Elon Musk reportedly fired a Twitter engineer on the spot after the worker told him his popularity was sinking on the site
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Grace Kay
Feb 10, 2023, 04:36 IST
Elon Musk fired a Twitter employee who showed him data that his account had become less popular on the site, Platformer reported on Thursday.David Odisho/Getty Images; Gotham/Getty Images
Elon Musk fired a Twitter engineer who showed him his popularity was declining, Platformer reports.
Musk had given engineers the assignment to see why his tweets were getting less views, the publication said.
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Elon Musk fired a top Twitter engineer who told him he was declining in popularity on the site, according to a recent report from the tech newsletter Platformer.
Musk met with several Twitter engineers on Tuesday to discuss his view count on Twitter, which had been on a downward spiral in recent months, Platformer reported. The billionaire had previously assigned workers to look into whether his reach on the platform had been restricted due to a potential issue with Twitter's algorithm, according to the report.
"This is ridiculous," Musk told the employees, Platformer said, citing multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting. "I have more than 100 million followers, and I'm only getting tens of thousands of impressions."
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The employees showed Musk internal data and a Google Trends chart that indicated public interest in the billionaire was waning, Platformer reported. Google Trends data shows his popularity peaked at a score of 100 in April — around the time he offered to buy Twitter — and has since dropped to a 9.
When one of the engineers said Musk's popularity might be declining due to a lack of public interest since his Twitter purchase, Musk told the employee he was fired, according to Platformer. The billionaire also told some employees to track how often his tweets are recommended on the site as he was unconvinced by the meeting that his view count had not been impacted by an internal issue, the publication said.
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Musk and a spokesperson for Twitter did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication.
It's not the first time that Musk has fired an employee on the spot. Only a few weeks after taking Twitter private, Musk fired three Twitter employees that criticized him on social media.
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