Stop being cruel to him. These companies bring him a lot of hate.
En el transcurso de dos semanas, Twitter perdió casi la mitad de su fuerza laboral tras la adquisición de Elon Musk, quien exigió lealtad incondicional o la salida con indemnización. Mientras cientos de ingenieros eligieron marcharse, su madre Maye Musk salió a defenderlo públicamente, calificándolo de 'genio' y atribuyendo las críticas a la envidia. Es una historia tan antigua como el poder mismo: la distancia entre la visión proclamada por quienes rodean al líder y la realidad vivida por quienes sostienen la obra desde adentro.
- Twitter perdió cerca de 4,500 empleados en pocas semanas, entre despidos masivos y renuncias voluntarias, dejando a la plataforma operando con un equipo mínimo.
- Musk lanzó un ultimátum sin margen de negociación: compromiso total con su visión de un 'Twitter 2.0 revolucionario' o salida con tres meses de indemnización.
- Cientos de ingenieros clave, los mismos que mantenían el sistema en funcionamiento, rechazaron el ultimátum y se fueron, poniendo en riesgo la estabilidad técnica de la plataforma.
- Maye Musk apareció en un documental de la BBC para defender a su hijo, comparado por allegados con Einstein, Tesla y Rockefeller, en medio de una narrativa pública cada vez más adversa.
- La viabilidad operativa de Twitter permanece en una incertidumbre real: la plataforma que moldea la conversación global enfrenta un futuro incierto sin los ingenieros que mejor conocían sus sistemas.
En dos semanas, Twitter perdió casi la mitad de su plantilla. De los 7,500 empleados que tenía, 3,750 fueron despedidos. Otros 700 ya habían renunciado antes incluso de que la adquisición de Elon Musk se concretara. En total, cerca de 4,500 personas salieron de la empresa entre despidos y renuncias voluntarias.
En medio de la tormenta, Maye Musk decidió hablar. Apareció en un documental de la BBC que sigue la trayectoria de su hijo y aprovechó el espacio para responder a las críticas que se acumulaban en medios y redes sociales. 'Es un genio', dijo, según reportó Insider, atribuyendo la hostilidad hacia él a la envidia por sus logros. 'Dejen de ser crueles con él', pidió. No era la primera vez que lo defendía públicamente. Otros cercanos a Musk también aparecieron en el documental: Dolly Singh, exdirectora de reclutamiento en SpaceX, lo comparó con Einstein, Tesla y Rockefeller.
Pero la realidad dentro de Twitter era otra. Musk lanzó un ultimátum a los empleados que quedaban: comprometerse a construir un 'Twitter 2.0 revolucionario' con dedicación total, o irse con tres meses de indemnización. Sin negociación. Cientos de ingenieros —los que realmente sostenían la plataforma— eligieron marcharse.
Peter Clowes, ingeniero de software que había sobrevivido la primera ronda de despidos, lo expresó con claridad en LinkedIn: 'Mis amigos se han ido. Se avecina una tormenta y no hay incentivo económico para quedarse. ¿Qué harías tú? ¿Sacrificarías tiempo con tus hijos durante las fiestas por promesas vagas?' Sus palabras reflejaban lo que muchos sentían: habían visto caer a sus colegas y entendían que ningún ideal sobre una plataforma revolucionaria justificaba el costo.
Al cierre de la semana, el futuro de Twitter era genuinamente incierto. La plataforma que se había vuelto central para la conversación global operaba con un equipo mínimo, habiendo perdido a quienes mejor conocían sus sistemas. La defensa de Maye Musk era la lealtad de una madre. Pero no podía cambiar el hecho de que la empresa que su hijo acababa de adquirir se estaba desmoronando.
In the span of two weeks, Twitter shed half its workforce. Of the 7,500 people who worked there, 3,750 were laid off. Before that, during the summer, another 700 had already walked away—this was before anyone even knew for certain that Elon Musk's acquisition would actually close. By the time the dust settled, the company had hemorrhaged nearly 4,500 employees through termination and resignation.
