Amid the Twitter crisis, owner Elon Musk took the opportunity on Friday to launch a poll asking whether Donald Trump’s account should be “reinstated” on the social media platform.
According to his tweet, there were nearly 5 million votes as of 7:47pm EST on Friday. The survey was scheduled for another 20 hours. No clues were given as to where the poll is.
The former president was fired from Twitter in January 2021 after his posts were seen as helping to incite a deadly riot at the US Capitol earlier that month.
Musk launched the survey as the chaos at his company drew a flood of visits from the curious.
Hundreds of Twitter extras walked off the job on Thursday after their new leader gave them an ultimatum to commit to “long and intense” work or leave.
Musk has already cut nearly half of his workforce, from about 7,500 to 3,700 employees. Sources told The New York Times that about 1,200 more workers walked out Thursday, leaving the company “on the brink.”
It seems the engineering and content moderation departments have been decimated.
On Friday morning, Musk asked employees for help, according to company messages viewed by the Times.
“Anyone who writes software, report to the tenth floor today at 2 p.m.,” he wrote in a message seen by the Times. “Thanks Elon.”
About 30 minutes later, Musk sent another email saying he wanted to know about Twitter’s “technology stack,” which refers to a company’s software and related systems. In another email, he asked people to fly to Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco to meet in person, according to the Times.
Meanwhile, many Twitter users have flocked to the site, apparently to blow off steam as fewer and fewer workers tend to the shop. The posters created scathing fake accounts, including some posing as Elon Musk and Tesla, and apparently posted porn on Twitter in the absence of content moderators.
I’m a passionate and motivated journalist with a focus on world news. My experience spans across various media outlets, including Buna Times where I serve as an author. Over the years, I have become well-versed in researching and reporting on global topics, ranging from international politics to current events.