Tag: Parag Agrawal

  • Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and what it means for you

    Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and what it means for you

    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has finally closed the $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter.

    The “Chief Twit” allegedly fired Twitter’s senior executives, including its CEO Parag Agrawal and its head of legal policy Vijaya Gadde, on Thursday after closing the $44 billion deal.

    The takeover may bring significant changes to Twitter. The indicators have gotten stronger since the senior management was fired on the first day. Musk has previously made various allusions to the possibility of changing the online platform.

    This might not be good news if you use Twitter and value your online privacy. The platform has struggled with privacy and security issues for years, and it has been slow to put any potential fixes into action. As a result, it’s possible that everything you’ve ever done or said on Twitter, whether it was in public or private, including your direct messages, belongs to one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, a man notorious for being unpredictable, childish, and even vengeful.

    Additionally, it is now owned by a man who wanted to fire 75 per cent of the company’s employees, which might further jeopardise Twitter’s security.

    Noman Javed, an electrical engineer from Lahore, Pakistan, who has been using Twitter since 2010, said that given how immature and erratic Musk has always been, “anything is possible” on the social networking site. Musk has previously stated numerous times that he wants to support free expression and allow people to write anything; although this may sound positive, it can also be risky. As if everyone can tweet anything they want without worrying about being blocked or experiencing any negative effects.

    Javed anticipates that there may be increased disputes and debates on the platform, particularly between Indian and Pakistani users who regularly argue over a variety of topics, including sports and religion.

    According to TIME, when Musk commenced the takeover in April, he wrote CEO Agrawal, “I have a tonne of ideas.”

    Musk lists the preservation of “free expression” on Twitter as one of his key concerns. One of the primary advocates for removing Trump from the platform, Vijaya Gadde’s dismissal is regarded as the first step in that direction.

    After the attacks on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, Trump was taken from the podium. A few other right-wing speakers were banned from the stage for promoting false information and divisive ideas.

    In a survey Musk conducted in March, he found that 74 per cent of users wanted an “edit” feature. The edit button has already begun to undergo testing on Twitter, but it has not yet been made available everywhere.

    Musk has spoken out against the pervasive use of bots on Twitter. Musk said in September that 90% of the replies on his tweets are automated. Even Agrawal was targeted with the assertion that eight out of ten Twitter accounts are bogus.

    He might take action in the coming days based on bots and phoney accounts. However, a Scottish digital university called CodeClan claims that if Musk bans bots, he might lose as many as 13.5 million followers.

    According to Bloomberg, in April, Musk reportedly disclosed to the banks his plans to create features to increase business revenue, including novel ways to monetize tweets that contain significant information or go viral.

    He suggested ideas including charging a fee when a third-party website wants to reference or incorporate a tweet from a verified person or organisation.

    A UCLA adjunct professor named Robert McCann claims that Musk’s public criticism of Twitter and its leadership has caused a “significant erosion of trust” on the website.

    Employee morale can suffer, and it might “spook” potential customers. Additionally, due to the restructuring at the very top, more employees may voluntarily quit the company after the purchase.

    In an open letter to advertisers published on Thursday, billionaire Elon Musk said he wouldn’t allow Twitter to devolve into a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.” His apparent goal was to allay users’ and advertisers’ concerns the day before his $44 billion acquisition.

  • Musk says no Twitter deal without clarity on bot accounts

    Musk says no Twitter deal without clarity on bot accounts

    The tech mogul Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal are arguing about bots, which Musk has made a core issue in his acquisition of the microblogging site.

    On the other hand, Agrawal outlined Twitter’s approach to spam accounts and the obstacles it faces in dealing with them in a series of tweets on May 16.

    Every day, Twitter suspends almost half a million spam accounts, according to Agrawal. He reaffirmed Twitter’s long-held estimate that less than 5 per cent of its daily active users are spam accounts, which Musk mentioned on Friday when declaring that his $44 billion proposal to buy Twitter was temporarily on pause.

    That estimate, according to Agrawal, is based on ‘many human reviews of thousands of users’ picked at random, but it’s impossible to know which accounts are counted on any given day.

    While Twitter feels its estimations are realistic, the measures were not independently validated, and the actual number of bogus or spam accounts could be greater.

    Believe it or not, Musk responded to Agrawal’s first 13 tweets with a ‘faeces emoji’.

    Musk then asked a more thought-provoking inquiry about how can advertisers know what they’re getting for their money as this is essential Twitter’s financial health.

    Tesla’s CEO has been vocal about bots and spam accounts on Twitter, describing bitcoin spam and bots as the most aggravating issue on the network.

    Read more: Musk postpones Twitter acquisition after discovering number of fake accounts

    Anyone who has seen the answers to Musk’s tweets knows that they are full of such con artists, many of whom try to profit from Musk’s fame.

    However, other analysts believe that the world’s richest man is leveraging the bot issue to lower the price at which he would purchase the platform, whether as an unusual bargaining ploy or out of necessity.

  • Elon Musk is no longer joining Twitter board as the microblogging network is “dying”

    Elon Musk is no longer joining Twitter board as the microblogging network is “dying”

    The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk will not be joining the Twitter board of directors, according to Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk’s appointment on the board was supposed to start on April 9, however, he announced that he would no longer be joining.

    Agrawal posted a statement on April 10, saying Musk’s appointment to the board would be subject to a background investigation and that once nominated, he would have to operate in the company’s best interests. “Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input,” he added.

    What Happened Earlier?

    Earlier, the tech mogul tweeted the list of the top ten most followed personalities, which included celebrities and politicians such as former US President Barack Obama, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga.

