Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who had been facing heat over his controversial overhaul of the micro-blogging site, on Wednesday mocked his critics who predicted that the social media giant will not be able to survive under the billionaire’s leadership. “Wasn’t Twitter supposed to die by now or something … ? Maybe we’ve gone to heaven/hell & don’t know it (sic),” he said in a series of tweets.
Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October following a lengthy legal battle. Soon after the takeover, Elon Musk fired the company’s previous chief executive and other senior leaders. Twitter also cut close to 3,700 people this month via email as a way to trim costs post-acquisition, which closed in late October. “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted on November 5 addressing the lay-offs.
Hundreds of Twitter employees have also been estimated to have quit last week, following a Thursday deadline by Musk that staffers sign up for “long hours at high intensity,” or leave.
Meanwhile, as a social media platform, Twitter has already launched and rolled back several features within days, including a verification option for subscribers of Twitter Blue, open to all users for eight dollars a month.
A first attempt at launching the feature saw an embarrassing spate of fake accounts that scared advertisers. Verified accounts with millions of followers were banned after their username was changed to “Elon Musk.”
Twitter Inc is also facing class action suits claiming that it failed to give contract workers advance notice before they were laid off and discriminated against disabled workers by barring them from working remotely after Musk took over.
With inputs from news agencies