Twitter has 50% chance of major crash during World Cup: Insider

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Observer
19 Nov 2022 22:34
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The social media giant is unprepared to handle traffic increases brought on by Elon Musk's budget cuts, according to a former employee.

The Twitter logo outside the firm’s HQ in San Francisco (EPA)

A recently terminated employee, with knowledge of how the firm handles important events, revealed that Twitter has a 50% risk of experiencing a significant outage that might force the website to go offline during the World Cup.

The former employee, who was given anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, is familiar with how Twitter Command Centre operates. This is the platform's team of troubleshooters that keeps an eye on the website for problems, like traffic spikes and data center outages.

“Between the lack of preparations and the lack of staffing, I think it’s going to be a rough World Cup for Twitter,” said the former employee.

He estimated a 90% chance of something going wrong that users would notice during the 29-day competition in Qatar, suggesting that some kind of incident, such as a service responding slowly or incorrectly, is almost certain.

According to the former employee, the chances of Twitter remaining online throughout the competition, which begins on Sunday, are about even.

Twitter is “likely to struggle with traffic at kickoff, and may crash,” he said. “If we’re lucky, it will recover with minimal disruption.”

The company's ability to respond to any issues with its IT infrastructure was weakened by swingeing cuts that the CEO, Elon Musk, has instigated since his October 28 purchase of the platform for $44bn.

In the first week, about half of the company's 7,500 employees were let go. Four out of every five of the company's 5,500 contractors were let go during the second week. And this week, another 1,000 or more employees quit after Musk issued a directive asking them to choose between current employment and future employment.

It is worth noting that many of those who resigned were Twitter’s most experienced staff, some of whom had been on the social media platform for more than half of its existence.

The Twitter Command Centre is among the places where layoffs or employee attrition have an impact. According to The Observer, up to one-third of the small global incident team may have left in the last few weeks.

According to the former employee, the chances of Twitter remaining online for the competition, which begins on Sunday, are about even. Twitter is “likely to struggle with traffic at kickoff, and may crash,” he said. “If we’re lucky, it will recover with minimal disruption.”

Twitter’s ability to respond to any issues with its IT infrastructure has been weakened by swingeing cuts that Elon Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and founder of space exploration company SpaceX, has instigated since his 28 October purchase of the platform for $44bn.