Twitter devolves into anarchy, and Musk even risks going bankrupt as a result.
November 12, 2022
Twitter is now in shambles as a result of Elon Musk's chaotic managerial style. The massive firings are then followed by a series of major technical issues. There is no clear indication of what he plans to accomplish with his new "toy," so it is difficult to speculate. In the meanwhile, he puts the company's financial underpinning in jeopardy.
Late in the evening on Wednesday, the new manager sent the first email to the team. And she did it with very little bravery. Elon Musk emailed his staff at Twitter with the following message: "We have a rough road ahead of us." As a result, there will be a number of adjustments. Almost quickly, he made one announcement: Everyone is required to report back to the office. On a daily basis, five days a week
The days are long gone when employees of short message services could operate from any location they choose. Musk is said to have stated at a staff meeting, "the firing is considered accepted" if an employee is capable of physically making it to the office but chooses not to show up for work.
It was thought that Twitter was a feel-good firm, almost like a wellness resort for computer engineers. According to previous CEO Jack Dorsey, staff were given one paid day off per month so that they could "recharge" their batteries. In addition, Musk did away with these so-called "days of rest" and instead required some divisions to perform 12-hour shifts. On several social media platforms, there is a picture that is circulating that shows an employee sleeping on the floor of a conference room, squished in between tables and chairs.
Musk has been in control of Twitter for the last two weeks, during which time the firm has been thrown into disarray. He let go of 3,700 people and then, not long after, requested some of them to come back to work. This was likely done out of anxiety that the platform may fail. In spite of the fact that he supports increased protections for free speech, he disabled the profiles of comedians who had parodied him by pretending to be him and making fun of him.
Five former workers who were let go brought a lawsuit against him. And significant advertisers, such as Volkswagen, pulled their advertising from the publication. They have no interest in becoming involved in the disaster that Musk has created.
According to Jonah Goldberg, a member of the American Enterprise Institute, which is a conservative think tank in Washington, "So far it's been a fiasco." "Musk is a brilliant entrepreneur, but it seems that managing a social network is more challenging for him than constructing rockets."
How did things proceed with the mass termination of 3,700 employees?
On the Friday before last, at exactly nine o'clock in the morning local time, Human Resources sent out an email to all of the staff members. The topic at hand is "Your Role on Twitter." They were given a brief statement that either permitted them to remain or required them to leave. Already the previous evening, several people had a sneaking suspicion that their time with the network was coming to an end as they unexpectedly found that they were unable to enter into their workplace computers or internal chat programs from their homes.
Musk has eliminated positions across the board, including those in the privacy and fact-checking departments, the marketing and communications departments, and the team that is responsible for maintaining the website's functionality. The millionaire is of the opinion that Twitter is stuffy and pretentious. Someone of his 114 million followers questioned him what the most pressing issue facing the organization. Musk said that it seems like there are 10 people controlling things for each one coder.
But it's possible that he went too far. On Saturday, little than a day following the widespread layoff, Musk reportedly questioned some programmers about whether or not they could come back to work. This is what you see when you visit the famous website in the United States known as Blind, which provides a forum for workers of various businesses to discuss their employers in complete secrecy. On Twitter, there were indications that something was wrong. Slower loading times, inaccurate follower counts, and retweets that seem odd have been reported. It is not impossible that Musk did not have enough engineers to keep the site up and running.
What does Musk see as the future of Twitter?
A regulatory agency known as FinCEN received papers that were provided by Twitter a few days ago. It could be a bureaucratic process, but it might also be the beginning of a revolution. Because it is one of the first steps that businesses in the United States must do in order to get authorized to provide financial services. This week, Musk dropped a few hints about what that may be. Deposit accounts with a high yield, debit cards, and mobile payment systems He has previous expertise working with similar technological platforms. Musk was one of the co-founders of X.com in 1999, an online bank that would subsequently be acquired by PayPal.
However, making payments using Twitter could just be the beginning. The inventor of Tesla has aspirations of creating a platform that can do anything. From a comprehensive network that enables users to buy, post, talk, play, order meals and taxis, and schedule doctor's appointments. China already has something similar to this on the market. WeChat is used by more than half of the people there to organize their day-to-day lives; without the app, there would be complete disarray in public life across the nation. Musk now has the goal of developing a Western version of the messaging app WeChat.