Maye Musk, the billionaire's mother, decided the moment had come to speak up. She appeared in a BBC documentary series tracking her son's rise, and she used the platform to address the mounting criticism he faced across media and social media. The narrative around Twitter's implosion was darkening by the day. She wanted people to understand something different about him.
"He's a genius," she said, according to reporting from Insider. She suggested that much of the hostility directed at him came from jealousy over his accomplishments. "These companies bring him a lot of hate," she continued. "Stop being cruel to him." This wasn't her first time defending her son publicly. She regularly responds to critical posts on Twitter itself—the very platform now under his control—pushing back against detractors. Others close to him also appeared in the documentary to vouch for his character and vision. Dolly Singh, who had led talent recruitment at SpaceX, compared him to historical giants. "He'll build his legacy and it will be undeniable that he's a combination of Einstein, Tesla, and Rockefeller," she said. She described him as someone who had absorbed everything those figures knew and was now pushing it further.
But the reality on the ground at Twitter told a different story. After Musk took control, he issued an ultimatum to remaining staff: commit to working intensely to build a "revolutionary Twitter 2.0," or leave with three months of severance. The choice was binary. No negotiation. Hundreds of engineers, the people who actually kept the platform running, looked at that offer and said no. They chose to leave.
Peter Clowes, a software engineer who had survived the initial round of cuts, tried to articulate what that decision looked like from the inside. "My friends have left," he wrote on LinkedIn. "A storm is coming and there's no financial incentive to stay. What would you do? Would you sacrifice time with your kids during the holidays for vague promises and a chance to get richer—or richer still?" His words captured the hollowness of the choice being offered. The people being asked to rebuild Twitter had already seen what happened to their colleagues. They had watched the layoffs unfold. They understood the instability. And they understood that no amount of idealism about a revolutionary platform was worth the cost.
As the week ended, Twitter's future hung in genuine uncertainty. The company had lost the engineers who understood its systems most deeply. The platform that had become central to global conversation, to news, to politics, was now operating with a skeleton crew and a mandate that had already driven away the people most capable of executing it. Maye Musk's defense of her son was a mother's loyalty. But it could not change the fact that the company he had just acquired was coming apart.
Citações Notáveis
Stop being cruel to him. These companies bring him a lot of hate.— Maye Musk
My friends have left. A storm is coming and there's no financial incentive to stay. What would you do? Would you sacrifice time with your kids during the holidays for vague promises?— Peter Clowes, Twitter engineer
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did Maye Musk feel the need to defend her son so publicly at this particular moment?
Because the criticism wasn't abstract anymore. It was everywhere—on the platform he'd just bought, in the news, in people's homes. Half the company was gone. She was watching her son become a symbol of something people hated, and she wanted to reframe the story.
Do you think the engineers who left were making a rational choice, or were they panicking?
Both. They'd seen 3,750 people get fired in two weeks. They'd watched 700 others quit before the deal even closed. When Musk said "work unconditionally or leave," they weren't hearing a vision—they were hearing a threat. The financial incentive wasn't there. The trust wasn't there.
What did Dolly Singh's comparison to Einstein and Tesla actually accomplish?
It tried to elevate the conversation from "he fired people" to "he's a historical figure building something transcendent." But that only works if people believe the platform is actually being built better. When engineers are fleeing, that narrative falls apart.
Peter Clowes mentioned his friends leaving. How many people are we really talking about here?
Nearly 4,500 people lost their jobs or chose to leave. That's not a number you can spin. That's 4,500 families dealing with uncertainty, 4,500 people who understood Twitter's code and chose not to stay.
Could Twitter actually function with this much staff loss?
That was the real question hanging over everything. You can lay off marketing. You can't lay off half your engineers and expect the platform to stay stable. The people who left understood that better than anyone.