The IT Nerd

I joined Twitter in 2013 to amplify the reach of my blog. And to be frank, I have been able to do with a decent degree of success. I’ve met and interacted with people that I might not have if I wasn’t on Twitter. Plus I got the attention of some brands who I got to chance to work with over the years which helped to increase the visibility of this blog.

But along the way, Twitter started to become toxic. And eventually Twitter became very toxic. I found myself having to block people and report people for using racial slurs towards me. Because at some point over the years, people have found it perfectly fine to degrade, bully, and intimidate people online. Something that I am pretty sure that 98% of them would not do in real life. Still, I continued on with Twitter.

Now we have Elon Musk taking over Twitter. And his desire to make Twitter a town square where people can say and do what ever they want with few if any restrictions is downright frightening. I can see a scenario where every racist, sexist and homophobe among other low life scumbags appearing and making Twitter even more toxic than it already is. Sure Musk is saying that he’ll have a moderation council to make the call in terms of someone crossing the line. And that council will have “diverse viewpoints”. But I really don’t see that being effective, or even happening at all. Because Elon Musk isn’t going to turn Twitter into a town square because he has two big issues right now that need immediate attention. His first goal is making sure that advertisers, which is Twitter’s primary source of income, don’t flee the platform en masse. Which is apparently happening as I type this. The second is to figure out how to pay back the massive amount of money that he borrowed to buy Twitter. Yes he’s slashing jobs. But that’s only going to get him so far. And yes he wants to revamp Twitter Blue to be $8 a month and include verification as part of the deal. But that’s a half baked idea that is facing a large amount of backlash. Largely because part of this scheme allows anyone to be verified. As in literally anyone. The problem with that is that if everyone is verified, then nobody is verified. Plus it’s not as if some rouge nation who wants to use social media to influence elections and politics in another country won’t spend some cash to get a bunch of bots onto Twitter Blue and amplify their message that way.

And Musk is clearly too desperate to make as much money as quickly as possible to see that.

The fact is, that anything and everything he does is being driven by the fact that he wanted to buy Twitter, then tried to get out of buying Twitter, and then was basically forced to do so when it was clear that Twitter who sued him for trying to back out of the deal was going to win that lawsuit. Thus leaving him wondering what is he going to do having massively overpaid for Twitter with money he doesn’t have.

Cue the panic.

And that panic will affect every Twitter user in a negative way. Everyone from the woman who follows Oprah, someone like me who is simply trying to amplify my voice, to politicians or celebrities, and the like. And while he is in full panic mode and making random decisions because of that, Twitter is only going to take a steep decent into being the hellscape that he claims doesn’t want it to be.

And stuff like this from Musk doesn’t help the situation:

And why does Musk do stuff like this when people ask him legitimate questions?:

Then there’s situations like this one which are becoming increasingly common since Musk took over:

Ditto for revelations like this post Musk’s massive layoffs:

There’s also news that Twitter’s Trust And Safety team has been downsized by 15% ahead of the US mid-term elections. I mean, what could possible go wrong in terms of fighting misinformation during a major election in the US when Musk does that?

In other words, Elon Musk’s panic driven decision making will kill Twitter. Assuming that his erratic and bizarre behaviour doesn’t kill it first. Because what you see above is only a taste of things to come with Musk at the helm of Twitter on what seems to be a suicide mission. Which means that I need to be someplace else. Now it is entirely possible that Musk will pull some sort of rabbit out of the hat and turn Twitter into an ATM machine, and also make it less toxic than it is at present. But to be completely frank, I don’t see either of those things happening under Musk’s leadership.

Now where I will be going after I make what seems to be at this point the inevitable decision to leave Twitter, I have no clue at the moment. But I am considering my options. And you’ll be among the first to find out when I make my decision as to where on social media I go to. The bottom line is that Twitter was in trouble and a toxic environment before Elon Musk. But he’s hasn’t got the capability to fix it, which means that Elon Musk will be the one who writes Twitter’s epitaph. Which is bad news for everyone on Twitter.

