The collapse of Twitter intensifies this afternoon. The new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, called employees to a general meeting, where he warned that “the bankruptcy of the company is out of the question.” and announced a couple of notable executive layoffs. One such layoff was Yoel Roth, head of the company's trust and security department.
Musk warns of bankruptcy as Twitter collapse deepens
As reported by Zoe Schiffer, Musk called this afternoon: all-hands meeting with one hour notice. It's unclear exactly what prompted him to do so, but he seemed to feel the need to share some updated details about the company's collapse.
Firstly, Musk said that he was “not sure how fast the running speed is.” Twitter is currently available. Essentially, this means he's not sure if Twitter's financial situation is strong enough to keep the company going. So he told employees that “bankruptcy was out of the question.”
Musk said “the economic picture ahead is dire.” for Twitter and that the company is “too heavily dependent on advertising and vulnerable to brand spend cuts”; according to the New York Times. The company has “multi-billion dollar negative cash flow.” Musk told employees he sold Tesla stock to “save” Twitter.
After that, Musk told employees that two key executives had resigned: Yoel Roth, head of the company's trust and security department, and Robin Wheeler, vice president of client solutions in the United States.
Roth and Wheeler have both taken on the role of watchdog since Musk formally acquired Twitter two weeks ago. Roth regularly shared updates on Twitter's moderation efforts and the prevention of harassment and other security and trust issues. However, he did it with a team that became a shell of himself after Musk's mass layoffs.
In the meantime, Wheeler led Twitter's relationship with advertisers. Advertising is the company's main source of income, but a number of companies have removed their ads from Twitter due to the turmoil following the acquisition of Musk.
Yesterday, Roth and Wheeler, along with Musk and advertising partners, moderated the Twitter Space town hall. In this morning's Bloomberg article, Roth and Wheeler are described as key “senior social network leaders.” Now they are both gone.
Kathleen Pacini, Head of Human Resources and Talent Management, is also leaving the company.
Meanwhile, Twitter continues to grapple with the chaos caused by the new $8 a month blue check. system. As we said this morning, people are using the new blue checkmark “t-call-it-verification” a system to impersonate brands, celebrities, athletes, etc. Despite Musk calling it a “top priority”; To combat these troll accounts, Twitter is playing a game of cat and mouse.
One of the more egregious “fake but proven” The account that went viral came this afternoon when an account posing as pharmaceutical giant Eli Lily tweeted that the company would make insulin free for everyone. The real Eli Lily account responded after about 45 minutes, apologizing “to those who received a misleading message from a fake Lilly account.”
