Since Elon Musk took control of Twitter, the short message service has descended into chaos. What’s going on there? A classification in seven tweets
1. The austerity course is causing unrest
The bumpy takeover of Twitter has been causing concern among the workforce for months. Multi-entrepreneur Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion at the end of October. A price that analysts consider to be significantly inflated. In view of the open bills now coming to Musk, cuts were considered likely. Last Friday, the new Twitter boss put the plan into action: it is estimated that almost half of the workforce had to go.
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Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.
Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
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Musk justified the layoffs with an urgently needed austerity plan. Since the company is losing $4 million every day, he has no other choice.
2. Twitter fires the wrong people
However, the mass dismissal was apparently not thought through to the end. Shortly after the terminations were sent out, management backtracked again: “We have the opportunity to ask the people who had to leave if they want to come back,” wrote an executive over the weekend in the internal communication channel Slack. The US blogger Casey Newton first reported on the recall campaign.
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From Twitter Slack: “sorry to @- everybody on the weekend but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back. I need to put together names and rationales by 4PM PST Sunday.
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 6, 2022
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According to information from Bloomberg, some employees were probably “accidentally” fired.
3. Realignment staff is now missing
Among the approximately 3,700 employees who were laid off, there were apparently some experienced people who would have been essential for the implementation of Elon Musk’s ideas. It is questionable whether they will come back. The outflow of know-how is likely to hit Twitter painfully, as social media analyst Matt Navarra comments.
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Twitter Product Managers: we kept enough skilled people to fix twitter, right?
Right???
Elon Musk and co: pic.twitter.com/vqMQawnwFs
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) November 6, 2022
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4. New course scares business partners
However, the employees are not the only problem. Since Musk took the helm at Twitter, a number of business partners have shelved their advertising deals with the platform, including Volkswagen, Pfizer and General Mills. The companies are apparently concerned about the advertising environment on Twitter. Recently, reports have been circulating that hatred and hate speech have increased on the platform. Musk himself confirmed a “massive drop in sales” as a result of the advertising boycott.
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UPDATED LIST OF ADVERTISERS WHO’VE DROPPED TWITTER ADS DUE TO HATE SPEECH:
General Mills, CVS, United Airlines, GM, Pillow-Fight, Audi, Mazda, Porsche, VW, Amex, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss, Spotify, Ford, Dyson, Forbes, DIRECTV, Nintendo, Unilever, and PBS 👏👏👏
— GoodPillow.co | CMO (@williamlegate) November 5, 2022
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5. Musk threatens advertisers
However, instead of placating his partners, Musk switches to attack mode. If the exodus of advertisers continues, he wants to pillory the companies concerned, which he believes have bowed to pressure from the left-wing public.
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Thank you.
A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
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6. Criticism of paid offer Twitter Blue
Because Musk apparently no longer wants to rely on advertising revenue in the future, he is planning a paid offer called Twitter Blue. In the future, users should pay a monthly fee of $8 for the blue tick that confirms their authenticity. Users without this verification could be disadvantaged by the algorithm in the future.
Whether there is actually a willingness to pay for Twitter Blue is questionable. Some users have already announced that they will forego their blue tick or leave the platform altogether.
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Of course I would pay $8/month for that #twitter pay, but certainly not to someone remodeling Twitter to suit their whims and right-wing buddies alone. He’s free to do that without my money.
— Mario Sixtus 🇭🇰馬六 (@sixtus) November 7, 2022
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7. Blocking in the Name of Freedom of Speech
Anyway, it is currently unclear how Twitter will develop. Musk had announced that he would convert the platform into a place for absolute freedom of speech. One of his most recent measures contradicts this: over the weekend, Twitter had restricted some parody accounts of American comedians who posed online as Elon Musk. Among them were the profiles of Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin.
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1) 9 days ago, 2) yesterday 3) today. We have fun pic.twitter.com/eTKAp8PBuK
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) November 7, 2022
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Source: Stern

Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.