Elon Musk has begun playfully trolling prominent critics of his new Twitter business practices, indicating he’s unfazed about their displeasure with how he’s been running the company.
Earlier this week, the world’s richest man and new Twitter owner elicited extreme criticism when his email to Twitter employees asking them to work harder or exit the company was leaked.
Musk had asked employees to commit to an "extremely hardcore" work ethic for the sake of the company or be forced to exit with three months severance. Though many on the site called the move cruel and described the website under his management as a "hellscape."
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Musk began by leaving snarky remarks on some of these naysayers’ posts. He went after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-N.Y., tweet of solidarity to the workers of Twitter, who "deserved better" than to deal with their new CEO.
Ocasio-Cortez, who occasionally feuds with Musk on the site, responded to the leaked email, tweeting, "Shout out to all the workers at Twitter. You all built a vital place for connection and deserved so much better. Millions of people appreciate the space you built and the hard work that went into it. Thank you."
Recognizing the indirect jab at him, Musk sarcastically replied, "You’re welcome."
This encouraged other AOC critics to pile on. Conservative Twitter influencer "Catturd" blasted the congresswoman, tweeting, "AOC pretending to know about hard work," followed by a laughing emoji.
Conservative commentator Pete D’Abrosca slammed AOC, tweeting, "Remember that time you chased Amazon out of New York and cost the state like a billion jobs?"
Amidst all the complaints, on Thursday evening, Musk tweeted out to his followers, "And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol." He added, "Let that sink in …" It was a direct hit on all those who had been saying the company under his leadership would fail.
Making a self-deprecating joke about all the supposed chaos, Musk also tweeted, "How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start out with a large one."
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He continued to snark at the naysayers through his responses to people friendly to his cause. When British journalist Piers Morgan asked, "Could all the people currently whining about ‘the death of Twitter’ since @elonmusk bought it… just leave Twitter?" Musk replied, "Seriously."
Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy asked, "What do people mean when they say Twitter is gonna shut down? Doesn’t it kinda run itself? I feel like engineers are for changes not to just keep it running? I also don’t know anything. Hey @elonmusk wanna do a Twitter space with me? Im confused."
In response, Elon quipped, "The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried."
Another account wrote, "The far left is desperately praying for Twitter to be a disaster, spinning stories about how the sky is burning… but the truth is everyone on Twitter is having fun. Including them! haven’t seen this site so active in a while @elonmusk."
The Twitter owner made a humorous observation, tweeting, "Record numbers of users are logging in to see if Twitter is dead, ironically making it more alive than ever!"