The IT Nerd

Elon Musk’s burning down of Twitter continues unabated.

Casey Newton of Platformer is saying that thousands of contractors worldwide have been laid off. And the way they’re finding out is absolutely wrong:

This is absolutely wrong on so many levels. You don’t treat other human beings this way. Clearly Elon Musk on top of being immature is a horrible human being who has no feelings whatsoever. It shows the level of desperation that he has to get Twitter to make money quickly in order to pay back all the loans he took out to buy Twitter. Oh yeah, if you think Twitter is in a bad place now, it’s about to get worse.

Oh yeah. Then there’s also this:

This guy is a scumbag too. Just like his boss. My advice for former Twitter employees who get a call to come back to work, decline it. Twitter doesn’t deserve you or your talents. Let them burn.

Yesterday I wrote a story on US Senator Ed Markey wanting answers from Elon Musk about the Twitter Blue debacle. Specifically, why Elon Musk did nothing to stop people from impersonating major brands and famous people. In that story I said this:

Now Elon can try to ignore this. But that would not be a good idea as all that will likely result is him being hauled in front of Congress where he will have to answer questions. And trying to blow that off will not end well for him. Thus I hope for his sake that Elon is drafting answers for Senator Markey that are comprehensive and detailed. Otherwise it’s not going to end well for him.

The good news is he is not ignoring this. The bad news is that Musk has decided to pick a fight with this senator. Via a reader:

Really Elon? You’re really going to tempt fate by being so juvenile? Because if you do, it’s going to be highly likely that any number of bad things will happen to you. Such as fines, investigations, congressional hearings, etc. None of which is a good look on you.

Oh wait, it appears that we might be heading down that road.

What Senator Markey is talking about is this:

• Twitter is subject to a FTC consent decree that stems from begin caught using the security phone numbers users to target ads to said users.
• Tesla is being investigated by the NHTSA for it’s autopilot software and how it works. This same senator has said “every day that Tesla disregards safety rules and misleads the public about its ‘Autopilot’ system, our roads become more dangerous.”

The fact is that Elon isn’t in a good place here. His immature behaviour is only going to result in him being put under so much scrutiny by congress and others that he going to wish that he would rather be in a proctology exam. It’s also going to send more of Twitters advertisers heading to the exits because nobody wants to be associated with this train wreck that Elon has created nor do they want to be associated with his immature behaviour. Finally users will continue to migrate to Mastodon and other places to avoid the hellscape that Twitter has become under immature Elon Musk. And all of that will not only kill Twitter, but it will start to negatively affect Tesla and SpaceX. The thing is, this is what you get when you have a guy who has the maturity of an adolescent at best running multi-billon dollar companies. Musk seriously needs to get his act together or find others to be his adults in the room. But I suspect that we’re way past that and we’re in the endgame for Twitter for sure, but maybe we’re also in the endgame for Tesla and SpaceX as well.

I think it’s safe to say that Elon Musk has a lot to worry about at the moment. And the list keeps growing. The latest item that is on the list is Senator Ed Markey has sent a letter to Elon Musk which he has also posted to his website demanding answers about the Twitter Blue fiasco:

“Apparently, due to Twitter’s lax verification practices and apparent need for cash, anyone could pay $8.00 and impersonate someone on your platform. Selling the truth is dangerous and unacceptable. Twitter must explain how this happened and how it will prevent it from happening again,” wrote Senator Markey in his letter to Musk.

Now Elon can try to ignore this. But that would not be a good idea as all that will likely result is him being hauled in front of Congress where he will have to answer questions. And trying to blow that off will not end well for him. Thus I hope for his sake that Elon is drafting answers for Senator Markey that are comprehensive and detailed. Otherwise it’s not going to end well for him.

Oh yeah, I’m calling it now that the EU is going be knocking on Musk’s door in the next few days asking for similar answers. And that’s going to be even less fun for Musk when that happens.

The hits to Elon Musk and Twitter keeps coming. The latest hit is being reported by The Verge and it’s a big hit:

Omnicom, one of the world’s biggest ad firms, representing brands like McDonald’s, Apple, and PepsiCo, is recommending clients pause spending on Twitter, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge.

Omnicom Media Group is recommending clients “pause activity on Twitter in the short term,” according to a note titled “Twitter – Continued Brand Safety Concerns.” The memo cites recent events in the last few days that have “potential serious implications” for brands running ads on the platform.

The memo cites the deep layoffs of Twitter trust and safety teams, the resignations of high-profile executives, and the slew of “verified” impersonation accounts as being key issues for advertisers. There is “evidence that the risk to our clients’ brand safety has risen sharply to a level most would find unacceptable,” the memo reads. “We recommend pausing activity on Twitter in the short term until the platform can prove it has reintroduced safeguards to an acceptable level and has regained control of its environment.”

The memo goes on to say that Omnicom has “formally requested that Twitter assure us that these issues will not impact compliant processes, operations, products, brand safety and client investment on the platform in any way” but that “seemingly due to the lack of senior leadership now in these areas, Twitter has not been able to give those assurances.”

I have said this for a while. Elon needs to assure advertisers that Twitter is a safe place for brands to be on. Currently that isn’t the case and Musk hasn’t done nearly enough to convince advertisers otherwise. That means that since Twitter is highly dependent on advertising, an ad agency like Omnicom can effectively kill Twitter if their clients pull out of advertising on Twitter. Thus it’s now Elon Musk’s Rubicon moment. He has one shot at doing something meaningful to save Twitter and avoid costing himself $44 billion. If he succeeds at dealing with Omnicom’s concerns, he has a lifeline. If he doesn’t succeed at dealing with Omnicom’s concerns, Twitter is dead. It’s that simple.

Your move Elon.

It seems that Elon Musk finally figured out that Twitter Blue has become a train wreck next to a dumpster fire that he could not fix. I say that because The Verge is reporting that Twitter Blue appears to have been deep sixed:

Twitter users are reporting that the option to sign up for the company’s new $7.99 subscription service, Twitter Blue, has disappeared from the platform’s iOS app just days after the service launched.

You could previously subscribe to Twitter Blue from the sidebar in the iOS app (the service has yet to launch for Android users), but users this morning reported that the option has disappeared. For those for whom the link is still available, trying to sign up only returns an error message. “Thank you for your interest!” it reads. “Twitter Blue will be available in your country in the future. Please check back later.”

I can confirm that the option is gone for me as well. And reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong seems to have further proof:

So clearly this has been pulled by Twitter and it’s not an accident or an outage.

If it wasn’t clear before, it should be clear now. Elon Musk has no clue what he’s doing. He’s trying random stuff hoping to hit a home run, and he’s ignoring the people around him who are trying to give him advice. Assuming that they have the courage to speak truth to power. As a result you’re seeing stuff like this Twitter Blue train wreck next to a dumpster fire. And since this is happening in public, it is likely sending advertisers to the exits along with the money that Twitter needs to survive. That’s creating a death spiral that will be hard to escape. I say that because while some predict that Twitter will be sold by Elon Musk so that he can find some way to save face and recoup the money he’s spent on it. I seriously doubt that Twitter will survive that long because Musk is doing everything he possibly can to kill the platform.