Twitter 2.0
Why Elon Musk Fired Twitter Long-Time Engineers Who Asked That He Stop SH*Tposting💦
What should Twitter do next? — Elon Musk
Just leave. Mom always told me, when you aren’t happy with your job — leave. When I got promoted to Assistant Photo Manager aboard the Love Boat, I thought I can do the job for a few more years. But then the photo manager who happened to be South African like Elon Musk didn’t like an Asian guy to be part of management. He wanted a fellow South African ranked lower than I was to be his new assistant manager.
He made my life at sea so terrible that I decided to end my contract and go home. He got his wish, to take that Asian guy off the ship.
Let that sink in.
I feel you, Parag Agrawal, and happy that you're off the Twitter boat now that it is sinking, so fast that people are tweeting — #RIPTwitter.
You’re fired
Big tech isn’t what it used to be. Lucky for companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon they have been under the radar ever since Elon Musk the new Supreme Leader of Twitter made good his promise to buy the social media platform for $44 billion.
He paid. He tweeted. He fired the CEO.
Has anyone really talked about the mass layoff at Meta? Meta sheds 11,000 jobs in the latest sign of tech slowdown. Meta fired 13% of its workforce.
Mark Zuckerberg in a statement to the employees, took full responsibility.
And the domino effect followed, by the time Twitter's new boss delivered the bad news, Twitter lost half of its employees, and 3,000 people lost their jobs.
Here is part of Mark Zuckerberg’s address to all Meta employees,
Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history. I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.
I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted. — Excerpt, Mark Zuckerberg’s Message to Meta Employees
While it happens all the time, people get laid off, especially during a major crisis like a pandemic, inflation, or war. Nobody could have predicted what is happening that it feels like the dotcom bubble burst in the 2000s is back and hitting tech companies badly.
Elon Musk’s Twitter 2.0
The Ultimatum. On Twitter, to his followers and minions, not a day passes by that Supreme Leader Elon Musk tweets like he is having the best time of his life. But isn’t that what social media is all about? Many pretend to be happy when they are not.
Behind doors, he had to deal with his $44 billion Twitter buyout. The problem with that deal was it wasn’t all his money.
Many believe including some in Congress who at any time could investigate the deal, although lucky for him the Republicans now control the House that could derail any investigation, the Saudi money invested on Twitter which some believe can ‘ potentially harm’ American society.
We know that the Republicans would rather look at what was inside Hunter Biden’s laptop than have a serious look at how the new Twitter is affecting American society with disinformation.
While many of his fans on Twitter think Elon Musk is a genius or the funniest comedian or both, Twitter has to make money — fast.
It was the rationale behind the mass layoffs, redundancy, and cost-cutting. He also wants to implement a different corporate culture, a first of the many changes he wanted to implement so fast that had led to decisions that were akin to early startup companies’ credo — ship and deliver.
Today By 5pm, if you are a Twitter employee you either agreed to Musk's ultimatum to still have your job by Monday, or quit and get your severance pay. In a memo obtained by Reuters, for those who were not laid off, they have to tick a box to agree to : Commit to a new “hardcore” Twitter or leave the company with severance pay.
That means long hours and high intensity. Think of Gulag with healthcare.
“This will mean working long hours at high intensity,” he said. “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” — Elon Musk
News organizations are now reporting that hundreds of employees would rather be unemployed than work hard-core, with someone who let’s just say a not-so-well-liked Twitter boss.
By mid-Wednesday, members of Twitter’s Trust and Safety team — who are responsible for keeping hate speech and misinformation off the site — were discussing a mass resignation, according to three current employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. — Excerpt, Musk issues ultimatum to staff: Commit to ‘hardcore’ Twitter or take severance
As the deadline of on the Google Form approached, reporters began claiming that a majority of Twitter’s remaining workforce had either not completed the form or opted out.
