Twitter users bid the platform farewell on Thursday night amid increasing turmoil after owner Elon Musk found employees resigning in huge numbers in response to his demand that they stay “hardcore.”
Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali, who has 301,700 followers, appeared to be signing off for the last time, as did D.C.-based journalist Aaron Rupar, who got in a dig against Musk’s other company, Tesla. “If this is my very last tweet, I just gotta say one thing — I will never, ever, buy a Tesla,” wrote Rupar.
@PixelizedSunset shared a clip of Eddie Redmayne crying and singing, “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from “Les Miserables” with the caption,”the one employee left at twitter hq rn (right now) #RIPTwitter .”
Social media influencer Mitchell Nagy wrote, “Gentlemen, it has been a privilege tweeting with you tonight,” alongside a clip from “Titanic” of the musicians playing on the deck of the sinking ship as frenzied doomed passengers try to run from the rising water.
Among the phrases trending on Thursday night: Goodbye Twitter, #RipTwitter and #TwitterDown.
As for what few employees are left after Musk demanded they commit to “extremely hardcore work” to the tech company, most are staying to keep their work visas, wrote Washington Post contributor Holly Figueroa O’Reilly.
The timing of the announcement that Twitter’s San Francisco offices would be closed for the holidays gave the added impression that Twitter might not reopen amidst rumors that Musk feared sabotage from remaining employees.
One parody account wrote that, amidst all the chaos, Elon himself was temporarily locked out.
