Elon Musk fires Twitter developer because his tweets don’t get enough love

Technical failures, few subscribers and declining advertising revenues: things are not going well on Twitter. However, the “Chief Twit” has a completely different problem. Elon Musk has been concerned for weeks about his personal reach on his social network, which he bought for $ 44 billion.

Even though he has nearly 130 million followers, only a fraction of them see his tweets. Previously, several prominent right-wing Twitter users that Musk interacted with complained that their reach on Twitter had dwindled. This after they were able to significantly increase their followers and reach after Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

On Tuesday, Musk gathered a group of IT engineers in a room at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters and demanded answers about why his outreach hit an all-time low. That reports the well-connected technology insider service Platformer in Silicon Valley. “It’s ridiculous,” Musk said, according to multiple sources. “I have over 100 million followers and only get tens of thousands of impressions.”

The software developers then tried to provide data to show that people could get tired of hearing from Musk all the time. One of the company’s two remaining lead developers suggested that it’s perfectly normal for public interest in Musk’s escapades to wane over time.

In support of their claim, Twitter engineers showed their CEO internal data on interactions with his account, as well as a Google trend graph showing that interest in him has declined by a factor of 10 since April 2022.

Software developers had previously investigated whether Musk’s reach had been artificially limited in some way, but found no evidence that Twitter’s algorithm was aimed against him.

That response, according to the report, went down badly with the eccentric tech billionaire: Musk fired the chief engineer on the spot with the words “you’re fired, you’re fired.”

Dissatisfied with the work the software developers have done so far, Musk has also instructed his remaining employees to keep track of how often each of his tweets is featured.

Twitter in trouble

Twitter is not doing as well as hoped under Musk: according to a recent study, Twitter usage in the United States has declined by almost 9 percent since the Tesla boss took over. Turnover fell by about a third. And on Wednesday, Twitter experienced its biggest technical glitch in recent memory, erroneously telling users, “You’ve exceeded the daily limit for sending tweets.”

According to Platformer, “an employee accidentally erased data for an internal service that sets upper limits on Twitter use. The team working on this service left the company in November.” An anonymously quoted employee said laconically: “Right now chaos reigns here, so we deliver chaos.”

The developers left over from Musk’s massive layoffs are “putting out new fires” that are believed to have started because the wrong people were fired, Platformer quotes several current Twitter employees, all of whom wish to remain anonymous.

Sad mood

Under Musk, entire teams were likely fired on Twitter, while others were also radically thinned out by employee layoffs. This has consequences: the 8th floor of the company’s headquarters is still occupied by beds that employees have to reserve in advance. “They are fully booked most weeknights,” said another employee.

The mood is sad, many are afraid of being fired by Musk on a whim. He is surrounded by a small group of yes men who see an opportunity to make a career after the wave of layoffs. Many others stuck their heads in the sand and tried to make themselves invisible until they found a new job.

The fact that they no longer leave voluntarily is probably also due to the fact that many tech companies have recently laid off tens of thousands of employees or are on a hiring freeze.

The positive thing about Musk’s “Twitter 2.0” is that many internal processes are faster. But that was “a double-edged sword,” as the chaos surrounding the new verification marks showed, the employee stressed. What’s also frustrating about Musk is that he thinks he knows all the technology. But “you can’t be the smartest person in the room all the time and everywhere”.

Authorities are under pressure

Musk is threatened with further hardship from regulatory authorities in the US and Europe. The European Commission made it clear on Thursday that Twitter is not fulfilling its commitments in the fight against disinformation. According to the EU, one of the reasons why Twitter must take responsibility is that Russia is waging a disinformation war.

Musk had previously fired entire teams tasked with identifying fake news on the platform. In the US, Twitter has also committed to new security and privacy reviews. There are now internal concerns about how to meet the stricter requirements of the regulators.

Since Musk took over, those moves have become an afterthought, say employees quoted by Platformer. His attitude is basically, “Kick my ass, you regulators”.

Even before Musk came to power, Twitter was fined $150 million last year for misleading users. Another violation would almost certainly result in additional fines of tens of millions.