Don’t Look Now But Twitter Suddenly Is A Dumpster Fire

Musk's Twitter saga continues to evolve, as the company undergoes an extremely raucous 48 hours. The billionaire has been making some questionable changes in what he says are attempts to make the social media platform profitable.

Since Elon Musk took over as Twitter CEO a little over two weeks ago, it seems as though each new day brings a new change to the company. In that short time span, Musk has fired the entire Twitter board, issued massive layoffs, introduced a new Twitter Blue subscription and verification process, told work-from-home employees they must return to the office, stated bankruptcy is not off the table, etc. To say that the last couple of weeks at Twitter have been tumultuous might be an understatement.

Just in the last 48 hours or so, the company has seen multiple high-ranking officials depart, and a torrent of accounts with blue check marks impersonating companies which led to Twitter removing the ability for any new accounts to sign up for the controversial subscription plan. A few examples of fake accounts included those impersonating Musk's Tesla and SpaceX, Roblox, Nintendo, and Eli Lilly and Company. Eli Lilly ended up having to post a tweet apologizing to its followers, after accounts with blue check marks impersonating it led some to believe the company would be giving out free insulin.

The barrage of changes has also led advertising and marketing conglomerate Omnicom Group Inc. to recommend its clients pause spending on Twitter in the short term, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Omnicom also stated in the memo, "Twitter's ability to maintain their previous level of brand safety measures and effectiveness seem impeded in the intermediate term." After yesterday's shenanigans, it would be hard to argue against that.

Musk recently stated that Twitter is losing an estimated $4 million a day. Following what occurred yesterday, that number could very well increase as more advertisers hit the pause button for advertising on the platform.

In terms of how Twitter has been responding to everything transpiring, The Verge pointed out in a tweet that the social media company no longer has a communications department. This has left news outlets having to depend on Musk's own tweets for any sort of information from within, or from sources leaking notes from internal meetings.

The last two weeks have also seen a lot of users stating they are leaving Twitter for other social media platforms such as Mastodon. However, it does seem as though there are still plenty still hanging around, if for no other reason than to see the show that is Twitter first-hand.

*Update 11/13/2022 1:10 pm EST* In a tweet on Saturday, Musk responded to a question of when Twitter Blue will make a return. He stated, "Probably end of next week". Currently, the subscription is unavailable to new subscribers.