Twitter could face imminent shutdown just three weeks after Elon Musk, an outspoken advocate of free speech absolutism, took control. Since his takeover, he has fired key teams and restricted who can view tweets.
He also drastically curtailed flexible work policies and disbanded Employee Resource Groups like Twitter Women and Blackbird in just days – leading hundreds of employees to leave with promised severance packages.
Twitter’s Future
Twitter employees have left in droves in response to new owner Elon Musk’s apparent irritation with many staff, raising real concerns that its website will cease functioning without dedicated teams in place to monitor and manage it.
Trouble started after Musk issued an ultimatum to staff, demanding they either accept his “extremely hardcore” vision for Twitter or be shown the door. That attempt appears to have backfired, with employees leaving rather than agreeing to such stringent working conditions; these resignations led Twitter offices to close for two days, forcing employees to vacate by 5 pm Thursday before being banned from returning until Monday; less than half of Twitter’s remaining workforce signed on with this plan according to current employees.
Staff have begun leaving meetings with Elon Musk by walking out or sending him a salute emoji as a show of protest, while other team members have stopped responding to his direct messages. Twitter accounts such as @MrElonMusk have even switched over to private mode due to this turmoil.
As Twitter continues its turbulent trajectory, there has been a growing interest in alternative platforms like Mastodon as an open-source and accessible option. Twitter has already taken steps to restrict user posting abilities on the site by restricting accounts’ ability to promote posts or limit audiences for posting.
Another challenge facing Twitter is that starting in April 2019, spreading misinformation in Europe will soon become illegal unless Twitter adheres to a new law that requires employees to flag any disinformation posts and follow appropriate procedures for doing so. Failure to do so could result in Twitter being banned altogether from operating within Europe – potentially having severe repercussions for its user base and viability.
Elon Musk remains unclear on his plans for Twitter’s future, yet he seems determined to implement changes that increase profitability. Already, he has announced that its new name, X, will no longer permit advertisers to promote their accounts within Twitter’s timeline in an attempt to increase followership – an activity that currently generates $100 million per year in revenue for them, according to sources.
It’s Time to Archive Your Tweets
Twitter seemed poised for collapse just weeks ago. Its stock price dropped almost 50% within days of Elon Musk’s takeover; the chief people and diversity officer and product officer both resigned shortly after that, and reports indicate the company is operating with minimal staff during this period of upheaval.
Musk’s mismanagement of Twitter has alienated most of its remaining staff, who now appear to have less trust for him since his arrival. Employees reported experiencing frequent software outages since then; home pages or log-in capabilities have also been broken. On Wednesday, employees received their tech equivalent of a snow day when their Slack instance stopped functioning; as such, they were instructed not to come into work while management implemented a deployment freeze.
It has also been revealed this week that Twitter has reduced the wages of its contract workers and offered only one year of benefits instead of three. Despite these indicators of instability, some users remain dedicated to Twitter in hopes that its platform recovers; others, however, are taking measures to protect their content should it disappear entirely from its platform.
Twitter offers an archiving tool that lets you copy your data in machine-readable form so certain services can utilize it. Unfortunately, however, Twitter requires several hours to complete an archive download, making the experience cumbersome when trying to download thousands of files simultaneously.
Twitter and websites like the Internet Archive that save online content often rely on short links as part of their functionality, necessitating shorteners being available and in good working order in order for these tools to function as they should. With an ever-increasing prevalence of short URLs on Twitter due to bespoke shorteners going out of business or being shut down due to violating terms of service policies, web archives must monitor and resolve these links quickly so as to protect online archives’ services from becoming lost forever.
Why You Should Archive Your Tweets
Since Twitter first debuted, its popularity has skyrocketed and it has become an indispensable source of social commentary, news, politics, and information. Twitter boasts over 500 million daily tweets created by loyal users that could prove invaluable for historians studying Internet culture or researchers who wish to conduct studies of Internet culture itself.
But Twitter’s recent turmoil has many users feeling uncertain of its future. With sudden mass firings, policy shifts, and crippled infrastructure all at play, many don’t trust that the service will remain reliable indefinitely. That is why now would be an excellent time to back up your archive and consider switching over to another social media platform such as Mastodon, which promises no ads while supporting decentralized peer-to-peer networking.
There have been reports that Twitter is in disarray, leading to speculation that many of their most experienced engineers may have left or planned to depart; some reports indicate up to 90% of engineering staff may have left since Elon Musk took control. Such departures are alarming since these employees provide much-needed services such as bug fixing, outage prevention, and keeping Twitter running smoothly.
Though still profitable, the website may find itself struggling to meet financial obligations with reduced staff numbers – an outcome that would be devastating for its millions of users who have built significant lives and careers through using this service.
There are a few simple steps you can take to back up and safeguard your Twitter posts, such as downloading an archive of tweets and account data from Twitter’s website. To access this service, log in and select “More” on the navigation bar on the left of the page; select “Settings and privacy,” “Download an Archive of Data,” then “Verify Identity by Email or Phone” before finally deciding “Download an Archive of Your Data”; once complete enter in your verification code sent directly to either email or phone number on file before making this available to you!
How to Archive Your Tweets
If you are concerned that Twitter could shut down, it is wise to save copies of your tweets as an extra precaution. One method is by requesting your archive file directly from Twitter’s account settings page; alternatively, third-party web apps offer similar solutions.
The Twitter Archive is a comprehensive data file that stores all of your account-related information in Twitter’s database, such as tweets, profile details, and direct messages (DMs). To download it from your account settings page and “Download my data,” visit “Account settings > Download my data,” after a few days, the Twitter system will notify you that your archive file is ready to download.
Once you’ve got a Twitter Archive, save it on a computer or other device so you have an offline copy should the Twitter platform ever close down or you decide to leave. Also, keep a backup copy just in case you ever need to review past tweets for personal or professional purposes.
Note that you will require permission from other Twitter users in order to view their archive files since access requires knowing their password and two-factor authentication code. Nonetheless, you might still be able to locate their archive by doing a search using their Twitter handle.
If you are concerned about Twitter closing down, now would be an opportune time to request your archive file. It is easy and will provide peace of mind, knowing your tweets will remain safe should their platform ever disappear.
Twitter will soon require all developers to pay for API access, which could have severe repercussions for third-party apps used for business. It could make operating these applications harder and force them to find alternative means of making money.
