By James Simons-
Tesla boss Elon Musks has sold another 19.5 million shares of the electric car maker worth $3.95bn (£3.4bn), filings with the US financial watchdog show has shown..
The latest sale brings the total value of Tesla shares sold by Mr Musk to almost $20bn since he announced earlier this year that he had bought a stake in Twitter.
Billionaire Musk, sold $8.5bn of Tesla stock in April this year and around another $7bn worth in August.
The move comes amid revelations that on Tuesday Tesla recalled just over 40,000 of its cars in the US because of a potential power-steering problem.
The electric car manufacturer said the vehicles’ power-steering assist system may fail on rough roads or after hitting a pothole. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it could require greater steering effort, especially at low speeds, increasing crash risks.
Tesla has released a software update to recalibrate the system.
It was unaware of any injuries or deaths in connection with the problem, it said
The news comes less than two weeks after the world’s richest man completed his $44bn takeover of Twitter.
Twitter this week confirmed plans to allow users to buy blue-tick verified status.
In an update for Apple devices, the company said the feature would be open to users in certain countries who sign up to its Twitter Blue service for $7.99 (£7) per month.
The policy change has raised fears that the platform could be swamped with fake accounts.
Musk last Friday laid off around half of the company’s workforce in a major shake up, but has been rumoured to have offered some of the sacked employees their jobs back.
The new sought-after blue tick was previously only available to high-profile or influential individuals and organisations – who were asked to prove their identity.
Authenticity
The tick is intended to confirm authenticity, and is a key tool to help users identify reliable information on the platform.
Concerns have already been raised that government figures, celebrities, journalists and brands could be impersonated by any user willing to pay a monthly fee.
Mr Musk is looking to diversify Twitter’s income, following his acquisition of the firm late last month in a $44bn (£39bn) deal.
On Friday, the billionaire said Twitter was losing more than $4m (£3.5m) per day, insisting that this gave him “no choice” over culling around half the company’s 7,500-strong workforce.
The cuts – as well as Mr Musk’s fierce advocacy of free speech – have caused speculation that Twitter could water down its efforts on content moderation.
However, Mr Musk has insisted that the firm’s stance towards harmful material remains “absolutely unchanged”.
On Saturday a top United Nations official, Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk, urged Mr Musk to “ensure that human rights are central to the management of Twitter”.
The unusual UN intervention pointed to the sacking of Twitter’s whole human rights team, saying this was “not an encouraging start” under Mr Musk’s ownership.
Twitter’s Blue subscription reportedly remained at its old price of £4.99 in the UK following Saturday’s announcement.
Twitter’s update said the changes would apply only in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand at first.
A flurry of tweets from Mr Musk himself suggested the changes would be rolled out worldwide after they were observed in the initial handful of countries.
It was not clear what would happen to those profiles which already had a blue tick – or if Twitter still planned to “verify” a user other than by charging them a subscription.
Timeline For Changes
Respondng to one user who asked what would happen to existing verified profiles, Mr Musk said the timeline for changes to be implemented was a “couple [of] months”.
Musk also promised that Twitter would “suspend the account attempting impersonation and keep the money”.
Previewing other upcoming changes, Mr Musk said Twitter would soon allow users to attach long-form text to tweets, “ending [the] absurdity of notepad screenshots”.
Earlier on Saturday, Twitter co-founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey addressed the mass sackings, apologising to employees for what had unfolded at his former firm.
Mr Dorsey – who quit as CEO in November and left the board of directors in May – said he was aware Twitter staff were “angry with me”.
His statement continued: “I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologise for that.”
Mr Dorsey appeared to endorse the need for dismissals. Earlier this year, he expressed support for Mr Musk’s takeover.
A host of major brands have halted advertising spending with Twitter in recent days amid the company’s upheaval.
Mr Musk has been looking to decrease the platform’s reliance on adverts – and Saturday’s update also promised “half the ads”.
Tesla’s share price has fallen by more than 50% since the start of this year.
Separately, Tesla is recalling just over 40,000 of its vehicles in the US because of a potential problem with their power-steering.