THE END OF TWITTER? NETIZENS WEIGH IN
AFTER an ultimatum by new Twitter owner Elon Musk to workers to accept “hardcore” duties, many netizens on the platform believe it won’t be long before the site shuts down.
The move by Musk has triggered resignations across the social media giant.
“I was laid off from Twitter this afternoon. I was in charge of managing badge access to Twitter offices,” Alex Cohen tweeted. “Elon just called me and
asked if I could come back to help them regain access to HQ as they shut off all badges and accidentally locked themselves out.”
The hashtag, #RIPTwitter, has trended atop the platform worldwide, with over 560,000 tweets relating to it. Other hashtags included #GoodbyeTwitter.
Netizens in the Philippines and around the world have started saying goodbye.
“Me saying goodbye to my Twitter moots one last time until Twitter was pronounced dead because Elon Musk could no longer revive it. It’s been a good run. See you on the other side,” tweeted @JimGumboc. “Before Twitter’s official downfall, I hope Elon Musk would let us see the replies of private accounts and the private QRTs [quote retweets] for us to check if someone’s already badmouthing us so that we can fight back.”
“Google should be taking advantage of this #RIPTwitter bulls***, real or not. Would be a good kickstart to reviving Google+,” suggested @ poliwb1.
“Twitter’s about to blow up... it was fun while it lasted. enjoy the rest of the ride,” said @quitplyngjames.
Filipino historian Kristoffer Pasion shared what could potentially be his last Today in History thread.
“This is perhaps my last #TodayinHistory entry before Twitter blows up to smithereens. I’m so glad we ended w/ a fierce Filipina who knows how to deal w/ sh**. It has been nice knowing you all,” wrote Pasion, who profiled Filipina revolutionary leader Trinidad Tecson who fought in the Filipino-American War and the Philippine Revolution.
Other netizens have also begun to look for other platforms to move to once Twitter officially shuts down.
Among them is former Presidential Communications Undersecretary Manuel “Manolo” Quezon 3rd, who shared his Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon handles, while also sharing his website, newsletter, and Cohost pages.
Actor Chuckie Dreyfus believed Mastodon, which now serves as a Twitter alternate, is a “hassle” to set up.
“Ang hassle ng Mastodon eh. Daming servers. (Mastodon is a hassle, too many servers.) It’s not making it easy for common folk who want to migrate from Twitter,” he tweeted.
“Where is Filipino Twitter moving to? Mastodon? Cohost? Anywhere but FB [Facebook] pls. Also recommend Discord servers if you have any that are active and chill,” tweeted @ postpunkista.
Other Filipino netizens have suggested Plurk, which was a site used in the early 2010s.
“Plurk has a 360 char limit. May edit button. ‘Yung feed aka paleontology timeline is so much cuter than the seemingly endless Twitter scroll. You can also gift friends. Finally, ‘yung mascot is a walking ham w/ a bone as its head. What’s not love?” tweeted @ supernegatrona.
US political analysis site Palmer Report believes the site cannot just “disappear.”
“The new owner, who’s turning out to be as paranoid delusional as his belief in right wing conspiracy theories would suggest, is reportedly locking out employees tonight for fear they’ll rebel. Twitter may crash and such with no one working on it. But it won’t just disappear,” it wrote. “The emerging Twitter alternatives are still nowhere near prime time. Even if we do all end up leaving Twitter eventually, we don’t really have a place to go yet. So if Twitter does start crashing tonight, just take the evening off from it and come back here tomorrow.”
Musk has not said much about the hashtag, but tweeted that his new company hit an all-time high in usage.
“And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol,” he wrote on Friday. “Let that sink in.” He later followed it up with a meme.
In an ironic twist on November 13, Mastodon reported on its Twitter page that over a million people joined its group since Musk’s Twitter takeover.
“Over 1 million people have joined Mastodon since October 27. Between that and those who returned to their old accounts, the number of active users has risen to over 1.6 million today, which, for context, is over 3 times what it was just about two weeks ago!” it wrote.
Musk took over as Twitter owner on October 27 and has since laid off multiple personnel.