iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Twitter’s advertising chief Sarah Personette on Tuesday said that she had resigned from her post last week hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk closed the $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal and took control of the micro-blogging platform.
Taking to Twitter, Personette said, “Hi folks, I wanted to share that I resigned on Friday from Twitter and my work access was officially cut off last night. It has been the greatest privilege to serve all of you as a leader and a partner. Many have heard me say this but the most important role I believe I played in the company was championing the requirements of brand safety,”
Personette didn’t state why she had resigned from Twitter. Last week, soon after he completed the Twitter buyout, Musk began firing the company’s top executives, including its CEO Parag Agrawal. On Monday, he dissolved the board, making him the CEO as well as the sole board member.
In her Tweet thread, she said that the new administration understands the importance of holding up the standards of GARM.
GARM is the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a cross-industry initiative established by the World Federation of Advertisers to address the challenge of harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising.
GARM was launched at Cannes in the summer of 2019 and has been working hard to highlight the changes needed for advertisers to feel more confident about advertising on social media. As of November 2019, GARM is a flagship project of the World Economic Forum Platform For Shaping the Future of Media, Entertainment and Culture.
Twitter is one of the founding members of GARM.
Personette continued, “On to the most important part of this tweet, all of you. To my team, as you know I usually have a lot of words but there are no words to describe the honor I feel in being able to build with all of you.”
Meanwhile, hours later of Personette’s tweets, Musk announced a new version of “Twitter Blue” where he planned to charge $8 a month for Twitter’s subscription service with priority in replies, mentions, and searches.
Musk tweeted, “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for USD 8/month.”
This announcement came after various media reports revealed that Twitter is planning to charge users $19.99 (over ₹1600) for the new Twitter Blue subscription that brings extra features like edit and undoing tweets.
The Tesla CEO, now also the Twitter CEO, further added that the new service will get the users “Priority in replies, mentions and search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam – Ability to post long video & audio – Half as many ads. Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity,” he tweeted.
Musk also said that the new service will give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators.
This all started with author Stephen King’s tweet, according to CNN. On Monday, King tweeted, “$20 a month to keep my blue check?” followed by an expletive. “They should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” Following up later in a reply, King wrote, “It ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.”
Musk replied to King early Tuesday morning with his quirky tweet and a sort of proposal to charge for account verification. “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers,” he said. “How about $8?”
The Twitter Blue subscription launched widely over a year ago as a way to view ad-free articles from some publishers and make other tweaks to the app, such as a different color home screen icon.
Twitter’s head of advertising Sarah Personette resigns