What does this imply for people's rights to speak their minds freely?
Musk has been heard to remark on many occasions that the American tech giants are too far to the left and that Silicon Valley is stifling conservative views. He intends to make Twitter into what he refers to as a "freedom of expression" and put an end to the purported restrictions that exists there. A advice for the Republican party was tweeted out by Musk the day before the midterm elections in the United States on Tuesday. He would also want to reinstate Donald Trump on the stage, despite the fact that he was kicked off in January 2021 after the attack on the Capitol.
Musk also declared that he intends to combat spam and phony accounts on Twitter in an effort to make the platform the "most accurate source of information in the world." But how far is he capable of going? For instance, Elon Musk's business Tesla utilizes a massive facility in Shanghai to produce tens of thousands of electric vehicles every month. The company also obtains critical raw materials from mines located in China. But what if Beijing does not approve of the way Musk manages Twitter? The government has expressed concern on many occasions over the platform's classification of its publications as "state media."
What are the repercussions that will result from the eight-dollar offensive?
Musk's unstable management style and his impulsive actions are the exact reverse of what has defined Twitter up to this point: Even minor developments were considered internally for weeks at a time. Now that regulations are being changed on an hourly basis, Musk is seeing how tough it is to administer a social network.
This demonstrates the mayhem that is around the blue hook. Prior to his purchase, around 400,000 people, including celebrities, politicians, journalists, media, and corporations, had their accounts verified with a blue tick displayed next to their names. Musk came up with the concept of selling the status symbol for $8 per month, but he misjudged the desire of consumers to make investments in fake accounts.
Suddenly, hundreds of purportedly verified Elon Musks made fun of the new CEO of Twitter, an alleged George Bush tweeted about his desire to murder people, and numerous fake popes argued who the actual pope was. Musk replied many times, including by prohibiting name changes, requiring a "parody" label, creating an extra "Official" label, and then shutting it down 24 hours later. This occurred when a top Twitter official declared that she would be remaining with the company.
Musk's $8 attack managed to convince environmental activists to get phony company accounts validated with a blue tick over the weekend. A Twitter account using the name "Nestlé" and displaying the company's official logo sent the following message: "We take your water and sell it back to you."
Someone with the company name "Lockheed Martin" made the announcement that they would gladly supply weapons to any tyrant. Musk's plan to sell Twitter for $8 had the effect of destroying Twitter's most valuable asset, which was that the network had hitherto been seen as a legitimate and genuine source for messages sent directly from celebrities, corporations, and public figures. Users are required now to carefully examine the identity of the person tweeting.
What kind of impact will the pandemonium have on Twitter?
The mayhem caused by Musk is just as intimidating for marketers as the rush of spoof users who are using her identity. A number of prominent marketing companies and media promoters have decided to cancel their campaigns. At the beginning of the week, the Interpublic agency group, which is one of the top advertising marketing organizations in the world, suggested to its clients that they take a temporary break from using Twitter. Big businesses like Volkswagen and General Motors also paused advertisements. Thursday saw the departure of Leslie Berland, who was in charge of advertising sales at Twitter. Nick Caldwell, who is the chief technical officer at the firm, is apparently hesitating about continuing to work there.
Advertising contributes over ninety percent of Twitter's total revenue. If they are not there, even Musk won't be able to save the firm. As a consequence of this, he sent a warning to the staff in the form of a letter about the possibility that his 44 billion dollar investment may fail. "There is a considerable probability that Twitter will not survive the impending economic crisis if it does not generate a large amount of cash from subscriptions."
However, there is still a possibility of failure even if the sponsors decide to return. The website is already experiencing a number of operational issues, including a growing number of minor programming faults and inconsistencies. It would seem that several personnel who played a crucial role in the operation of the site were among those who were let go in the last round of layoffs. Analysts have warned that Twitter might become inoperable in a matter of weeks if nobody takes responsibility for maintaining the infrastructure and keeping the program code up to date. The bird hits the ground.
