Elon Musk, the head of Twitter, recently dismissed a senior engineer after the employee pointed out a drop in the platform’s overall visibility for the billionaire. Reports indicate the decision followed a discussion about the site’s reach and the metrics behind it.
The episode reportedly unfolded on a February day when Musk met with several Twitter IT staffers to review how many views his posts were receiving. The meeting centered on whether users were seeing fewer impressions due to a potential flaw in the platform’s system, or if other factors were at play.
During the talk, Musk lamented that despite his vast follower count surpassing 100 million, his tweets were only reaching a fraction of that audience. He urged the team to check internal data and examine public interest signals, including tools like Google Trends, which appeared to show waning attention from the public.
According to the report, when one engineer suggested that external factors, rather than the platform’s algorithm, might be responsible for the reduced visibility, Musk reportedly decided to terminate that employee. The takeaway, as described, was a firm stance that the decrease in engagement was not acceptable and required immediate clarification from the engineering group.
In the aftermath, the remaining engineers reportedly faced a challenge in convincing Musk that third-party influences, rather than technical issues within Twitter, could account for the dips in tweet impressions. The company has since clarified its stance on how posts are displayed and how content surfaces in feeds.
Observers note that the events highlight ongoing tensions between leadership decisions and algorithmic management on social networks. The episode also touches on broader questions about transparency, control of reach, and the balance between chronological and algorithmic experiences for users on the platform. These dynamics are part of a larger conversation about how social media platforms curate content and measure influence across audiences in North America. (Source: various industry reports)