Here are some of the most pressing issues concerning Musk’s ownership of the social media behemoth.
Ad Sales Drop and Financial Outlook
Twitter’s ad sales, which previously accounted for 90% of its revenue, have declined. The drop coincided with a pullback by advertisers concerned about the rise in hate speech and misinformation on the platform. Musk, on the other hand, appears to bear little responsibility for the company’s financial outlook shift. He owes $1.5 billion per year in debt service to complete the transaction.
Job losses and power outages
Twitter is said to have laid off at least 200 more employees, reducing its workforce to less than 2,000 from 7,500 when Musk took over. Musk’s repeated job cuts are fueling new concerns that there aren’t enough people to handle Twitter’s growing number of outages, bugs, and glitches. On Monday, a bug prevented many users from clicking links, loading images, or accessing certain parts of the site.
Chinese Activists Pay the Price
As Twitter experiences outages and bugs, Chinese dissidents and activists have expressed concern that they are being silenced. These outages raise concerns that Twitter may no longer be a reliable tool for activists and dissidents.
Child Abuse Information
Musk promised to rid Twitter of child sexual abuse content after acquiring the platform. However, The Times discovered that the imagery has remained on the site.
Putting Advertiser Concerns on the News Media
Musk blamed advertisers’ concerns on negative media portrayals of the company. He stated that people should trust what they see on Twitter rather than what they read in newspapers.
Fighting on Twitter with a Former Worker
Musk spent part of Monday and Tuesday fighting on Twitter with a former worker. Musk accused Thorleifsson, an employee in Iceland whose design company was acquired by Twitter, of using a disability as an excuse not to work and claiming he was seeking “a big pay out.” after Thorleifsson tweeted at the billionaire to clarify if he had been laid off. This sparked a social media backlash, with many people criticizing Musk’s actions.
Conclusion
Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter has been marred by a slew of controversies, including outages, job cuts, and criticism over his handling of sensitive issues like child abuse content. As the social media behemoth faces new challenges, many are calling for the company to be more transparent and accountable.
Featured image: Justin Pacheco, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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