Almost an hour after the deadline, Fortune Magazine’s Kylie Robison tweeted that roughly 75% of the workforce — a little below 3,000 employees as of Thursday morning — had not clicked yes, though exact numbers have yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, Platformer managing editor Zoë Schiffer reported that the Twitter offices were temporarily shutting its doors. According to Schiffer, all Twitter employees have been told that “all office buildings are temporarily closed and badge access is suspended.”
According to her reporting, Twitter leadership is apparently “still trying to figure out which Twitter workers they need to cut access for.”
And Verge editor Alex Heath reported that entire engineering teams had resigned, and that many employees were resigning via Slack. Heath also tweeted that, per sources, “the odds of Twitter breaking in the near future are very high.” — Excerpt, Did Elon Musk Just Kill Twitter With a Google Form?
It has only been three weeks since Supreme Leader Elon Musk walked into the Twitter HQ with a sink in tow, the adrenaline pumping into his body with what he thought would be a walk-in-the-park Twitter takeover but has since become a nightmare for everyone, including the FTC.
From memos that canceled remote work, from the mass layoff to threats of bankruptcy. All in three weeks as the new owner of Twitter.
Let that sink in.
Change and Chaos
Musk’s first order of business was to fire then-Twitter CEO, Parag Agrawal.
Elon Musk has a history of firing people. From his most loyal assistant Mary Beth Brown, who one day found herself unemployed after allegedly asking for a raise.
She did it hardcore, and yet she was shown her way out to the door.
You’re fired!
So, to anyone left at Twitter thinking doing it hardcore would save you in the future — think again.
A story that Elon Musk denied.
Musk has since tweeted that the anecdote is “total nonsense.”*
He continued: “Mary Beth was an amazing assistant for over 10 yrs, but as company complexity grew, the role required several specialists vs one generalist.”
“MB was given 52 weeks of salary & stock in appreciation for her great contribution & left to join a small firm, once again as a generalist,” Musk said.
Parag Agrawal
Agrawal was with Twitter for 11 years, and he walked away with at least $50 million after he was unceremoniously fired by Musk. After taking over the CEO role from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in less than a year he was the one who had to deal with Musk privately and publicly.
And what started as a fanboy meets his idol kind of thing, progressed to one of the most public Twitter drama, with back-and-forth tweets that should have been a conversation between two male adults.
Well, the drama came mostly from Elon Musk who at one point just tweeted Parag Agrawal the po*p emoji, and that for many who are Asians not only is an insult but could easily take us to a conversation as to how racist that tweet was.
Enough of the drama and the sink. Musk can only busk in the glory of firing Parag and taking in a kitchen sink with him for a day, he had to face the reality of turning Twitter into a profitable company. Because where would he be getting the more than $200 million he has to cough up after firing Parag and his team?
As per Bloomberg News, Agrawal, whose decade-long association with the company ended, is eligible to receive roughly $50 million. Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal, policy and trust, are likely to get about $37 million and $17 million each, respectively. Twitter is also bound to cover their health insurance premiums for a year, amounting to about $31,000 each.
Research film Equilar director of research Courtney Yu said the fired Twitter executives “should be getting these payments unless Elon Musk had cause for termination, with cause in these cases usually being that they broke the law or violated company policy.” — Excerpt, Elon Musk fired Parag Agrawal, Vijaya Gadde but they are set to get $100 million after leaving Twitter
Eric Frohnhoefer
Elon Musk started his day like any other day, sh*tposting and a Twitter engineer had enough of it and rebuked the Supreme Leader publicly, where else but on Twitter, the social media platform that Musk said will be the bastion of free speech?
Well, free speech ends when you take on Elon Musk as was the case with comedian Kathy Griffin who ‘impersonated’ Elon Musk. Musk found the joke to be unfunny, thus her account has been suspended indefinitely.
