The hashtag “RIPTwitter” is trending, and many users are scrambling to download their data.
Also, they suggest alternative ways for people to find them, like consumer champion Martin Lewis, who has two million Twitter followers but has yet to figure out Mastodon.
Musk, Twitter’s new chief, took to Twitter’s Twitter page to share a meme depicting a gravestone with the Twitter logo.
As a result, many workers have left in droves – laid off half of the workforce one week after Musk purchased the platform. Many more are deciding to go since he sent a message demanding “hardcore” working conditions and long hours from his remaining employees.
Twitter bios indicate that many departing are engineers, developers, and coders doing low-level work that keeps Twitter running.
Let’s take the two most significant vulnerabilities that could swiftly knock the bluebird off its perch.
Can it be hacked?
The first and most obvious would be a catastrophic hack.
All big websites (including the BBC) will face constant attacks from bad actors – even at the state level – who want to cause damage. There are millions of followers on the Twitter accounts of celebrities, world leaders, and politicians – low-hanging fruit for hackers seeking attention.
If they want it to disappear, they might overwhelm it with web traffic and force it to shut down by that method.
Attempts like this will always be happening – it’s a constant battle.
It was announced last week that Twitter’s head of cyber-security, Lea Kissner, had left the company. Last week Twitter’s head of cyber-security, Lea Kissner, left the company. It’s yet to be discovered if they replaced her.
Twitter’s security is likely robust. If the website is held together with string, it will only be able to handle 300 million visitors a month. But that robustness requires continuing maintenance.
Think about your phone or laptop and the regular security updates you must install. In other words, the provider is responsible for sending you the fix for new vulnerabilities every so often, chinks in your armor that you didn’t realize you had.
An attack on servers is underway.
Second, the servers could be knocked out by a grudge or accident during routine maintenance, which should adequately monitor.
Without servers, there is no Twitter (or Facebook, or Instagram, or indeed our digital world.)
Servers – powerful computers – are like the physical bodies of these platforms. They exist in data centers and warehouses with computer servers central to online business operations, and the world runs on servers.
As you can imagine, those machines generate a lot of heat, and data centers must be kept cool and require a constant electricity source.
The servers also require maintenance and reinstatement as data gets migrated between them. All of that has the capacity for something to go wrong, and it would be sudden and dramatic if it did.
Alternatives to nuclear power
Of course, Elon Musk knows all of this, and let’s not assume he doesn’t. However, he may choose to play the buffoon.
Something happened yesterday that made me think more people on Twitter are watching than we think.
After incorrectly interacting with automated moderation tools, an astronomer lost access to her account.
I am still waiting for someone at Twitter or Mr. Musk’s other companies to respond or contact me. But he, indeed, restored his account later that day.
Someone, somewhere inside Twitter, was paying attention. There are still many people who are doing precisely this.
Alternatively, Musk may declare Twitter bankrupt and have it wound down through bankruptcy. He is enjoying his status as Chief Tweet at the moment.
