Elon Musk lives in an echo chamber of his personal design–surrounded by yes men keen to inform him no matter he needs to listen to. When Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he introduced in a bunch of advisors, from early Uber investor Jason Calacanis (who texted Musk that he would bounce on a grenade for him) to former PayPal COO David Sacks and celeb lawyer Alex Spiro. All had been brimming with concepts on how Musk may turbo-charge Twitter’s potential.
The boys agreed that Twitter wanted to overtake its infrastructure and its firm tradition. Free lunches, workplace lattes, content material moderation insurance policies, and the previous verification system had been all proof of the “woke mind virus,” and needed to go. They envisioned a free speech platform that prioritized creators and was far much less depending on adverts. Musk, in renaming Twitter “X,” is a step nearer to realizing his long-held imaginative and prescient of making an “everything app” for communication and commerce. (I reached out to Calacanis and Spiro for touch upon my forthcoming guide which works behind the scenes of the Twitter takeover, however they didn’t reply.)
A yr and a half after the deal closed, X’s core providing stays unchanged. The product is the identical because it was, albeit with extra bugs (just three weeks ago the platform skilled one more international outage) and worse adverts (together with a growing problem with ads promoting crypto spam, sarcastically certainly one of the points that has irked Musk for years, even earlier than he purchased the firm). The corporate has seen a 72% decline in worth since Musk acquired it, according to Fidelity.
Why has the acquisition been such an epic failure? Before everything, working a social platform requires empathy–a top quality Musk decidedly lacks. He facilities his personal wishes in product growth quite than these of the customers and broader public. Final yr, he diverted engineering assets towards discovering out why his Tremendous Bowl tweet didn’t get as many impressions as President Biden’s. Then, he reportedly dismissed the engineer whose data-driven theories had been grounded in the concept that it was merely a recognition or likeability situation and never a basic algorithm flaw.
Musk has surrounded himself with sycophants who’re too scared and self-interested to inform him the fact, problem his convictions, or ever inform him that he’s mistaken. One in all the tales I cowl in my guide about Musk’s Twitter takeover includes the alleged lack of related technical data Musk introduced in from the outdoors after firing many individuals with the requisite infrastructure expertise. For instance, the Tesla engineers who got here in to take over believed that X may function with one knowledge middle in the U.S., as a result of that’s what Tesla, a {hardware} firm, apparently required. When X prioritized stability over velocity, firm executives decided it wanted 4.
Inappropriately firing workers who specific something aside from blind help of Musk has price X, too. Yao Yue, a former X engineer who I profile in my guide, filed prices with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, alleging that X fired Yue in retaliation for a Slack message and corresponding tweet through which she urged her colleagues to not resign. In October, she was vindicated when the NLRB issued its first-ever criticism in opposition to X. If she wins her case, scheduled to be heard this month, she may obtain months of backpay. Beyond Yue, a number of former X workers are suing Musk for $500 million, claiming that he didn’t legally pay them the severance they had been owed once they had been fired. When the media sought a response from X to those allegations, they acquired poop emojis–a coverage announced by Musk on the platform. And along with these worker grievances, the Federal Trade Commission and the European Union are investigating X for failing to counter disinformation and being opaque about promoting practices. The corporate mentioned that it was cooperating with the regulators and reiterated that it’s “targeted on creating a safe and inclusive environment for all customers… whereas defending freedom of expression.”
Musk is spending his time moaning about the pitfalls of range and inclusion efforts, telling off advertisers at conferences, and restoring accounts of conspiracy theorists akin to Alex Jones. IBM, the EU, Comcast, and others have pulled their adverts from the platform citing an increase in racist and antisemitic content. Tools meant to forestall harassment are unable to combine. The CEO he introduced on, Linda Yaccarino, appeared woefully unprepared to talk at the Code Convention–and didn’t appear to know precisely what number of day by day lively customers X had at the time. The quantity she shared, ought to it’s believed, can be a decline from Musk’s personal estimation months earlier.
Sadly, there are few individuals left in Musk’s orbit who can hold him in examine. His lieutenants don’t appear eager to enhance a product, hold customers secure, and even push for good enterprise selections. Relatively, they wish to be in shut proximity to energy, cash, or each. For many who are usually not there to stroke Musk’s ego, however to carry on to a job for visa or household causes, talking up is just not an choice. Musk may imagine that the criticism he receives on X is an approximation of sincere product suggestions–but it surely’s not sufficient. In consequence, certainly one of the strongest on-line platforms, and the Web as a complete, will endure.
Zoë Schiffer is the creator of the upcoming guide about Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter.
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Behind Elon Musk’s chaotic Twitter takeover, look for the ‘sure males’ fortune.com 2024-01-19 17:52:08
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