Twitter engineering boss Foad Dabiri quits day after DeSantis launch glitches

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65717731

by archagon • 3 years ago

104 129 3 years ago

"After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday."

Recently I teased PR for how their announcements never sound human. But this is what you get when people without PR experience give announcements. It’s always the same format and usually includes a weird idiom.

freecodyx• 3 years ago

Does not matter much

throwawee• 3 years ago

It's a bird joke.

Waterluvian4• 3 years ago

Yeah but birds don’t live in nests. They hatch babies there. So is the metaphor that Foad is a momma bird, or that he’s all grown up and has flown the nest?

It’s Saturday evening and I want to be pedantic, dammit!

fizx• 3 years ago

It's a random engineering director in the growth dept, likely not on the hook for Spaces. Feels pretty likely to be unrelated.

confoundcofound3• 3 years ago

The media is hellbent on pushing the narrative that Musk is destroying Twitter. It’s actually kind of wild. You see it on here too.

I think Musk’s product vision is noble and clear: to make Twitter as neutral and transparent a speech platform as possible. No soft censoring, algorithmic manipulation, etc. You can imagine why certain groups would be against that. And rooting out “extremism” is not it, despite what they say.

dragontamer5• 3 years ago

No soft censoring

Of course. Only the hardcore and literal censoring from Turkey.

aplummer• 3 years ago

I think Musk’s product vision is noble and clear: to make Twitter as neutral and transparent a speech platform as possible. No soft censoring, algorithmic manipulation, etc.

You should look up (or speak to ex twitter employees) about how pro censorship and pro-algorithmic manipulation he has been. The difference is when the topic is related to him or his companies.

croes• 3 years ago

Yeah sure

https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-leaked-internal-mess...

caconym_4• 3 years ago

N = 1 and all that but the change to elevate blue check accounts actually organically made me stop using Twitter. I respect their right to monetize however they feel is best, but it elevated the most ignorant and illiberal and downright hateful and toxic tweets from the dullest and most ignorant and generally worst people the platform has to offer. It simply made the platform unpleasant to use in the way its UX had previously encouraged me to use it, so I stopped.

Maybe I'm alone in not wanting to see (real example off the top of my head) apologia for a mass shooter's neo-nazi tattoos pushed to the top of my feed in the interest of "neutral and transparent free speech". But I don't think so.

pfisch• 3 years ago

Remember when musk banned the guy reporting public flight information with a fake rule he made up that isn't actually enforced except when it is in musks favor.

jackmott42• 3 years ago

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/twitter-hate-speech-unprecede...

23B17• 3 years ago

While you’re right the media is desperate (as always) to unseat their favorite foes – tech bros – Elon has been anything but consistent in how he applies neutrality and transparency.

I hate purity tests, but when it comes to censorship you can’t flip-flop on it.

afavour4• 3 years ago

In addition to the points made by sibling replies I’ll also point out that the crashed Twitter Space was one where Musk helped a Republican presidential candidate launch his campaign. No matter which party is involved, that’s not something a neutral speech platform would ever involve itself in.

rkho5• 3 years ago

I find it incredibly strange that The Atlantic, a publication I used to have tremendous amounts of respect for, put out an article the other day saying that Twitter has become some alt-right bastion equivalent to Truth Social and Parler[1].

And, of course, this article was boosted from The Atlantic's Verified Organization Twitter account[2].

Seems like they see the value in paying $1000/mo for the gold check on Twitter, even though it's now a "far right social network". I'd like to believe that they just want to make sure they have a presence on every social network to spread awareness and diversity of opinion, but I can't seem to find them on Truth Social[3].

So, has Twitter truly "evolved into a platform that is indistinguishable from the wastelands of alternative social-media sites such as Truth Social" if The Atlantic still finds it valuable to have a presence on Twitter?

It's beyond transparent what legacy media is doing here, and it's quite sad to see.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/elon-...

[2] https://twitter.com/theatlantic/status/1661113356277653507?s...

[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atruthsocial.com+%22Th...

csdreamer7• 3 years ago

I think Musk’s product vision is noble and clear: to make Twitter as neutral and transparent a speech platform as possible. No soft censoring, algorithmic manipulation, etc. You can imagine why certain groups would be against that.

My account was deleted around the same time many reporters who reported on elonjet in the past had. Maybe because I had retweeted elonjet in the past and posted. I do not know-I was never notified in email about it.

Claiming he wants to create a "neutral and transparent a speech platform as possible" when Elon Musk does things like this after taking over Twitter is ridiculous!

https://people.com/human-interest/twitter-accounts-belonging...

JoeAltmaier• 3 years ago

That sounds like some first-class apologizing and rewriting of fact.

Certain groups include everybody that would like some relief from slander, yellow journalism and plain wholesale fabrication. Especially when the slant benefits Himself.

Hard censoring I guess; crushing his opponents any anybody who dares speak against him.

mattacular• 3 years ago

I think Musk’s product vision is noble and clear: to make Twitter as neutral and transparent a speech platform as possible.

I don't think you have any idea what you're talking about. One of the most obvious changes is sorting the responses of people who pay for Twitter to the top of every reply thread.

astrange4• 3 years ago

It instead has hard censoring, since he's fired all the lawyers and personally owns other businesses in Turkey, China and India, and therefore has stopped resisting anytime they demand posts be taken down. Twitter was previously the company that fought such requests the hardest and often won.

