Twitter: Elon Musk’s buggy machine is operating with opposition and vandalism from employees

According to the New York Times (NYT), Elon Musk’s Twitter social networking platform now has more and more errors and problems, the main cause of which is the mass layoffs of this billionaire, making the company not enough employees. the resolution of problems.

In February 2022 alone, Twitter witnessed at least 4 network outages compared to 9 times in the whole of 2022. According to NetBlocks, this proves that Twitter’s service is going downhill.

In addition, the number of errors occurring on this social network is increasing, causing the platform to no longer serve users as well as before, such as an error that blocks users from posting.

The NYT claims that the Tesla founder’s constant layoffs are the main reason for the chaos. After the latest round of layoffs, Twitter has less than 2,000 employees compared to 7,500 people when Elon Musk has not come to power.

This latest cut has affected the technical maintenance of this social network, causing countless errors for users today.

Although still trying to re-gain ad revenue, the current situation with Elon Musk is quite tense. The billionaire has terminated one of Twitter’s three data centers, cut technical staff in the server and cloud data, and fired managers in this field.

This drastic layoff, although it saves money for Elon Musk, will make it difficult for the company when the problem occurs because many people who stay do not understand what is happening or how to fix the error. The source of the NYT said that in the past, this social network would have a team of technicians focused on fixing errors quickly, but now Twitter has to take longer than that due to staffing.

“ Twitter used to fix bugs very quickly, but now the platform feels like it is going downhill all over the system. When a serious error occurs, the engineers who understand the situation are no longer working at the company , “said engineer Saagar Jha, who left Twitter in May 2022.

“Blood Change”

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Twitter witnessed a major bug called “Fail Whale” when the social network’s blue bird logo was replaced with a whale. , and their features also malfunction.

So over the years, Twitter has worked to hire hundreds of engineers to make sure its technical background is strong enough to help fix major bugs as they happen.

Then the “blood change” of Elon Musk’s personnel took place in 2022.

On December 24, 2022, the Tesla billionaire closed Twitter’s data center in Sacramento. Just four days later, Twitter saw a widespread outage when users were unable to access the social network or respond to comments.

Then shuffling manpower leads to countless other problems. In early February 2022, a Twitter employee mistakenly deleted the data of the anti-spam service, leaving countless users unable to post or message each other.

It took Twitter’s technical team several hours to fix the error and recover the data. But users who can’t post get a message that they’re doing so because they’ve posted too many posts.

A week later, an engineer tested the change with Twitter users on Apple devices. However, instead of experimenting with a small group first, the engineer abandoned the practice to make large-scale changes. A source close to the NYT said that the main reason why the technical team was so careless was that many people objected to Elon Musk’s way of operating.

Meanwhile, complaints about the decline in interaction, the loss of friends and followers on Twitter also appeared more and more.

“ When there is a technical change, the machine will malfunction ,” said Jane Manchun Wong, an engineer specializing in social networking platforms, when talking about Twitter.

The NYT reported that the staff reduction not only brought many errors but also created instability for Twitter. Many inexperienced technical staff are forced to oversee products and services they have never touched, while the distribution of power, who leads, and who is responsible become unclear.

When Elon Musk fired Nelson Abramson, Twitter’s global infrastructure leader in 2022, the billionaire appointed an engineer from Tesla named Sheen Austin to replace him. However, Mr. Austin also resigned in January 2023 because he could not complete the assignment for a project he had never participated in before.

Worse, the company’s internal system also became tangled. Last week, Twitter’s internal communication network on the Slack platform went down, leaving employees inaccessible, unable to see how people were fixing bugs or working.

Although the network was restored later, all conversation groups were turned upside down.

Vandalism and opposition

Feeling the destruction and resistance from within, Elon Musk is gradually losing faith in the employees in Twitter.

The NYT source said the leaders of this social network in the past month received a call from Steve Davis, an aide trusted by Elon Musk, who is leading the billionaire’s Boring Company project, to ask questions. about work.

Accordingly, Mr. Davis has been assigned by Elon Musk to supervise the financial and personnel situation of Twitter in the past 5 months. This assistant asked the team leaders to make a list of employees who performed well. The purpose of this list is to determine the bonuses that Elon Musk has previously committed.

Then less than a week later, Twitter employees received an electronic notice asking them to list what they accomplished in February 2022 and what they plan to achieve in March.

Two days later, more than 200 Twitter employees were cut off from accessing internal resources and fired from the company.

*Source: NYT