There’s no second chance for Kathy Griffin, she is Twitter’s new TOS ‘patient zero.’ — Excerpt, Why the New Twitter Boss is Vain
Eric Frohnhoefer isn't the only engineer who had since left Twitter, many had followed but how did one tweet by Eric Frohnhoefer led to his firing?
Btw, I’d like to apologize for Twitter being super slow in many countries. App is doing >1000 poorly batched RPCs just to render a home timeline! — Elon Musk
To which Eric replied,
I have spent ~6yrs working on Twitter for Android and can say this is wrong. — Eric Frohnhoefer
As usual, anyone who takes on Elon Musk is trolled and shamed by his Musk’s minions,
And after a long thread, Elon Musk tweeted;
He’s fired — Elon Musk
It wasn’t a joke, Eric Frohnhoefer is the first Twitter employee to be fired with a tweet.
Chaos. For anyone writing about Elon Musk, it can all be summed up in one word — chaos.
Before I can even finish more news is coming in, from Twitter employees barred from using security badges to enter Twitter HQ, to a new email by Elon Musk as shared by Zoë Schiffer of The Platformer in a Twitter thread.
NEW: Email from Elon to the engineering team: “Anyone who can actually write software, please report to the 10th floor at 2pm today. Before doing so, please email me a bullet point summary of what your code commits have achieved in the past 6 months” 1/ — Zoë Schiffer of The Platformer
Final words
The last man standing. Elon Musk continues to tweet even if the top trending topic on Twitter is #RIPTwitter.
Many have moved or starting to migrate to Mastodon, a Twitter alternative just in case, Twitter one day becomes another MySpace or Friendster.
What should Twitter do next? It is up to Elon Musk, we all keep on forgetting that Twitter is now a private company, and with that, he can do anything even close it down.
What is $44 billion to the world’s wealthiest man? And not everyone ‘hates’ Elon Musk notwithstanding the allegations of sexual violence as reported by Business Insider. Another billionaire has just tweeted, he also happens to own Time Magazine:) Salesforce billionaire Marc Benioff.
Don’t underestimate @elonmusk — Marc Benioff
What happened to those explosive allegations from Business Insider?
A SpaceX flight attendant said Elon Musk exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, documents show. The company paid $250,000 for her silence. — Business Insider
The Dictator introduced us to a character that goes by the name, Admiral Gen. Omar Aladeen and is played by Sacha Baron Cohen, it was a funny look at how one man can have power over the lives of his people, sadly it happens in the real world.
Russia, North Korea, and even China. And in the tech world, one man lords over the space and it’s Elon Musk.
To the moon, right?
Elon Musk as a businessman can run his companies the way he wants it, and he could even be right when he brings with him the kind of leadership that got him to his position as the wealthiest man alive, not the sexiest, mind you that belongs to Chris Evans.
Even before he bought Twitter, Elon Musk has been sh*tposting on the social media platform.
From his very public feud with Bill Gates to his sexist, misogynist tweets, his Twitter minions can’t get enough of his ‘genius’ that they always give him the thumbs up.
To them, he is a god.
In the crypto world, he can make a meme coin price shoot to the moon.
Never mind if he once tweeted that he was considering creating a school named “Texas Institute of Technology & Science” — or T.I.T.S.
What about that pregnant emoji meme for Gates, it has shades of transphobia? — Excerpt, Elon Musk Flashed His Erect Penis and His Twitter Minions Give a Thumbs-up Emoji
Elon Musk tweeted, What should Twitter do next? While white conservative extremists want Elon to bring back Donald Trump and Alex Jones, many including myself just want him to stop sh*tposting, and maybe, he could focus on making his vision of Twitter 2.0 a reality.
And to all the Twitter employees, I hope you make the right choice as mom once told me, just leave if your job will kill you, it ain't worth it.
Thank you for reading.
Sources:
Musk issues ultimatum to staff: Commit to ‘hardcore’ Twitter or take severance
Did Elon Musk Just Kill Twitter With a Google Form?
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