THANKS FOR THE ‘MAMMARIES’
. . . and other Twitter farewells amid site chaos
Goodbyes are so bittertweet. Twitter users posted their “final posts” Friday as they worried the social-media platform was headed for imminent extinction — after new CEO Elon Musk issued employees an ultimatum that ultimately failed.
Hundreds of employees vacated the platform following Musk’s ultimatum demanding that they commit to a “hardcore” work environment or be fired. Amid the “mass exodus,” #RIPTwitter and #GoodbyeTwitter started trending as disbelieving Twitter users wondered if this signaled the end for the social-media site.
“Here’s my cleavage for the last time on Twitter if it shuts down,” golf influencer Paige Spiranac tweeted, including a stunning selfie of her dressed in a gingerbread pajama top.
The chaos began Thursday night after Musk, who had already fired half of the company’s 7,500 staff after his $44 billion takeover, called on the remaining workers to get on board with “Twitter 2.0” or leave by 5 p.m. A whopping 75% repor tedly chose the latter, potentially resulting in an alleged 88%
dip in the Twitter
workforce since Musk’s acquisition, according
to a tweet thread by Fortune techspert Kylie Robison.
Among those sacked were 80% of the engineering staff, including the team that keeps the platform’s core system libraries up and running, the Verge reported. Following the mass exodus, Twitter announced that its offices would be closed until Monday and that workers’ badge access would be cut off until then.
Many Twitter users mourned what they believed was the platform’s impending death — and also ripped Musk for allegedly causing the demise.
“Musk turned one of the biggest sites on the Internet into a crater within a month,” fumed one disillusioned doomsayer. “I never want to hear anyone call him other than a dips--t ever again. Twitter HQ RIP Twitter.”
‘End of an era’
“It’s been a pleasure tweeting with y’all for the past 13 years. #RIPTwitter,” wrote another mourner in an anticipatory Twitter tribute — including the infamous still from “Titanic” depicting the musicians performing while the ship goes down.
“Goodbye Twitter, been a good run,” saluted one Twitter wit —also uploading a pic of the notorious “disaster girl” meme with Musk’s smiling face superand imposed a Twitter logo on the burning house.
“Ugh, an end of an era,” laanother mented alongside a meme of the Twitter bird sipcoffee ping and exclaiming “this is fine” while its house is on fire.
Even Musk weighed in on the Twitastrophe Thursday night, joking: “How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start out with a large one.”
Despite the chaos, Musk appeared optimistic about Twitter’s future.
Barstool Sports boss David Portnoy asked the SpaceX honcho on Twitter: “What do people mean when they say Twitter is gonna shut down?”
“Doesn’t it kinda run itself?” he added. “I feel like engineers are for changes not to just keep it running? I also don’t know anything. Hey @elonmusk wanna do a Twitter space with me? Im confused.”
The centibillionaire responded, “The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried.”
In a prior Tweet, Musk claimed that Twitter “just hit another all-time high” in terms of usage.
Comedian Frank Lesser responded, “Rome has never been this brightly lit at night! — Nero.”