Twitter Inc on Wednesday was hit with a lawsuit accusing it of refusing to pay at least $500 million in promised severance to thousands of employees who were laid off after Elon Musk acquired the company.
It’s just news. And nowadays this just means it’s panic and excessive exaggeration and a pinch of populism.
Since the company is now in private hands of only one person, there is no need to paint a picture for the public.
And with the efforts of making it more economical, there are of course hurdles to overcome.
But overall most decisions were reasonable. The provider change and the change to the financial model were reasonable and will eventually lead to more profits, also with a smaller team behind the platform.
Many here want to see the company fall, just because a person is bought it that’ll whom they despise. That’s just childish.
The only bad decision on musks way so far was buying twitter for simply too much.
And the second worst decision was shooting a shitty car into space. Now the aliens will believe us to have no standards.
But overall most decisions were reasonable. The provider change and the change to the financial model were reasonable and will eventually lead to more profits, also with a smaller team behind the platform.
He slashed damn near 2/3 of the company, their HRIS systems were in disarray, they removed much of the force that made it advertiser friendly, came up with obscene API pricing (no doubt to try and cash in on LLM companies), and have failed to pay rent and server costs. Elon took a flawed business model and made it significantly worse all while giving a middle finger to their advertisers which is overwhelmingly their primary revenue source.
And that’s just not correct.
Twitter is still running. It has still grown in username in the last months.
Their business model expanded to a subscription model.
And all this talk about servers and api is just crap talk of unhappy people that do not know how a company is made profitable.
It’s the same kind of people that are angry about Reddit and believe Reddit to go bankrupt.
What a joke.
Not to say his steps aren't ones that should be taken, it's the ways and means that alot of people are taking issue with.
When he took over Twitter it was unprofitable, and the steps he's taking are ones that would be recommended for alot of struggling startups. But not for a major buisness.
Elon is used to moving quickly and breaking things often, as with a startup it's fine if there are disruptions for a while or take years to become profitable.
Paying severance isn't a "hurdle" to "overcome," it's the cost of doing business. Not paying for things you have to pay for is not overcoming a hurdle. It's running into it and continuing to run.
I am just trying to explain basic economy to a bunch of angry emotional people.
But you are of course free to believe that everything would be better without people like musk.
No new products or ideas, site is less usable today, many failed implementations, powerful new competitor (no, not Lemmy), no car advertising, trump didn't even come back.
Back a few years ago, PayPal started big. It was new, it became big.
And now there are new competitors like Klarna.
And yes, this new competition might have cost PayPal a few costumers.
But it was not the end of PayPal, as many have predicted.
And same goes for twitter.
There is no meantionable decrease in user numbers.
Only the number of ported instagram accounts to threads was discussed as the big change.
No big Migration means that most still runs smoothly. No press article can change that.
And that trump didn’t come back is probably as simple as to why he became a candidate for presidency.
His ego was hurt. And he thinks of himself as a man of principles.
And maybe he created an echo chamber of his supporters.
Well, well, well, look who's defending their beloved billionaire. It's truly fascinating how some people can overlook glaring issues and defend questionable decisions. Let's dissect your defense, shall we?
Firstly, you claim that since Twitter is now in private hands, there's no need to paint a picture for the public. Ah, yes, because transparency and accountability are such outdated concepts, right? Who needs the public's trust when one person can make all the decisions behind closed doors? It's not like Twitter is a platform that millions of people rely on for news, communication, and information.
You also applaud the efforts to make the platform more economical, but conveniently ignore the consequences. Sure, reducing the team might save some money, but what about the impact on content moderation? By firing a significant number of content moderation staff, Twitter has allowed extremist content to flourish, tarnishing its reputation and driving away advertisers. But hey, who needs ad revenue when you have a billionaire at the helm, right?
Speaking of advertisers, you seem to brush off the importance of brand safety and the impact of hate speech on ad placements. Advertisers understandably don't want their brands associated with extremist views or hate speech. By failing to address this issue effectively, Musk has driven away advertisers, causing a significant loss of revenue for Twitter. It's not "childish" for people to criticize such negligence; it's simply holding a company accountable for its actions.
