Since Twitter's takeover in late October, tech billionaire Elon Musk has been irrational about his actions, especially with regard to his decisions around layoffs. Recent reports cited, Musk fired another Twitter engineer just because the techie couldn't provide a satisfactory answer about why his tweet engagement has tanked drastically
Apparently, several prominent right-wingers raised that their reach has significantly reduced after recent changes in Twitter. Earlier this month, right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong tweeted that a tweet sent when his account was set to private, had a far greater reach than the same tweet posted when his account was set to public.
Noting this to be ‘extremely concerning’, Musk took his account private to test the same and later acknowledged that there are some “issues with the system". He also informed that the company will address the same next week.
Then on Tuesday, he gathered a group of engineers and advisors looking for an explanation regarding why his engagement numbers have drastically reduced. “This is ridiculous,” he said, as quoted by Verge. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.”
Citing relevant data, one of the principal engineers tried to explain that public interest in his antics is waning after his surprise offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion
He produced internal data regarding engagement and Google Trends chart, which clearly showed Musk was at “peak” popularity in search rankings in April 2022, indicated by a score of “100.” Today, he’s at a score of nine. Engineers also explained that they tried to check whether Musk’s reach had somehow been artificially restricted but there was no such indication.
Refuting this, Musk fired him. “You’re fired, you’re fired,” Musk told the engineer.
Since the $44-billion takeover, Musk has been under fire for several of his policies. He has focused on reducing costs by laying off half the workforce and introducing new plans for Twitter Blue subscription service, which offers the sought-after "verified" badge.
He said that the steps were necessary to justify the expensive takeover.
