Twitter closes offices, staff resign while users eye decentralized options

Published at: Nov. 18, 2022

Elon Musk has been shaking the Twitter tree since he took over the micro-blogging platform in late October. His latest move has resulted in an exodus of employees and office closures.

Earlier this week, Musk issued an emailed ultimatum to Twitter staff saying that they need to commit to “working long hours at high intensity,” or clear their desks by Thursday, Nov. 17.

A large number of them have taken the second option which is understood to include three months’ severance pay, resulting in the company temporarily closing its offices as hundreds of employees have walked out, according to reports.

Twitter also announced it was temporarily suspending all badge access until Monday, Nov. 21, asking staff to “refrain from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.”

Email to Twitter staff saying offices are closed till Monday. "I didn’t want to work for someone who threatened us over email multiple times" says one employee who's just resigned pic.twitter.com/Xd9s36f0ru

— James Clayton (@JamesClayton5) November 18, 2022

According to a poll on the workplace app Blind of 180 people, 42% chose the answer "Taking exit option, I'm free!" reported Reuters on Nov. 18. In a separate poll, half the respondents estimated that 50% of the staff would leave.

Employees are not the only ones fleeing Twitter in Musk's wake, as users have been seeking out alternatives. One that has come to light recently is Mastodon which has seen new registrations surge.

The decentralized social network is a federation of independently operated interconnected servers running on open-source software.

On Nov. 12, Mastodon claimed it had added over a million new members since the Twitter deal closed. On Nov. 3 MIT reported that Twitter had lost the same number of users since Musk’s acquisition.

Related: ‘Twitter will do lots of dumb things’ in the coming months: Elon Musk

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is also working on a new decentralized internet and social media platform called Web5, as reported by Cointelegraph in June.

Dorsey hopes his Bitcoin-powered platform will draw users away from centralized and scam and spam-filled Web2 social media.

Dorsey has already refused to accept the position of CEO at Twitter as Musk said this week that he wants someone else to run it.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk lamented the trials and tribulations of running a social media network after news of the employee exodus broke:

How do you make a small fortune in social media?Start out with a large one.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022

In a separate tweet responding to questions by pop culture blog Barstool Sports founder, Dave Portnoy, Musk said he was “not super worried” as “the best people are staying.”

The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
Tags
Business
Social Media
Elon Musk
Twitter
Related Posts
Binance commits $500M to co-invest in Twitter with Elon Musk
Major crypto exchange Binance has participated in Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, according to data filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. On May 5, Musk filed an amended general statement of the acquisition, announcing that Twitter received an aggregate of about $7.2 billion in new financing commitments in connection with the merger agreement, subject to the conditions in co-investor equity commitment letters. According to the document, Binance is one of 18 co-investors in the acquisition alongside major crypto industry players like Sequoia Capital Fund and Fidelity Management and Research Company. Having invested $500 million, Binance …
Adoption / May 5, 2022
Twitter board recommends shareholders vote for Elon Musk’s takeover
The Twitter board has unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favor of Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media giant. Twitter’s board of directors initially accepted the $44 billion takeover bid at $54.20 per share in late April, and shareholder approval is the final hurdle to the deal going through bar any potentially erratic antics from Musk. According to a Tuesday United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Twitter’s board of directors unanimously determined that the “merger agreement is advisable” and have called on shareholders to vote in favor of the deal. The board stated that Twitter will be …
Business / June 22, 2022
Binance may form a team to support Twitter's blockchain efforts
According to reports on Oct. 28, the crypto exchange Binance intends to create a team to work on crypto and blockchain solutions for Twitter, following the acquisition of the social media company by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The development came hours after Binance's founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, confirmed that the company had backed Musk with $500 million in financing, making the crypto exchange the fourth-biggest contributor to the takeover amid 19 investors that provided $7 billion to Tesla's founder. On Twitter, CZ confirmed that the money was wired earlier this week and clarified that the transaction was …
Blockchain / Oct. 28, 2022
Twitter monetization and free speech drove Binance's $500M injection: CZ
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has explained the reasoning behind its $500 million co-investment into Elon Musk’s Twitter, citing monetization potential, crypto community free speech, and the opportunity to eventually “help bring Twitter into Web3.” CZ’s comments came from an Oct. 31 CNBC Squawk Box segment, where he explained what drove his co-investment with Elon Musk to acquire the social media platform noting: "I believe Twitter has not been monetized well, it has not grown well, there's many tactical problems like bots that spam my comments, there's scammer accounts on there, it's not been run well." “But I think the …
Adoption / Nov. 1, 2022
Twitter's crypto price index feature expands to 30 tokens and counting
Twitter has quietly expanded its new crypto feature that enables users to search the price of individual tokens, adding at least another 30 tokens. The new additions are part of the social media giant's "$Cashtags" feature which was announced by the Twitter Business account on Dec. 21 with the news Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) were the first to be part of the new feature. Tweeting or searching for a crypto token or ticker symbol with a dollar sign ($) in front now links to pricing graphs for those symbols. Cointelegraph found 30 of the top 50 tokens by market …
Adoption / Jan. 16, 2023