This is going to be an interesting day. And not in a good way.

So it appears that the layoffs have begun at Twitter. And here’s the rather brutal details:

“It’s going East to West,” one person said. People working for Twitter in London were first to find out, then New York, then people working remotely in the Midwest. California, Twitter’s biggest hub, came last, multiple employees said.

“My entire team is gone,” one person affected by the layoffs in New York said. They worked on a team of 30-plus people. Another person estimated that 90% of their team was cut.

Meanwhile, Musk ignored the layoffs publicly, tweeting “Why is small talk even legal” as his employees were being let go. 

By closer to 11 pm PT, more than 1,000 people at Twitter had lost their jobs, according to employees and messages seen by Insider. The cuts went across the company, from Singapore to the U.K. to Fan Francisco, hitting every department. Content moderation and health, advertising, data storage, product, legal, program management, all were hit with layoffs. Cuts were deep in most areas, but some were so drastic one person said they “don’t know how we keep things going in some areas.” 

Hundreds of Twitter workers began posting to Twitter about losing their jobs, too. Many wrote of gratitude for the years they spent working at the platform and for their colleagues. “Best job I ever had,” one person said. “So it ends,” another wrote.

Musk may be ignoring the carnage that he’s causing, but he can’t ignore this lawsuit that’s been filed that will make his life miserable:

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco names five current or former workers as plaintiffs, one of whom was told he was terminated effective Tuesday, according to the lawsuit. It names Twitter as the defendant.

Three other staff members have been locked out of their Twitter accounts as of Thursday with no formal notice of a layoff, which they interpret to mean they will lose their jobs, according to the lawsuit.

“Twitter is now engaged in conducting mass layoffs without providing the required notice under the federal WARN Act,” the lawsuit says, referring to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that requires 60-day notice for certain plant closings or mass layoffs.

As it typical for Musk, he didn’t think these layoffs through and now he’s likely to get owned in court. But I am a computer nerd, not a lawyer. I say that because the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act isn’t something that he can ignore. But knowing how he thinks, he will try. And there are similar laws in states including California where Twitter has its HQ. Thus I can see more lawsuits like this coming. Especially in California who I am pretty sure aren’t fans of Musk after he bashed them over taxes and regulation and moved Tesla’s HQ to Texas as a result. It might be payback time for that state.

Musk may have just made life a lot more complicated for himself. And a lot of people will enjoy seeing his squirm.

A reader surfaced a Bloomberg report to me that outlines the following:

Elon Musk plans to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at Twitter Inc., or half of the social media company’s workforce, in a bid to drive down costs following his $44 billion acquisition, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Twitter’s new owner aims to inform affected staffers Friday, said the people, who requested anonymity discussing non-public plans. Musk also intends to reverse the company’s existing work-from-anywhere policy, asking remaining employees to report to offices — though some exceptions could be made, the people said.

Musk and a team of advisers have been weighing a range of scenarios for job cuts and other policy changes at San Francisco-based Twitter, the people said, adding that the terms of the headcount reduction could still change. In one scenario being considered, laid off workers will be offered 60 days’ worth of severance pay, two of the people said.

After the layoffs were sorted, Twitter Chief Accounting Officer Robert Kaiden left the company, becoming one of the last pre-Musk C-suite executives to depart, according to people familiar with the matter.

A spokesperson for Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk is really under the gun to find a way to get Twitter to a point that it will not only make money, but he doesn’t look like someone who talks the talk but can’t walk the walk. Even though he has a history of not being able to walk the walk. And this is the sort of stuff that will send those who survive this coin flip shot at keeping their jobs at Twitter to the exit door faster than Barry Allen trying to save the day. Because as the person who brought this to my attention said, it’s no fun working for a dictator. I would agree with that, but I would also add that it’s no fun working for a dictator who is desperate and don’t have a clue.

Those who work for Twitter, those who use Twitter, and most importantly, those who were dumb enough to lend Musk money to buy Twitter should brace for impact as this is not going to end well for anyone.