The IT Nerd

We’re getting to the point where we might be in the endgame for Twitter. I say that for the following reasons.

First, bills are going unpaid on the orders of Elon:

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter last month, the company’s executives had racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel invoices that the social media service planned to pay.

But once Musk took over the company, he refused to reimburse travel vendors for those bills, current and former Twitter employees said. Musk’s staff said the services were authorized by the company’s former management and not by him. His staff have since avoided the calls of the travel vendors, the people said.

And:

Musk also issued an order to slow or in some cases halt transfers of funds to Twitter’s vendors and contract services, the people said. Any expenditures for services need to be approved by [Jared] Birchall [the head of Musk’s family office], three people said. Musk has since declined to pay for the travel services incurred by the former Twitter executives, the people said.

He is also looking at the company’s leases for office space, three people said, bucking on making payments and hoping to renegotiate or opt out of some commitments entirely. Twitter leases office space across the world, but the layoffs have reduced the need for much of that real estate.

This is pretty bad. And I’m willing to bet that lawsuits will be filed shortly by some of these vendors which will add to Elon’s problems. Because one would think that it’s cheaper to pay your bills than to pay lawyers to defend you against companies who are suing you because you have not paid your bills. Clearly Musk hasn’t thought of that.

Next up is more fallout from the Donald Trump circus. Elon is actually claiming that the “activists” who are trying to get companies to not advertise on Twitter are to blame for him reinstating Trump according to The Verge:

Wow, his explanation sure is something; in a tweet on Tuesday night, he claimed the council was part of a deal he made with an unnamed “large coalition of political/social activist groups,” implying it was their fault.

Musk claims he made a deal to keep those groups from trying to destroy Twitter’s ad revenue, and that those groups “broke the deal,” and so he no longer has to uphold all that stuff about the council.

Here’s the Tweet in question:

Elon is clearly trying to deflect blame from his own screw ups and shortcomings. And this reaction likely has something to do with this:

In recent weeks, 50 of the top 100 advertisers have either announced or seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter. These advertisers have accounted for nearly $2 billion in spending on the platform since 2020, and over $750 million in advertising in 2022 alone.

In addition to advertisers that have seemingly stopped all advertising on Twitter as of November 21, there are an additional seven advertisers which appear to be slowing the rate of their advertising on the platform to almost nothing. Since 2020, these seven advertisers have accounted for over $255 million in spending on Twitter, and nearly $118 million in advertising in 2022.

This is a huge problem for Elon as he needs income to keep the lights on at Twitter. Assuming that he doesn’t want to sell more Tesla stock to keep the lights on at Twitter. Though that might be a problem based on this:

Tesla’s stock has been on a slide since Elon bought Twitter. That’s ultimately going to create a couple of issues for him. One it’s going to affect his bank account. Two is that at some point, owners of Tesla stock are going to say that enough is enough and want him to do something about this stock slide. Or they may simply decide to sell and push the stock further downwards. To be fair, Twitter isn’t the only issue that Tesla stock has at the moment. But Elon’s behaviour and Twitter’s problems are likely not helping the situation.

Maybe the man child should just man up and admit that he’s really screwed this up. But I likely expect too much in terms of maturity from man child Musk.

I have seen a lot of things on Twitter. Some of which really made me wonder what the person who posted the Tweet was thinking. But this one has got to be the one that makes my head explode. Let me get to the Tweet that made me feel this way:

What does that mean. Well if I do a rough translation, it means the following: “you are in their direct messages” on social media, means to speak to someone online romantically, followed by the phrase “I am…”, which usually ends with a self-aggrandising comparison. In basic terms, it means you have something, but I have something better.

In this case, this Tweet is insanely offensive as it seems to sexualize women to a massive degree. And it blows my mind that any major corporation like Proctor and Gamble who owns Tampax would have a social media manager who would sign off on this posting this Tweet.

If that’s not bad enough, they doubled down on this Tweet:

I have to say that this is creepy and insulting. I truly do not understand what this company is thinking and why they would ever think that this is a good idea. I have tried to look around for an explanation or a response from Proctor and Gamble, but I don’t see one. But I would very much like to see one as women around the world deserve an explanation for this, and what Proctor and Gamble is going to do to ensure that they are more sensitive to the markets that they serve.