And let's not forget Musk's refusal to pay rent on Twitter's offices. It's truly admirable how he thinks he can just disregard contractual obligations and leave property owners high and dry. Such behavior shows a complete disregard for the law and basic decency.
Oh, and the whole bedroom installation in the San Francisco headquarters? That's just downright creepy. Who in their right mind thinks it's acceptable to convert a commercial space into a residential one without proper zoning? Musk's actions in this regard are not only inappropriate but also demonstrate a lack of respect for regulations and the communities in which his company operates.
While it's true that many billionaires own media outlets, that doesn't excuse Musk's questionable decisions and mismanagement. Controlling the narrative should never come at the expense of allowing hate speech and extremism to run rampant. Musk's actions on Twitter are not the signs of a genius businessman; they're the actions of someone more interested in their own ego and power.
So, before you rush to defend your beloved Musk, take a step back and consider the real consequences of his decisions. Twitter deserves better leadership and accountability, not blind adoration from its defenders.
Half the time a site just refuses to work.
I click on a link to a tweet, and it's either "Ooops..." or a sign in window. This can't be good for a social media site, that mainly gets its value from the number of users.
Disregarding laws in Europe regarding the firings is also a very shortsigthed decision that will bite them in the ass.
Half the time a site just refuses to work.
I click on a link to a tweet, and it's either "Ooops..." or a sign in window.
The links not working might be connected to the provider change. But so had no such experiences so far.
The forced login to see content is actually something Facebook and other companies already do. It forces people to make an account. This always works out in favour of a company, if the company already has a very large amount of users and has a monopoly on the market.
This can't be good for a social media site, that mainly gets its value from the number of users.
This works especially well with media. Newspapers that embed tweets must link them
In their articles, often embedded in an article. This means the newspaper will need more than the current 600 tweets a day to work. It will need to pay to make use of 6000.
This concept only works if you need to login to see tweets.
Disregarding laws in Europe regarding the firings is also a very shortsigthed decision that will bite them in the ass.
I am uninformed about the firings of European twitter personnel. You might be right about that.
Or it’s just an inflated problem. Twitter still has a legal team.
Many here want to see the company fall, just because a person is bought it that’ll whom they despise. That’s just childish.
The only bad decision on musks way so far was buying twitter for simply too much.
What the actual fuck???
Not paying bills, rent, employees' severance and bonuses? This has real consequences for ordinary people who aren't asshole billionaires. I don't think anyone here wants the company to fail because they despise him. We want it to fail because he's a terrible person doing terrible things.
Hold on. A company is not always bound to pay all those things. It’s always a legal question. And while the media makes a big deal out of it, the severance and bonuses claims are still just lawsuit claims.
And to my knowledge, many of those claims are still questionable.
Exactly. And now the question is, if the contract was broken or not.
To my knowledge Musk didn’t fire twitters legal team.
So letting some employees go, should have been looked I to by said legal team.
I think it's important to be critical; Musk is someone who I tend to be neutral with, and I refuse to align myself with the "eLoN MuSk bad!!!!!" crowd, because I'm a fucking adult.
And the second worst decision was shooting a shitty car into space.
I don't have a moral judgement on that but I agree with one microbiologist who spoke about it. It is the single most influential event in the history of all life on earth.
Because it won't just crash into a planet or zip off to nowhere it will just orbit for who knows how long. Breaking apart by outgassing and random microimpacts. Containing who knows how many protected and suspended bacteria and fungal spores. Pieces will reach every major body eventually. Including ones that can support life, such as Europa.
The impact of this event could stretch out for billions of years. Long after the sun ruins the inner planets the outer moons could still support life.
So billions of years from now, millions of light years away, there could be 'intelligent' life forms on another planet that evolved from bacteria on elon's unwashed poop hands?
He's been doing this for a while now. He fired the entire PR department and set it to respond with poop emojis and every article editor that's reached out for a comment has had this as their reply.
He's a man-child. And one of the most powerful and influential people on earth.