When Elon Musk took over Twitter—now X—in October 2022, the tech world braced for disruption. But no one anticipated just how brutal, personal, and messy the clash between the billionaire and the company’s own developers would become. What followed was a wave of layoffs so abrupt it felt like a purge, public spats with former employees, and a growing rift between Musk and the very engineers who once kept Twitter running. ### <br>**The Mass Layoffs: A Sudden, Cold Goodbye** Almost immediately after the acquisition, Musk began slashing Twitter’s workforce. Thousands of employees—engineers, product managers, and key developers—were let go in brutal fashion. Some found out via email. Others logged into their systems only to discover their badges no longer worked. Teams that had spent years building Twitter’s infrastructure were dismantled overnight. For many, it wasn’t just the layoffs that stung—it was the way they happened. Stories emerged of employees locked out of Slack mid-conversation, of engineers who had spent sleepless nights fixing outages only to be cut without warning. The cuts were so deep that rumors swirled about whether Twitter could even keep its systems online. (Spoiler: It did, but not without chaos.) ### <br>**Musk’s War with Former Employees** If the layoffs were harsh, Musk’s subsequent treatment of ex-Twitter employees was even more personal. When some spoke out about the turmoil, Musk publicly mocked them. He dismissed concerns about platform stability, implying that the fired workers were incompetent. In one notorious incident, he responded to a former executive’s criticism by tweeting, “You’re fired.” But the most explosive clash came when ex-developers warned that Twitter’s infrastructure was a ticking time bomb. Musk shot back, accusing them of sabotage and spreading “false rumors.” The message was clear: loyalty was expected, and dissent would be met with public scorn. ### <br>**The Developer Exodus and Broken Trust** Even those who stayed faced a shifting landscape. Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting and demands for “hardcore” work culture drove many remaining engineers to quit. The company’s once-thriving developer ecosystem suffered, too—third-party apps were killed off, API access became prohibitively expensive, and indie developers who had built tools around Twitter found themselves shut out. The result? A growing sense that Musk viewed engineers as disposable. Where developers had once been seen as vital to Twitter’s survival, many now felt like replaceable cogs in Musk’s machine. Some who believed in Twitter’s original mission left disillusioned. Others simply couldn’t stomach the volatility. ### <br>**The Aftermath: What Was Lost?** Months later, X is still standing—but the scars remain. The trust between Musk and the developer community is fractured. The engineers who built Twitter’s core features are gone, replaced by a leaner (and often overworked) team. And while Musk insists the company is now more efficient, critics argue that the cuts came at the cost of institutional knowledge—the kind that keeps a platform stable during crises. For developers watching from the outside, the lesson was clear: In Musk’s world, technical talent is valued only as long as it serves his immediate vision. Disagree? You’re out. Speak up? You’re mocked. The human cost of this approach? A trail of burned-out engineers, abandoned projects, and a tech culture that now views X with skepticism. In the end, this wasn’t just about layoffs—it was about how a company treats the people who build it. And for many, that story has already been written.