Also relevant to the topic: Ex-twitter employees live tweeting their termination A layoff guide for tweeps So... Elon acquiring Twitter has become the "Depp vs Heard" of the tech world, there have...
So... Elon acquiring Twitter has become the "Depp vs Heard" of the tech world, there have been 10 posts in the last 7 days about it on ~tech (including this one), and there definitely will be more news about it, how many of them will get posted on tildes I don't know, but I think is time to start thinking about a single mega-thread.
Really weird to see him just blatantly breaking the law. A bunch of UK employees were made redundant with no warning. He might as well just set fire to the money. Also, he got rid of the entire...
Really weird to see him just blatantly breaking the law. A bunch of UK employees were made redundant with no warning. He might as well just set fire to the money.
Looks like they are at least providing the legally required consultation, although without much evidence of good faith: they sent a notification to nominate a representative on Friday night with a...
Looks like they are at least providing the legally required consultation, although without much evidence of good faith: they sent a notification to nominate a representative on Friday night with a deadline of Tuesday morning, so effectively one business day of notice while the affected staff are already locked out of their work email and Slack accounts. Apparently about a week would be considered more standard.
I was just thinking that there are going to be a lot of very disgruntled staff with access to systems that apparently weren’t especially well isolated at the best of times, and lo and behold it...
I was just thinking that there are going to be a lot of very disgruntled staff with access to systems that apparently weren’t especially well isolated at the best of times, and lo and behold it looks like Elon’s account was deactivated this morning (albeit briefly).
I feel for the employees. Apparently they were mandated to use their Twitter email address for their twitter accounts (which may have included personal accounts), and had to use 2FA....
This may age badly but here's my prediction: I really don't like Elon Musk and right now he's acting like an idiot, but he's not that much of an idiot. I suspect he's not actually breaking any...
This may age badly but here's my prediction:
I really don't like Elon Musk and right now he's acting like an idiot, but he's not that much of an idiot. I suspect he's not actually breaking any laws, because he's not "technically" firing the employees, he's locking them out but giving them pay for the 60 days that the law requires (and they are "technically" employed). If he actually tries to fire people with cause or blatantly violate their contracts, even as a billionaire, this is a clear-cut case he will not win. He did fire the execs who are millionaires for cause, but either a) genuinely has a half-decent "cause" (which he may, as Twitter has not been doing well), b) they will sue and win, or c) he's doing this for publicity, and he will just drop it and give them severance anyways.
I also doubt he will relax moderation by that much and explicitly allow hate speech, as doing so would completely destroy Twitter's revenue and community: not only would even more advertisers would pull out, but Twitter would get overrun by those who like hate speech (as happens to pretty much any other community which allows hate speech), and everyone else would leave. Elon is smart enough to understand this, and many people say they support light moderation but in practice realize it's unsustainable.
Honestly, I think the situation with Twitter is that: a) Elon likes publicity, the news likes publicity, so they are pushing out articles and making Elon seem obnoxious and he is saying stuff to pour gas on the flame. b) The trending n-word, spam, and Twitter's other issues are not new, Twitter and its moderation is a buggy mess and has been before Elon. c) Elon understands that he made a bad deal buying Twitter and is going to have a really hard time getting revenue out of it, so he is also laying off 50% of the staff and planning changes in desperation to salvage some of the loss. It's a big deal and Elon is the bad guy, but the news is making it seem like a bigger deal and Elon is acting worse and dumber than he actually is.
Musk has a clear pattern of breaking or attempting to break laws, contracts, and agreements. There is the settlement with the SEC that he ignored, the crap he pulled to get into trouble with the...
Musk has a clear pattern of breaking or attempting to break laws, contracts, and agreements. There is the settlement with the SEC that he ignored, the crap he pulled to get into trouble with the SEC, the Twitter deal, and firing executives "for cause" when it was clearly not (according to Matt Levine who should know). Going back further, there's also the beginning of the pandemic when he got into a showdown with health authorities when he refused to shut down the factory in Fremont. And probably lots of other stuff I forgot.
It's also clear that he makes unforced errors, like signing a deal to buy Twitter when he didn't need to.
He may be smart in some ways, and sometimes may even break laws for smart, strategic reasons, but it's also clear that he's reckless, which, um, isn't smart. So, not consistently smart - not in any way you could rely on.
So far he's been rewarded for taking risks, which works until it doesn't, and makes you look smart until you screw up.
It's a long way down and there's probably still a fair bit of room for course corrections. I don't believe Twitter's chances can be ruined in a month, so in that sense I agree that it's a bit exaggerated. But if he keeps steering towards the rocks - well, it's looking like classic Greek or Shakespearian tragedy.
He's laid off a bunch of UK staff and there doesn't appear to have been any consultation, which is mandatory. The notice period doesn't matter, the consultation has to happen and it hasn't...
He's laid off a bunch of UK staff and there doesn't appear to have been any consultation, which is mandatory. The notice period doesn't matter, the consultation has to happen and it hasn't happened.
