Elon Musk.Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty
As thousands of Twitter users prepared for what they thought would be the platform’s demise on Thursday night into Friday morning, new ownerElon Muskwas preparing memes.
After the billionaire Tesla CEO — whose time at Twitterbegan with mass layoffs— told his employees over email that they either had to work in an “extremely hardcore” fashion or leave the company, hundreds of employees decided to quit, perReuters.
These departures and a reported decision to close Twitter’s offices and cut badge access until Monday led to fears of an uncertain future spilling over onto the app itself, with the hashtag “#RIPTwitter” trending as a result.
Meanwhile, Musk claimed he wasn’t too concerned Thursday night. In response to Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy, Musk wrote that “the best people are staying, so I’m not super worried.”
Musk also shared a handful of memes as Twitter users began to eulogize the social media platform, including one of a man posing next to a grave at a funeral service — with the Twitter logo slapped on both the mourner and the headstone.
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“And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol. Let that sink in,” Musk wrote, adding in another tweet, “Record numbers of users are logging in to see if Twitter is dead, ironically making it more alive than ever!”
Musk’s demand for employees to either work “long hours at high intensity” or leave, which Reuters reports happened via email with a deadline of Thursday, came after hebought the platformfor $44 billion last month following a legal battle that ensued after hebacked out of the dealin July. Muskreportedly let goof about half of Twitter’s then-7,500 workforce just days later.
Twitter did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on the reports of employees leaving the company, the office closures or users' tweets about the platform shutting down.According toThe New York Times, Twitter no longer has a communications team.
Former Twitter vice president Bruce Daisley told theBBCthat former Twitter engineers claimed the platform could “fail as soon as Monday” in response to the mass exits.
“There’s a large number of features that really seem to be predicated on having engineers on site,” he said. “If those engineers have gone, then it does threaten the sustainability of the product. So, there’s a lot of people posting where else you can find them online.”
Reuters reports that over 110 Twitter employees announced their departure on the app, while 15 shared their intentions to stay following Musk’s email ultimatum to build up his “Twitter 2.0” vision for the company.
Musk’s memo to employees, reportedly titled “A Fork in the Road,” offered three months severance pay to those who decided to leave the company. Many of those who left used the hashtag#LoveWhereYouWorkedin their tweets.
As much of the internet was fearing the demise of the platform, Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco had text projected onto the side of its building calling Musk a “lawless oligarch,” “space Karen,” and “mediocre manchild,” along with some other choice phrases.
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“I don’t want to stick around to build a product that’s being poisoned from the inside and out,” one of the employees who planned to reject Musk’s ultimatum toldCNN. “Everyone has a price to a certain degree and this severance gives me some comfort into looking for a better environment in the time frame despite the economy.”
“In the same vein, they can’t overlook or feel comfortable working for someone who has handled the last few weeks in the way Elon has,” the former employee also said. “People don’t want to sacrifice their mental health and family lives to make the richest man in the world richer.”
source: people.com
