Elon Musk fired an X engineer after being told his posts were losing engagement, a new book and earlier reporting say.
Table of Contents
What the new book says
Jacob Silverman’s upcoming book Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley recounts an episode from 2023 in which Musk reacted angrily when engineers told him his account was attracting far fewer impressions than his follower count would suggest. The excerpt frames the episode as part of a wider pattern of upheaval after Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, now X.
The meeting and the firing
According to reporting first published by Platformer and repeated in Silverman’s book, Musk convened senior engineers to investigate why his tweets were getting only “tens of thousands” of impressions despite having more than 100 million followers. Engineers presented internal metrics and Google Trends data showing a sharp fall in public interest. One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers reportedly gave that explanation and was told by Musk, “You’re fired, you’re fired.” Platformer withheld the engineer’s name for safety reasons.
A concrete example that followed
The book and contemporaneous reports highlight a Super Bowl incident in which President Biden’s tweet about the game drew roughly three times the views of Musk’s own post. That comparison allegedly prompted Musk to demand changes to the recommendation algorithm and to order staff to track how often his tweets were recommended.
Context inside X after the takeover
Silverman’s account places the firing in a larger collapse of engineering and moderation systems after the takeover. The company cut roughly half its workforce, restored previously banned accounts, and suffered a steep drop in advertising revenue. The episode is presented as an example of how decisions about the platform became tightly focused on Musk’s personal priorities.
What to bear in mind
The story in Silverman’s book is based on reporting that first appeared in Platformer in 2023. Multiple news outlets have repeated the account; Platformer and other outlets have redacted the engineer’s name because of documented harassment directed at former employees. The book is due from Bloomsbury in October.
