Elon Musk considers charging Twitter users $20 a month for verified accounts

That led to Twitter withdrawing the verification status from controversial users such as the rightwing personality Milo Yiannopoulos, facing criticism for granting it to white supremacists, and eventually pausing the entire programme for a number of years before resuming it in 2021.

Musk and his team also appear to be going through internal communications sent by staff in the run-up to the takeover, after tweeting a chat message sent by a senior employee in May 2022 on Monday morning.

He has also pledged to keep content policies in place and maintain bans on restricted accounts until a Twitter content moderation council, announced by the billionaire last week, has met.