The IT Nerd

This Twitter situation is simply getting crazy. But there are some themes that intertwine. Let’s start with the fact that some really “interesting” people have signed up for Twitter Blue accounts:

Almost 140,000 people paid $8 for a Twitter Blue subscription between November 10 and 15, the New York Times reported. 

The Times cited data from Travis Brown, a software developer in Berlin, who found over 137,000 accounts with Twitter Blue subscriptions between November 10 and 15 using a computer program. The program downloaded data including user’s following lists, screen time, the date they joined Twitter, and verification status. 

Brown found that the typical Twitter Blue subscriber had around 560 followers but some had over a million including Mika Salamanca, a YouTube creator with 3.9 million Twitter followers; Arabic news site, Alwatan News with 2.7 million followers, and several adult film performers. 

Many Twitter Blue subscribers were far-right influencers like Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, Libs of TikTok, and Catturd2. 

Brown’s data showed that thousands of subscribers were linked to around 5,000 far-right Twitter accounts that had been flagged for pushing extremist ideas and some were also listed by Cornell University for posting conspiracy theories about election fraud. 

Twitter and Travis Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the data outside normal working hours.

Now this isn’t exactly promising. But let’s go down the rabbit hole. Musk is now doing this:

Musk posted a poll on Wednesday asking whether the platform should offer “a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” 

At the time of writing, 72% of the almost 3 million voters have said yes. 

That ties into this Tweet from Musk:

It is objectively the case that “conservative” political candidates were more negatively affected than “progressive” candidates.

Anyone using Twitter knows this. Question is simply one of magnitude.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022

One based on this could get the impression that Musk is using this as a pretext to slant Twitter to the right. If that’s the case, this whole situation with Twitter will get ugly. How so you ask? How about this:

Julia Mozer and Dario La Nasa, who were in charge of Twitter’s digital policy in Europe, left the company last week, according to the Financial Times.

The executives were the driving force in getting the company to comply with the EU’s landmark Digital Services act, which came into force last week setting new rules for Big Tech firms to keep users safe online.

Other executives had already left the small Brussels office at the start of the month as Mr Musk sacked half of the company’s from 7,500 to around 3,750 in the weeks following his £38bn takeover. 

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive had tweeted that “the bird is freed” after completing his acquisition of the platform. 

Shortly afterwards, European commissioner Thierry Breton issued a curt reminder of the EU’s content-moderation laws, saying: “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.” 

Mr Musk had said that Twitter’s series of layoffs was over this week, as he launched a recruitment drive. 

If you recall, Twitter is in the crosshairs of the EU due to moves like the stuff that I mentioned above for starters. And they will look at moves like the ones above with some degree of alarm. And they will react accordingly by calling Musk onto the carpet. The thing is, I can see Musk flipping the bird to the EU which will start a big fight between the two. You should get your popcorn ready for that when it happens. Because Elon’s right wing leanings are clearly coming into play here.

In other Twitter news, Musk also did this:

Elon Musk’s Twitter has decided to scrap holiday pay for contractors working for the social-media company, according to Platformer reporter Zoë Schiffer.

The measure will start during Thanksgiving, according to Schiffer.

Amid the mass layoffs since Musk’s takeover, Twitter started to fire contractors on November 12 and those affected found out they’d lost their job when they were locked out of work accounts, Axios reported.

It’s not the only measure that Twitter has reportedly introduced in the runup to Thanksgiving.

The Verge’s Alex Heath said on Thursday that some Twitter engineers received an email on Wednesday evening, saying they were fired because their “code is not satisfactory.” Twitter sent “performance warning” emails to other engineers, telling them to “restore our confidence and demonstrate your contributions to the team,” according to Heath.

The report came off the back of a leaked email, seen by Insider, saying on Monday that all Twitter employees who were coding or doing technical work would be expected to submit a weekly summary of everything they’ve worked on.

This is just plain stupid and is sure to send more employees to the exits. Nobody likes to be micromanaged. And when you combine that with no holiday pay, that’s a recipe for a big reaction from the workers in question. Especially since other companies are circling to grab Twitter employees.

Finally, let’s go back to Musk. I’m going to put it out there that he is a racist. I say that because of this:

What hasn’t been clear is what, exactly Musk thinks of Black Twitter, which is arguably the most critical community to have taken shape organically and to elevate Twitter’s relevance as a platform for conversation, activism and storytelling along the way. Before now, that wouldn’t have mattered. Nobody cared what Twitter co-founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey thought about Black Twitter, because it was undeniable that Black Twitter was good for business under his watch.

Musk, however, is a different story: his notions of “free speech” on the platform mean greenlighting the comeback of Donald Trump and other hatemongers and as a manager he’s fired thousands of employees who were part of an intentional internal strategy to attempt to make the company as diverse as the voices on its platform. And now, weeks into his tenure as “chief twit”, we have an idea of exactly what regard Musk holds Black Twitter and the community of Black staffers inside the company. The Independent reports on a Musk tweet, since deleted, in which he made light of t-shirts that had been created by the company’s “Blackbirds” employee resource group, and mocked the Black Lives Matter movement.

I encourage you to read the entire article because clearly this is unacceptable and needs to be called out. And you might want to keep this in mind the next time you think of buying a Tesla. Or using Twitter.

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:

A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition.

They broke the deal.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2022

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:

https://twitter.com/Tampax/status/1594719218632720385

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:

https://twitter.com/Tampax/status/1594719385683431425

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.