No one knew what to expect when Elon Musk announced his intentions to acquire Twitter. And in hindsight, even those who predicted a rocky start to the platform’s new ownership had underestimated how confusing and disastrous it would be. From 2022 to 2023, The Verge and Platformer published story after story, spanning from litigation in the Chancery Court of Delaware to the catastrophic, farcical transition — the mass layoffs, incompetent micromanagement, and employees left sleeping on the office floor.
It is a story that is both singular — Musk’s eccentric and unpredictable behavior as CEO; Twitter’s specific circumstances as a smaller network with outsized influence, especially in politics and media — and one that speaks to the broader tech labor market, situated in new fears surrounding the strength of the economy. But more than anything, it was the story no one could look away from last fall.
