In case you missed it, it appears the end is near for Twitter. Yesterday (Nov. 17), reports that the app’s new owner, tech billionaire Elon Musk, lost a huge percentage of key employees surfaced online. Those who worked for the company were sent an “extremely hardcore” email about revamping the platform, which included longer hours. As a result, the remaining staff members left in droves.
As previously reported by REVOLT, Musk recently acquired the site in a massive billion-dollar deal earlier this year. Since taking over, the app has not seen much success. Within the last month, racist tweets skyrocketed as censorship of hate speech dwindled. Verified users were easily dismissed when Musk allowed anyone to have a blue check for just $8 per month and a litany of viral events have taken place. “According to the New York Times, employees at Twitter just began hanging up as Elon Musk was talking during [a] video conference call today, apparently deciding to quit and take the severance package as the 5 p.m. deadline passed,” Justin Baragona, a reporter for The Daily Beast tweeted yesterday.
Kylie Robison, a reporter for Fortune, tweeted that most of the remaining staff members were only there because they were “stuck” on work visas. She added that employee badges had already begun being deactivated. Around that time, video of the San Francisco headquarters began to circulate online. In the clip, a projector placed the words, “Elon Musk: Insecure colonizer, space Karen, mediocre manchild, petty racist” and more just under the company’s logo.
With the news of the app possibly ending for good, users flocked to the app to express their favorite memories of the social media platform one last time. “Damn. Twitter has given me access to people, experts, data [and] opinions that have made me [a] more reflective, smarter, radicalized [and] better human being [and] teacher. I’ve met people who are my friends. They’ll never be a space like Black Twitter. Single fist raised. It’s been real,” one person wrote. Another asked, “Damn, Twitter. How is it possible that you died before Facebook?”
Take a look at the best reactions to the end of an era below.