Also relevant to the topic:
So... Elon acquiring Twitter has become the "Depp vs Heard" of the tech world, there have been 10 posts in the last 7 days about it on ~tech (including this one), and there definitely will be more news about it, how many of them will get posted on tildes I don't know, but I think is time to start thinking about a single mega-thread.
Definitely seconding a mega-thread to quarantine all the Elon drama.
Thirding.
Really weird to see him just blatantly breaking the law. A bunch of UK employees were made redundant with no warning. He might as well just set fire to the money.
Also, he got rid of the entire human rights team: https://twitter.com/ShannonRSingh/status/1588591603622772736?s=20&t=ZauAi1cylfhqc2UVjt5F9A
And the ML ethics team
Looks like they are at least providing the legally required consultation, although without much evidence of good faith: they sent a notification to nominate a representative on Friday night with a deadline of Tuesday morning, so effectively one business day of notice while the affected staff are already locked out of their work email and Slack accounts. Apparently about a week would be considered more standard.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63527336
It's not clear that Twitter have told the UK government (BEIS) that they intend to lay off people, and that has potential criminal penalties.
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-11-04/twitter-staff-find-laptops-wiped-overnight-as-elon-musks-firm-starts-layoffs
I was just thinking that there are going to be a lot of very disgruntled staff with access to systems that apparently weren’t especially well isolated at the best of times, and lo and behold it looks like Elon’s account was deactivated this morning (albeit briefly).
I feel for the employees. Apparently they were mandated to use their Twitter email address for their twitter accounts (which may have included personal accounts), and had to use 2FA. https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1588347524435566592?s=20&t=O2IF4-Avz4QNYPF4rj5vpA
This may age badly but here's my prediction:
I really don't like Elon Musk and right now he's acting like an idiot, but he's not that much of an idiot. I suspect he's not actually breaking any laws, because he's not "technically" firing the employees, he's locking them out but giving them pay for the 60 days that the law requires (and they are "technically" employed). If he actually tries to fire people with cause or blatantly violate their contracts, even as a billionaire, this is a clear-cut case he will not win. He did fire the execs who are millionaires for cause, but either a) genuinely has a half-decent "cause" (which he may, as Twitter has not been doing well), b) they will sue and win, or c) he's doing this for publicity, and he will just drop it and give them severance anyways.
I also doubt he will relax moderation by that much and explicitly allow hate speech, as doing so would completely destroy Twitter's revenue and community: not only would even more advertisers would pull out, but Twitter would get overrun by those who like hate speech (as happens to pretty much any other community which allows hate speech), and everyone else would leave. Elon is smart enough to understand this, and many people say they support light moderation but in practice realize it's unsustainable.
Honestly, I think the situation with Twitter is that: a) Elon likes publicity, the news likes publicity, so they are pushing out articles and making Elon seem obnoxious and he is saying stuff to pour gas on the flame. b) The trending n-word, spam, and Twitter's other issues are not new, Twitter and its moderation is a buggy mess and has been before Elon. c) Elon understands that he made a bad deal buying Twitter and is going to have a really hard time getting revenue out of it, so he is also laying off 50% of the staff and planning changes in desperation to salvage some of the loss. It's a big deal and Elon is the bad guy, but the news is making it seem like a bigger deal and Elon is acting worse and dumber than he actually is.
Musk has a clear pattern of breaking or attempting to break laws, contracts, and agreements. There is the settlement with the SEC that he ignored, the crap he pulled to get into trouble with the SEC, the Twitter deal, and firing executives "for cause" when it was clearly not (according to Matt Levine who should know). Going back further, there's also the beginning of the pandemic when he got into a showdown with health authorities when he refused to shut down the factory in Fremont. And probably lots of other stuff I forgot.
It's also clear that he makes unforced errors, like signing a deal to buy Twitter when he didn't need to.
He may be smart in some ways, and sometimes may even break laws for smart, strategic reasons, but it's also clear that he's reckless, which, um, isn't smart. So, not consistently smart - not in any way you could rely on.
So far he's been rewarded for taking risks, which works until it doesn't, and makes you look smart until you screw up.
It's a long way down and there's probably still a fair bit of room for course corrections. I don't believe Twitter's chances can be ruined in a month, so in that sense I agree that it's a bit exaggerated. But if he keeps steering towards the rocks - well, it's looking like classic Greek or Shakespearian tragedy.
He's laid off a bunch of UK staff and there doesn't appear to have been any consultation, which is mandatory. The notice period doesn't matter, the consultation has to happen and it hasn't happened.
There are already people talking about blatant antisemitism that used to get bans that doesn't anymore. https://twitter.com/rothschildmd/status/1588564108848549888?s=20&t=S7GSjQM3HAvui6KLFvtneQ
Clearly musk isn't dumb as a sack of rocks, but all the evidence shows that he's pretty dumb but lucky.