Twitter Shutdown Trends As Massive Amount Of Employees Quit
Twitter users are expressing their fear the social media platform is going the way of the dinosaur.
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The saga of Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter is continuing as hashtags like #Twittershutdown and #TwitterOFF are trending on the site after reports that over 1,000 employees have opted to quit. Fortune reports that as many as 1,200 employees opted out as of the Thursday night deadline, failing to complete a survey that affirmed their intention to keep working for the social media site. Musk has called a meeting of remaining employees that is scheduled to take place on the afternoon of Friday, November 18.
Twitter employees had until Thursday night to commit to a “hardcore” version of the site or resign, which is what caused the mass exodus. Many employees and other pundits question if this move was legal and if the employees that did not commit are considered as having quit or been fired. It is unknown exactly how many quit or how many people are still employed at Twitter, especially for a workforce that had already been reduced by half at the beginning of November as a result of layoffs.
On Friday morning, Elon Musk sent out an email requesting that employees who “actually write software” attend this meeting after submitting work samples including snippets of productive code and a bullet-pointed resume of each employee’s contribution to the site. Several follow-up emails were sent out to clarify the specifics of this meeting, particularly for employees who work from home. These emails outlined expectations from Musk that as many Twitter coders be at the office if possible for the meeting and the series of short reviews that follow.
There have been a lot of rumors about the status of Twitter after Elon Musk bought the social media site for $44 billion on October 27. He immediately pledged to make several changes to how content is moderated versus free speech interests and to remove suspensions and bans on accounts that were punished for “minor [or] dubious reasons.” On November 18, it was announced that the accounts of The Babylon Bee, Jordan Peterson, and Kathie Griffin would all be restored as part of this reform.
Twitter has also been experiencing some strange and confusing occurrences since the takeover. On November 9, the day after the US midterm elections, Musk launched a subscription service for the coveted blue checkmark that signals an account has been verified but had to make changes to it almost immediately when bad faith actors used the service to mimic high-profile people and corporations. The service, an extension of Twitter Blue, was suspended until November 29.
Issues such as content moderation and the new verification terms are only the latest episodes in a tumultuous process that has seen many Twitter users claim they are leaving the platform for other social media sites. However, it is notable that the news about these changes has brought more users to the platform to see what is going on, as Musk noted in a tweet regarding gossip that the site will be shut down. Although so many employees have reportedly resigned or walked out due to discontentment with Musk’s ownership and pledges for the site to become an online public square, rumors of the social media platform’s demise are, at this time, greatly exaggerated.
