Elon Musk is known for being an unpredictable but talented businessman. We have witnessed more of the former in his first 10 days as Twitter's CEO than the latter.
Investors in Silicon Valley have long viewed Twitter as being poorly handled but yet having a tonne of potential.
Mr Musk persuaded his wealthy friends to invest by claiming that Twitter could be successful if managed by a skilled individual. Profits would follow as free expression would flourish.
But Mr Musk's lack of management skills in his first 10 days as CEO has been made clear.
When he took control and tweeted, "The Bird is Freed," everyone was smiling.
But Mr. Musk's initial set of policies didn't seem to line up with what he had said earlier in the summer.
Trump would be permitted to speak on the platform because he was a "free speech absolutist." Still, he claimed, a "council" of "diverse" voices would be established to make contentious moderation decisions and determine long-term suspensions.
An "oversight board" for these matters exists under Facebook's policies, which Mr Musk was announcing as his own.
Additionally, he stated that the short-term moderation policy would not change.
However, he made one significant improvement to Twitter's verification process.
Following concerns from several celebrities, including author Stephen King, the platform will now charge customers who want a blue tick verified account $8 (£7) every month.
Although the price cut may have already been decided, it appeared as though the pricing had not been well considered and that the policy was being dictated by well-known users.
Subscription route to profit
Other criticisms also existed.
In a few days, the policy was supposed to go into effect. Anyone who paid to get verified would receive a blue tick in addition to priority status for replies, mentions, and searches. To put it another way, accounts could now purchase prestige and platform amplification.
The integrity and impartiality of the policy announcement were immediately called into question. Since the user has already paid their monthly subscription, some content will float over others.
Mr Musk claimed his strategy would help Twitter deal with its bot problem. Spam accounts would be removed by mass verification. But this also had financial implications because he thinks Twitter's subscription model will increase revenue.
Others questioned the impact of the dissemination of misinformation by opening up the vetting process.
How would Twitter be able to verify that everyone was who they claimed to be if the verification was available to anyone?
Some were concerned that, with the US midterm elections just around the corner, individuals would promote voter misinformation by posing as election coordinators or journalists.
It was clear that many people would be required to verify the anticipated influx of new accounts thoroughly. Any of the 300 million daily active users of Twitter are eligible to apply.
Mr. Musk reportedly urged management to create names of workers to fire during his first week on the job.
The company's employees received emails on Thursday informing them that their jobs were in jeopardy, less than seven days after Mr. Musk formally purchased it. Then, about half of Twitter's 7,500 workers were let go.
More than a few people were surprised by the drastic workforce reduction. Why buy a company for $44 billion and then fire half the employees?
Additionally, the timing felt off; how could a decision about who to terminate be made so quickly?
For official confirmation, employees were promised an email by Friday at 16:00 GMT, but many never received it.
Senior community manager Simon Balmain told the BBC that he was in "limbo" after being locked out of his Twitter account.
All workers apparently have access to Twitter's offices was restricted to those with mission-critical roles. Numerous employees had their accounts locked. Few were aware of the situation.
Immediately, concerns about moderation arose. With so many employees let go, how was Twitter able to remove false information and hate speech from its platform?
Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of integrity, tweeted on Friday night that although half of the company had been let go, front-line moderators had seen "the least impact."
Even yet, given the uncertainty surrounding its verified accounts structure, how could Twitter implement a policy change that was unprecedented?
Anyone might apply to receive a blue tick under the new verification process, it was announced on Saturday.
The New York Times, however, later reported that the procedure had been postponed until after the November elections.
It seemed that Twitter understood the potential chaos that could result from implementing such a significant policy change so soon before important elections.
Following that, Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Twitter was now asking some of its sacked employees to return, saying it had been a mistake to terminate some of them.
BBC inquiries for comment on these articles received no response from Twitter.
Even though it has only been 10 days, it has at times been challenging to follow. The confusion does, however, imply that if Mr. Musk had a short-term strategy for altering Twitter, it is not proceeding as intended.
