked around the offices as he raged against the blue logo and ‘woke-mind virus’ which he claimed had taken over the company.

The deal was due to be finalised on the Friday, but in true Musk style, he decided to pull the trigger early.

Musk had wanted to turn payment giant PayPal into X, but was reportedly denied by business partners who thought it sounded too seedy

Elon Musk announced plans to axe Twitter’s blocking feature and bring audio and video calls to the service

Audio and video calls will soon be available on the newly named X, as Elon Musk seeks to make his platform the go-to ‘global address book’

Rather than wait until the morning, Musk hatched a callous plot to get rid of members of the senior leadership before their stocks would vest.

In a ‘jujitsu manoeuvre’ that was ‘audacious, even ruthless’, he plotted to fire all of the chief executives rather than allow the smooth transfer that had been planned.

The biographer tells how at 4.12pm on the Thursday, Musk received confirmation his money had bene transferred and closed the deal.

At the same time precisely, the executives’ Twitter email accounts were all closed and hand-delivered letters were given to then-CEO Parag Agrawal and three other bosses – a calculated move to ensure they could not resign beforehand.

Just six minutes later, security is said to have informed Musk that they had been ‘exited’ from the building. His takeover was complete.

Since becoming the company’s owner, Musk has brought in a raft of controversial changes and came under fire for firing hundreds of members of staff.

Most recently he announced he would be getting rid of users’ ability to block other accounts. This will apply to all aspects of the site except for private messages. 

But there are serious concerns that the change will lead to a vast increase of abuse, which could have a detrimental impact on health if users are unable to prevent people from viewing their profile.

However co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey supported the move, saying: ‘100. Mute only.’

Elsewhere, he has announced plans to bring audio and video calls to the platform, which could see it come closer to social media firms such as Meta.

This was met with floods of concern from X users, with many fearful of harassment and scams.

And this may only worsen, as Jake Moore, a Global Cybersecurity Advisor at ESET, warns that unsolicited calls may be on the horizon.

‘It seems Musk has once again got an idea in his head but not yet planned it through completely,’ Mr Moore told MailOnline.

‘Calling other profiles via social media apps such as Instagram already exists so it’s not too dissimilar to this as a feature.

‘However, when removing the blocking of followers as a feature, X will need to adopt a way of keeping unsolicited calls from reaching users wanting to remain private.’ 

Timeline of Elon Musk’s eventful time at Twitter so far 

October 27: Musk is officially made the new owner of Twitter, and tweets ‘the bird is freed’.

November 1: Musk confirms plans to change the system of ‘Blue Tick’ verification on Twitter, for a reduced subscription fee of $8 a month.

November 4: Musk lays off half of Twitter’s workforce as an alleged cost-cutting measure, claiming he had ‘no choice’. 

November 9: Musk launches the ‘Twitter Blue’ subscription service which verifies accounts for a monthly fee.

November 11: The Twitter Blue service is paused due to accounts purchasing verification and using it to impersonate brands and public figures.

November 12: Musk fires 80 per cent of Twitter contractors without warning.

November 15: Musk fires employees that posted negatively about him on the business messaging app Slack. The lawsuit between Musk and Twitter is dismissed.

November 16:  Twitter staff are told they need to sign a pledge to be able to stay on in their roles where they would be ‘working long hours at high intensity’ or receive three months of severance pay, resulting in a mass exodus.

November 18: A news-ticker was projected onto Twitter HQ in San Francisco dubbing Musk as a ‘space Karen’, ‘mediocre manchild’ and ‘bankruptcy baby’.

November 23: A Twitter user reported that 5.4 million phone numbers and email addresses leaked on the dark web, before his account was suspended. 

November 26: Financial Times revealed that 50 of the platform’s top 100 advertisers have paused their ads.

November 29:  Platformer reported that Twitter is in the process of reinstating around 62,000 banned accounts that each have more than 10,000 followers.

December 12: Twitter Blue is re-launched with new Blue Tick reviewing process.

January 11: Twitter starts automatically redirecting users to the ‘For You’ tab – its algorithmic feed of tweets – every time they open the app. 

February 8: Twitter expands the character limit to 4,000 for Twitter Blue subscribers in the US. Shortly after, the site encounters technical difficulties.

February 12: Musk orders staff to revamp Twitter’s tweet promotion algorithm after his Super Bowl tweet didn’t get enough impressions.  

February 15: Twitter announces it will remove SMS two-factor authentication (2FA) from the free version of Twitter – a decision a security expert labelled ‘absurd’ that will lead to ‘so many accounts hacked’.

February 25: Twitter reveals a fresh round of layoffs that brought its workforce down to under 2,000 – a sharp fall from the 7,500 employed when the billionaire first took over in October.

March 28: Musk announces it will stop people from voting in Twitter polls or having their tweets appear in the For You tab if they do not pay for Twitter Blue. 

April 11: Musk gives an interview with the BBC at Twitter’s San Francisco HQ where he says he’s been sleeping on the floor of the company’s offices. Musk also accused the interviewer of lying because he couldn’t back up accusations about hate speech on the platform. 

June 21: Musk says he is ‘up for a cage match’ fight with rival tech CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  

July 1: Musk announces limits on how many tweets users can see per day – 600 for people who aren’t signed up for Twitter Blue, and 6,000 for Twitter Blue subscribers. 

July 23: Twitter is officially rebranded to X.com, with the classic blue bird logo replaced with an X.

August  18: Musk announces that ‘block’ will be deleted as a feature except for within direct messaging.

August 31: Musk reveals that audio and video calls will soon be introduced on the platform.

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