Despite the chaos unfolding around him, Musk appears to be undaunted — proudly declaring over the weekend: "Twitter is ALIVE."
The head of Twitter's cryptocurrency unit has left the social network, as the crisis engulfing the company goes from bad to worse.
Tess Rinearson confirmed her departure with a salute emoji, which Twitter employees have been using whenever they resign.
She's not the only one who is out the door. Last week, Elon Musk had given remaining workers an ultimatum: commit to a "hardcore" culture that involves long hours, or leave and get paid three months of severance.
Morale at Twitter is at rock bottom after Musk slashed more than 50% of its workforce, causing the tech giant's headcount to dwindle from 7,500 to 2,900.
Some estimates suggest that hundreds more have decided not to stay at the company — and there are now real fears that Twitter could break down, with remaining staff lacking the technical knowhow to resolve potentially fatal glitches.
Rinearson's departure is a particular blow given how she had played an instrumental role in helping Twitter embrace crypto — and during her short tenure, new features were rolled out so non-fungible tokens could be displayed as profile pictures.
Countless Twitter users are now sharing links to their profiles on rival sites such as Instagram and LinkedIn, with many expecting the microblogging site to suffer an unexpected outage.
The social network has become a sanctuary for crypto enthusiasts — not to mention countless spam bots shilling questionable altcoins — and some of the industry's best-known influencers now face the challenge of losing access to millions of followers.
Musk Undaunted
Despite the chaos unfolding around him, Musk appears to be undaunted — proudly declaring over the weekend: "Twitter is ALIVE."
And in an apparent acknowledgement of the mayhem he's created, the billionaire shared a meme of a gravestone adorned with Twitter's logo.
On Saturday, he launched a poll to ask his 117 million followers whether Donald Trump's account should be reinstated.
Over 15 million people ended up casting a vote, with 51.8% declaring that they are in favor of the former president returning to the site.
After that result was finalized, Musk wrote:
"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei."
Trump's account has now reappeared on Twitter — almost two years after it was permanently banned over fears it was inciting violence.
But the 76-year-old has suggested that he may not return to the social network, especially considering he has launched his own alternative called Truth Social.
It'll be interesting to see whether Trump avails himself of the chance to return to Twitter and communicate with his 83.1 million followers — especially considering that he has now confirmed he plans to run in the 2024 presidential race.
