Elon Musk fired top Twitter engineer because he wasn’t getting enough views: Report
Christopher Hutton
Video Embed
Elon Musk fired a top Twitter engineer after being told that his declining engagement on the platform could have been due to shrinking interest, an episode that highlights the company’s internal struggles under its new owner.
Musk had gathered a group of engineers and advisers into a room to seek answers about his account metrics, according to Platformer. The billionaire inquired why he was only getting “tens of thousands” of impressions on his posts despite his 100 million follower base. When one of the two remaining principal engineers attempted to explain the drop via an analysis presented through Google Trends, Musk quickly retaliated.
PROPOSED LEGISLATION WOULD BAR TIKTOK FROM STATE-OWNED DEVICES
“You’re fired, you’re fired,” Musk told the engineer. Musk then told staff to track how many times each of his tweets were recommended.
Musk had been approached by several conservative accounts claiming that the algorithm was restricting their engagement despite Musk promising to change the website’s practices.
Musk’s meeting with Twitter staff occurred seven weeks after he had enabled the ability to see how many views a tweet received publicly.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Musk’s tenure has seen some high-profile public struggles. While he has claimed that Twitter is doing significantly better in recent weeks, it continues to experience technical and financial problems. Twitter suffered a major outage on Wednesday after announcing that it would allow premium users to post 4000-character tweets. Many users reported being unable to tweet or send direct messages.
The platform has been seeking additional sources of money after its advertising revenue dropped more than 40% in 2022 following Musk’s takeover of the company. It has tried to reestablish trust with advertisers through Super Bowl-themed advertising deals. The social platform also announced that it would allow political advertising on the platform again.