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You might think social media companies would be happy to witness the downfall of a rival – but the latest post from Instagram suggests otherwise.
On Friday, Instagram’s official account on Twitter posted the affectionate and unexpected message ‘tbh we love twitter’ with a crying face emoji.
The tender tweet was in reference to the ongoing chaos at Twitter, which new owner Elon Musk has said ‘will not survive’ if it doesn’t find ways to make money.
Musk could lose 75 per cent of Twitter’s remaining workforce after hundreds of employees resigned overnight and more ignored the CEO’s deadline to commit to being ‘hardcore’.
Instagram’s message was also a sweet acknowledgement of its presence on the rival platform, which has been owned by Musk since the end of October.
Likewise, Twitter has an Instagram account where it just posts screenshots of tweets, although it hasn’t posted anything since July.
Acknowledging its presence on the rival app, the official Instagram account has tweeted ‘tbh we love twitter’ with a crying face emoji
New Twitter owner Elon Musk (pictured) could lose 75 per cent of Twitter’s remaining workforce after hundreds of employees resigned overnight and more ignored the CEO’s deadline to commit to being ‘hardcore’
Twitter has temporarily closed its offices as more staff chose to leave, sparking new concerns about the site’s ability to stay online
It follows the latest batch of problems at Twitter brought on by Musk’s ownership, which reached a concerning head this week.
On Wednesday, Musk sent an email to his remaining 3,700 workers and gave them a 5pm ET Thursday deadline to either click a link confirming their willingness to work ‘long hours at high intensity’, or leave the company with three months severance pay.
The email said employees will need to be ‘extremely hardcore’ if the firm wants to ‘build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0’, meaning staff will have to endure ‘long hours at high intensity’ going forward.
But the email reportedly sparked a wave of resignations and around 75 per cent of all remaining workers at the firm had ignored the email.
According to Reuters, the departures include many engineers responsible for fixing bugs and preventing service outages, raising questions about the stability of the platform.
Employees leaving the social media giant sent their goodbyes on the company’s Slack platform, The New York Times reported.
What’s more, Twitter staff who have opted to stay have now been locked out of their offices until Monday (November 21) without an explanation.
In a message sent to Twitter staff seen by the BBC, the firm said office buildings would be temporarily closed with all badge access suspended until then.
Musk, who has shown a habit of flippantly referring to the drama at Twitter as it happens, posted: ‘How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start out with a large one.’
He later added: ‘The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried.’
#RIPTwitter is now trending on the platform, with users comparing the mass exodus to the sinking Titanic and a burning house.
The Twitter CEO even fired back with his own meme, showing the burial of Twitter at a graveyard.
Social media users created memes to mock the mass exodus out of Twitter. One posted this alternated version of the classic ‘disaster girl’ meme
‘It has been a privilege tweeting with you tonight’: Some users joked the company was sinking like the Titanic
One person called it the ‘end of an era’ with a cartoon of the bird from the Twitter icon in a burning room
The Twitter CEO even fired back with his own meme – showing the burial of Twitter at a graveyard
Musk – who took out a large loan to buy the firm for $44 billion (£38 billion) at the end of October – soon faces the prospect of being saddled with immense debt, which could bankrupt Twitter.
He’s already said in a tweet on November 4 that his company is losing $4 million (£3.4 million) per day.
In a leaked internal email dated November 9, Musk said there was ‘no way to sugarcoat the message’ that Twitter ‘will not survive’ if its business model doesn’t change.
‘Frankly, the economic picture is dire, especially for a company like ours that is so dependent on advertising in a challenging economic climate,’ Musk said.
‘Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.
‘The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed.’
Advertisers have already pulled out of Twitter in large numbers, scared by the bad publicity and the reported increase in hateful content on the platform.
Earlier this week, experts said that the potential collapse of Twitter under Musk could erase vast records of recent history, such as contemporary accounts from the war on Ukraine and the death of Osama bin Laden.
Since the first tweet was posted in 2006, Twitter has been the go-to place online for documenting key events, but these could be lost if the site goes bust.
Recent departures at Twitter reportedly include many engineers responsible for fixing bugs and preventing service outages, raising questions about the stability of the platform (file photo)
‘We’re going to lose such a lot of digital history if Twitter goes kaput without warning,’ Elise Thomas, an analyst at global think tank the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), told MIT Technology Review.
‘[Twitter] actually represents an enormous opportunity for future historians; we’ve never had the capacity to capture this much data about any previous era in history.’
Musk has revealed several upcoming changes to the platform that have unimpressed users, including making the blue tick next to an account name exclusive to Twitter Blue, the platform’s paid subscription option.
The rollout of the feature as part of Twitter Blue was plagued with problems, including users impersonating celebrities and public figures, so Musk delayed it until November 29 to make sure ‘that it is rock solid’.
Twitter will also be ditching the 280 character limit to allow longer tweets ‘soon’, the billionaire owner said on Thursday.
Musk also revealed this week that he plans to reduce his time at the company and eventually find a new leader to take over as CEO.