The world is waiting.

If you decided that staying at Twitter was the right decision as you wanted to prove that you were “hardcore”, you might be rethinking your life choices. The Verge is reporting that Elon wants weekly reports from every Twitter employee now:

Talk about micro management. While I am always willing to be surprised, I would shocked if this level of micro management has a positive effect on Twitter. I also would be surprised if this doesn’t send more employees headed to the exits.

On top of this, Musk is cutting perks at Twitter based on this report from The Verge:

Yeah, that’s going to help his employee retention efforts. #Sarcasm

By the way, what’s with the use of the word “Hardcore!” and “More Hardcore!” That just sounds dumb. It’s almost as if Musk is trying to turn the word “hardcore” into a rallying cry. The thing is, that people will only rally around you as a leader if they respect you. And based on the last few weeks of what the world has seen at Twitter, there’s nothing that one can respect about Elon Musk. Thus this is likely going to be a #Fail for Elon.

You might remember that the first thing that Elon Musk wanted to do was roll out Twitter Blue with a verification checkmark. Well, that turned into a train wreck next to a dumpster fire very quickly. And Elon was forced to pull it. Now according to The Verge, it may not return on the 29th of November:

Elon Musk told Twitter employees on Monday that the company won’t relaunch its paid verification subscription, Twitter Blue, until “we’re confident about significant impersonations not happening,” according to a recording of his remarks obtained by The Verge.

Musk said last week that his $8 per month Blue subscription would be made available again on November 29th. But in the meeting with employees, he said the timing of the launch was unclear: “We might launch it next week. We might not. But we’re not going to launch until there’s high confidence in protecting against those significant impersonations.”

This was confirmed later in a Tweet:

I am guessing that he took a beating from a number of advertisers who were impersonated on the platform. Thus if he relaunches this, he needs to be 1000% sure that nothing bad will happen or he is pretty much screwed. The reason being is that while he wants to shift Twitter income away from advertising as being the primary source of cash, he needs that advertising revenue in the short to medium term unless he wants to fund Twitter by selling Tesla stock like he recently did.

Another tidbit that is worth mentioning from this Verge article is this:

He also told employees that Twitter was done with layoffs and hiring again, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Verge.

Maybe that’s because his power play of wanting “hardcore” employees backfired in such a spectacular manner. The question is if anyone would want to work for this guy given what’s gone on these past few weeks? And if Musk is thinking that he can get former Twitter employees to come back, he may want to think twice. Apparently a lot of firms want ex-Twitter staff. Perhaps he should have thought about that before swinging the axe.

Elon Musk is a guy who has 99 problems at the moment when it comes to Twitter. Well, that count could increment with a significant problem next week via a summons from the EU to explain himself and what he’s doing with Twitter:

The world’s richest man who recently bought the social media company is set to receive an invitation to come to the European Parliament in Brussels and explain himself, two Parliament officials told POLITICO. 

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola briefed top EU lawmakers in a closed-door meeting Thursday that she will invite Musk soon. The move comes at the request of lawmakers from the Liberal group Renew, a spokesperson for the group said. 

And:

“There are sound reasons to suggest that the standards applied by Twitter until now, may be weakened, at a time when the fight against election interference, misinformation and hate speech is more important than ever,” wrote Liberal lawmaker Dita Charanzová (Czech) and Sophie in ‘t Veld (Dutch) in a letter to Metsola on November 8. 

Lawmakers want Musk to show up in Brussels in person to hear about his plans and remind him of European laws governing technology.

Knowing him, he will try to brush this off. Or drop some of his questionable memes and act like this is no big deal. But ignoring the EU or flipping them off is something you do at your own peril. Even though the EU can’t directly call him to testify, he’d be smart to show up if he was called. Because if they get mad at him and pass some sort of legislation to govern the behaviour at Twitter, he’s not going to be a happy camper. Besides that, the EU has some of the strongest privacy laws on the planet. Thus if he’s smart, he’d make sure he’s on the right side of that.

This will be interesting to watch. Get your popcorn ready.