The dismissal of half of Twitter’s workforce could show the first consequences. This indicates technical problems. Meanwhile, Twitter is losing more advertisers.
(Image: Koshiro K/Shutterstock.com)
A week and a half after half of Twitter’s workforce was laid off, the first technical problems seem to be appearing that are not being fixed immediately. As the US magazine Wired reports, it sometimes takes several hours to send the SMS codes for two-factor authentication. As a result, those affected are locked out of Twitter. Currently, the problems are limited, sometimes everything works, sometimes not.
Wired was able to confirm the delays. During the chaotic days after the Twitter takeover, it was repeatedly suggested that technical problems could soon mean that key Twitter personnel are no longer taking action.
Advertising money is gone
A few days after it was taken over by US billionaire Elon Musk, Twitter fired half of its workforce by email at the beginning of November, followed by thousands of external employees last weekend. The US company is likely to be understaffed in important areas, which was probably also noticed there. A week ago there were reports that some of those who had been made redundant were asked to return to their jobs a short time later. While the wave of layoffs appears to have implications for the platform’s technical viability, there are also now early reports suggesting that the chaos surrounding the verification hooks could cost the company dearly. The US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has stopped all advertising on Twitter.
As the Washington Post reports, the measure is a result of Twitter’s inability to delete a deceptively real-looking copy of the account. This account promised that Eli Lilly would give out insulin for free. According to the Washington Post, officials at the pharmaceutical company tried for hours to reach someone on Twitter to get the deletion. Finally, Elon Musk was contacted personally and publicly on Twitter before the tweet disappeared.
As a consequence, Twitter is likely to lose millions of dollars in advertising revenue, the US newspaper writes, adding that the platform, which is small compared to Facebook, for example, was never central to the advertising industry. The chaos now makes it easy to do without advertising there.
SpaceX buys advertising space on Twitter
It is currently unclear whether Musk wants or can absorb the falling advertising revenue. According to CNBC, Musk’s space company recently bought a large advertising package on Twitter to promote Starlink satellite internet in Australia and Spain. With an estimated volume of 250,000 US dollars, it is not large enough to even come close to counteracting financial worries on Twitter. But the step is unusual for SpaceX, the company does not actually advertise on Twitter. Elon Musk himself called the purchased package “small – not big” in a tweet and assured that SpaceX would also advertise on Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
Meanwhile, Musk’s handling of Twitter employees and criticism is also becoming clearer. After half the workforce had already been fired via email, at least two other employees have now had to leave after publicly contradicting Musk on Twitter. A developer from Twitter explained on the platform that he had been working on Twitter for Android for six years and that a tweet from Musk about technical problems was wrong. When asked why he hadn’t commented on this internally, he simply asked why Musk wasn’t voicing his criticism internally. A short time later, Elon Musk tweeted “He’s fired,” which the developer confirmed. Another tech who shared Musk’s same tweet saying “the man has no idea what he’s talking about”also dismissed.
(Image: Screenshot)
TechAint 