Twitter CEO Elon Musk has called a former software engineer at the company a “moron” during a heated argument over the mogul’s push to revamp the beleaguered social media app.
Musk said Twitter would have to do a “total rewrite of the whole thing” if it wanted to have “really high speed” during a Twitter Spaces voice chat hosted by George Hotz on Wednesday.
The remark prompted a response from Ian Brown, a Netflix developer who worked at Twitter for eight years before leaving the company in October 2021.
“Wait, seriously, a total rewrite? That’s your prediction for speed? said Brown.
“Yeah,” Musk replied.
Well, when you say total rewrite, do you mean starting with the skeleton? asked Hotz, a well-known hacker who quit Twitter earlier today. Or a group of engineers sit down in front of a whiteboard and ask, “What is Twitter? Revolution or reform?
Brown responded with a “hysterically laughing” emoji, which briefly appeared on his avatar as part of the feature that allows Twitter Space participants to speak while someone else speaks.
Musk replied that “you either have to modify the crazy stack that exists or rewrite it.”
Brown chimed in once again, asking Musk what he really meant and if he could “break it down.”
“Who are you?” asked Musk agitated.
What do you mean who am I? I do not know! You gave me the fucking mic!” Brown said.
Hotz then objected, noting that he had allowed Brown to speak and asked that the conversation be “more civil”.
“I mean, man, you’re in charge of the servers and the programming and everything,” Brown continued.
What’s the battery, Elon? Take me up and down. What does the stack look like right now? What’s crazy about that? What’s so abnormal about this stack compared to every other large-scale system on the planet, mate? Let’s go!”
“Incredible! You’re a jerk!” Musk replied.
Haha ok! I have no credibility here, mate,” Brown shot back.
Hotz then cut Brown.
“Good! What a moron,” Musk said.
The Post has sought comments from Brown. Musk, who fired his media relations team after taking over Twitter following its $44 billion acquisition in late October, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The spat came a day after Musk said he laid off half of Twitter’s staff and cut costs in order to save the company from a $3 billion hole in its budget.
“That’s why I’ve spent the last five weeks cutting costs like crazy,” Musk told Twitter users who logged into a Twitter Spaces voice chat Tuesday night.
“This business is like, basically, you’re in an airplane heading towards the ground at high speed with the engines on fire and the controls not working.”
Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion in late October with the help of $13 billion in debt. The Twitter boss is responsible for interest payments of around $1.5 billion a year.
“If you hadn’t made any changes,” Twitter’s net cash outflow would have reached $6.5 billion next year, Musk said.
Earlier Tuesday, Musk announced that he would eventually step down as CEO of Twitter Once “someone crazy enough” could be found to succeed him.
Musk pledged to respect the results of a Twitter poll asking his more than 122 million followers if he should continue as CEO. Nearly 58% of the 17 million who responded had voted for Musk’s resignation.
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