    The world’s wealthiest man had a complaint: many of the top Twitter accounts do not upload anything.

    Former US President Barack Obama (131.4 million followers), singer Justin Bieber (114.3 million), Katy Perry (108.8 million), and other top accounts belonging to popular artists Rihanna and Taylor Swift were among the names on the list from the Twitter account of World of Statistics, which Musk posted.

    Interestingly, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ranked ninth on the list, with a popularity of 77.1 million followers, one notch below Musk, who has 81 million followers on the social network.

    Whereas Modi is an avid Twitter user who publishes everything from his daily schedule to welcoming foreign leaders, Musk laments that celebrities like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber rarely post. Taylor hasn’t posted anything in three months, and the ‘yummy’ singer Justin Bieber only tweeted once in 2022.

    Musk, who just purchased a 9.2 per cent interest in Twitter for roughly $3 billion in his controversial style, asked his followers another question: Is Twitter dying? 

    In an ‘April fool’ message, Twitter said that it is testing some new features, one of which is a long-awaited ‘edit’ button. The platform later explained that the change to the edit button was not an April Fool’s prank and that it was truly being tested by the company.

    It is worth noting that Musk also proposed a number of improvements to Twitter’s Blue premium subscription service, including lowering the price, limiting adverts, and allowing users to pay in the crypto. Many internet users were surprised by the recent announcement, as they had been expecting Tesla’s CEO to join the board of microblogging site and witness what changes he would make.

  • Rahul Gandhi asks Twitter why his followers seem to be restricted, Twitter denies claim

    Rahul Gandhi asks Twitter why his followers seem to be restricted, Twitter denies claim

    Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to Twitter CEO Parag Aggarwal in December to inquire about the decrease of his followers and if it was due to the influence of the Indian government, reports Wall Street Journal.

    “I want to bring your attention to what I believe is Twitter’s unwitting complicity in curbing free and fair speech in India… I have been reliably, albeit discreetly, informed by people at Twitter India that they are under immense pressure by the government to silence my voice,” wrote Gandhi.

    “Since August, the average number of my new monthly Twitter followers has fallen to nearly zero. There is an inflection point after which my Twitter account seems to have been paralysed.”

    Co-founder of AltNews, Mohammed Zubair, analysed the Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi and compared it with the Twitter accounts of Indian Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah and Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi. It revealed that followers of Gandhi dropped drastically whereas Shah and Modi gained more followers since September 2021.

    Twitter also responded to Rahul Gandhi’s claims of restricting his followers, “Follower counts are a visible feature, and we want everyone to have confidence that the numbers are meaningful and accurate. Twitter has a zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation and spam. We fight spam and malicious automation strategically and at scale with machine learning tools, and as part of those consistent and ongoing efforts to ensure a healthy service and credible accounts, follower counts can and do fluctuate.”

    Twitter also highlighted that they do remove accounts that violate its community policies.

    “We remove millions of accounts each week for violating our policies on platform manipulation and spam. You can take a look at our latest Twitter Transparency Center update for more context. While some accounts notice a minor difference, in certain cases the number could be higher,” Twitter said in response to Gandhi.

    Last year, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of Rahul Gandhi on August 8, 2021, when he uploaded a photograph with the family of a nine-year-old Dalit rape victim, which was taken down by Twitter later.

  • ‘At least KFC has Pakistani CEO’, netizens react to Twitter’s new Indian CEO

    ‘At least KFC has Pakistani CEO’, netizens react to Twitter’s new Indian CEO

    Indian born Parag Agrawal has been named as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Twitter after co-founder Jack Dorsey’s resignation.

    The news is making headlines in India. This is not the first time that an Indian has been appointed as a CEO of a well-known organisation. Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Alphabet, the umbrella network of Google. Similarly, Shantanu Narayen is Adobe’s and Satya Nadella is Microsoft’s.

    Since Agrawal’s appointment, Pakistanis have been tweeting about the Indian CEOs who have taken over the Information Technology (IT) world.

    There are a few hilarious ones.

    https://twitter.com/ChaiNotCoffee/status/1465645570756952070?s=20

  • Elon Musk praises Indian talent as Indian takes over Twitter

    Elon Musk praises Indian talent as Indian takes over Twitter

    Billionaire Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla Motors, took to Twitter to share his admiration for the Indian talent that contributed to America’s economy as Jack Dorsey (CEO) of Twitter stepped down and announced his successor, Indian Parag Agrawal.

    Last night, Dorsey announced his resignation on Twitter and confirmed that his replacement was Indian-born Parag Agrawal. Dorsey will remain a member of the board until his term expires in May 2022 and assist Parag with the transition.

    A 37-year-old immigrant from India, Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 as a Software Engineer and was later promoted to Chief Technical Officer (CTO) in 2017. While working as CTO, he worked as in-charge of strategy involving Artificial Intelligence, reports CNBC.

    A colleague of Agrawal, Chklovski, who worked with him from 2012 to 2014 said, “Parag is phenomenal, understands the problems, stays up late to get it done, mentors others — he’s the whole package.”

    Yoel Roth who is Twitter’s head of site integrity, tweeted, “Parag was one of the first engineers I worked with when I started at Twitter (when we were first working on timeline ranking). The rigor he brings to every decision was clear then, and I’m delighted to see it recognized today.”

    https://twitter.com/yoyoel/status/1465360091348041731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1465360091348041731%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2021%2F11%2F29%2Ftwitter-ceo-parag-agrawal-key-to-dorseys-plans-to-revamp-social-media.html

    Apart from Twitter, five giant companies Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks have been headed currently by Indian-origin immigrants.