Musk celebrates new Twitter usage record as employees resign

Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk said that the social network’s usage has hit another all-time high on Thursday, when hundreds of employees started leaving the company after his ultimatum.

The announcement comes just four days after he shared a chart showing the upward trend in the number of Twitter’s daily active users after his takeover. So, this is the second time in a single week the company set a new record in usage according to Elon Musk, who previously accused Twitter of misrepresenting its metrics because of fake and bot accounts.

The same day Musk celebrated new record, Twitter temporarily shut down its offices after hundreds of employees reportedly resigned from the company in response to his ‘’hardcore’’ ultimatum.

As reported by The Washington Post, Musk sent an internal memo to staff on Wednesday, saying: “Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

“If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” said the billionaire, adding that those who haven’t chosen the option by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday would be given three months severance.

One of the first things Musk did after becoming the ‘’Chief Twit’’ was to lay off nearly half of the company’s workforce, but Twitter asked some of them to come back after realizing they were fired by mistake or would be required to create the platform’s upcoming features.

He also sparked global backlash with the new $8 Twitter Blue subscription plan that will now be required for those who want to have a blue check mark. While the service was launched last week, Musk said it would be relaunched on November 29 ‘’to make sure that it is rock solid’’.

Meanwhile, employees are not the only ones who are unhappy with Musk’s decisions. At the time of writing, Twitter users are also expressing their concerns regarding the latest developments using #RIPTwitter, #TwitterDown and #TwitterTakeover hashtags.

As Musk’s actions keep drawing criticism, other platforms such as Mastodon and Tumblr are attracting users searching for a better alternative. According to a recent report from Sensor Tower, Mastodon’s global downloads rose 657% and Tumblr’s installs grew 77% following Musk’s takeover.