How Elon Musk is Causing the Downfall of Twitter

Twitter was one of the first major social media platforms. It was created in San Francisco and was launched on March 21st, of 2006. According to the data on Business of Apps, Twitter had 206 million users in 2021. Since Elon Musk took over ownership on October 27, 2022, it has been reported by Fox Business that the platform has lost over 1 million users. 

Musk has also rolled out a series of different rules and regulations. For one, Vox has reported that Musk has made it possible for users to pay $8 a month for a verification check mark without actually verifying their identity.” This new check mark system led to a mass amount of people impersonating prominent brands and celebrities. Some of the chaos has included a fake Lebron James asking for a trade, and more direly, some impersonated the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, saying that insulin would now be free. This caused their stock to drastically plummet. 

In the first week of November, Musk laid off around half of the entire workforce for the company. Additionally, Musk has confirmed installing beds in the headquarters, tweeting “‘So city of SF [San Francisco] attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are safe from fentanyl,’” and questioned the methods of the mayor. The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection had been investigating a complaint over makeshift bedrooms. 

Furthermore, Forbes reports that some fired employees are now bringing up lawsuits due to the company allegedly going back on the agreements on severance packages. Musk is currently swimming in $13 billion in debt, despite owning five different companies and Fortune reported that it seems as though “Musk has gone to extreme lengths to salvage the loss making-company.”

Though it has long been one of the premier social media companies, since being taken over by Elon Musk, the company seems to be on a downward spiral.