And he's turned up all the algorithms 4x as hard, it defaults to a "for you" page that's full of viral accounts posting fight videos.

scarface_74• 3 years ago

https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/14/elon-jet-the-twitter-accou...

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/08/what-is-mastodon/

https://newrepublic.com/post/171743/elon-musk-nuking-substac...

benced• 3 years ago

It seems like if you were trying to do that, you wouldn’t personally co-host the announcement of any Presidential candidate.

djbusby3• 3 years ago

Elon stated vision and his actions don't seem to match up.

EFreethought• 3 years ago

I have an account that is still active, and I get an email from twitter with some tweets every day. And every single day, the first tweet is from right-wing nutjob named Lara Logan. I do not follow her. I looked at her stream once (which was enough). I honestly do not understand why Mr Neutrality has HER as the first tweet every single day.

discordance• 3 years ago

There's literally an algorithm that ranks up paid blue tick messages above others. How is that neutral?

The blue tick vitriol at the top of any thread has really turned me off reading any comments at all.

nborwankar• 3 years ago

His product vision is to make it into a one stop application with all media and e-commerce - something he calls X. The whole free speech platform thing is a distraction. There’s no money in free speech. It’s just a way to lure maximum number of people to the platform.

lumb63• 3 years ago

There are a lot of replies beneath you attacking Musk and his vision/execution on Twitter. They mostly address the second half of your post, but most people are ignoring the first half.

A prominent media outlet is running what amounts to nothing more than a smear article against Musk/Twitter. Why? If this were an isolated occurrence, I’d write it off as strange and move on, but it isn’t. Dozens of media outlets are pushing similar content. And every time the subject comes up, the replies are filled with terse and snarky comments along the lines of “Musk bad because <reason I gleaned from smear campaign against Musk>”.

I haven’t used Twitter in years, so I can’t comment on the UX. I haven’t stayed incredibly up-to-date on all the goings-on, so I can’t provide citations or rebuttals. Maybe the site is truly that bad, that it is worth the entire Internet hammering home every single day now. It seems more likely to me that it is the other way around and the Internet decided Twitter was going to be bad once Musk purchased it.

I say the above because, how many outsiders would have noticed any changes based on their usage of Twitter? Would users have known about the mass layoffs? Has the site experience degraded as a result of that, or was Musk right that most people were doing nothing? Would users have known about changes in the content recommendation algorithm, or were they hyper-alert to changes on their feed because it was widely reported? These are half-honest questions because I really don’t know as a non-user, but also somewhat rhetorical because I suspect the answer is no.

SecretDreams3• 3 years ago

Twitter was a shit hole before, and it is now still a shit hole. Of course, I think the hole has gotten deeper since Musk took over and I don't find his goals noble or at all altruistic.. but we can have different opinions in this dystopian world where Musk is viewed to embrace free speech.

rks404• 3 years ago

oh look, they figured out who fucked up twitter

stubybubs• 3 years ago

Pretty sure the guy who fucked up Twitter still works there.

xg15• 3 years ago

Working with @elonmusk has been highly educational, and it was enlightening to see how his principles and vision are shaping the future of this company.

Enlightening and educational indeed, I suppose.

dehrmann2• 3 years ago

This guy's a pro. He said all he needed to say with that.

kevin_thibedeau2• 3 years ago

He left out the wonderful journey.

WalterBright5• 3 years ago

We'll see. I'd buy stock in Twitter today if I could. I bet Musk gets it profitable - the previous management never did.

akiselev• 3 years ago

That sounds like some weapons grade spin. It’s like the corporate-speak version of “oh you sweet summer child” or “bless your heart”

numpad0• 3 years ago

“Hey ChatGPT, tell me how to say I’ve never seen a man stupider, period, but you know,”

bsder• 3 years ago

"Bless Elon's Heart"

weeblewobble3• 3 years ago

Damning with faint praise

keyboardJones• 3 years ago

From his Twitter thread:

And since some have asked, my decision and the timing of it are independent of any recent events.

23B17• 3 years ago

Two things

1. Dabiri mentioned in a tweet (left out of the BBC article ofc) that his departure didn’t have to do with recent events. That might be face-saving on his part but it is clickbaiting on the BBC’s part. Source: https://twitter.com/foaddabiri/status/1662110369140310023?s=...

2. Second point is that evidently twitter didn’t pay its bills (hosting maybe?) for Spaces. Source: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/twitter-cut-key-soft...

Both are obviously RUMINT but, there ya go…

sillysaurusx3• 3 years ago

It’s a real thing. I left a place recently for completely unrelated reasons, and figuring out how to tell everyone was weirdly challenging. The timing was also such that it seemed directly related to the company.

Sometimes people just want to change up their career. It happens. There’s no particular reason.

And yeah, sure, he could’ve been let go for the technical glitches. But it’s hardly his fault if his heart isn’t in it anymore. People change. The trick is to depart before it becomes a problem, which (as I’ve discovered) is indeed tricky. Your instinct is to stay simply because it’s the default, it’s good money, and it’s no effort to change the status quo. Plus you worked hard to get there. All of those are difficult forces to overcome when you just want to do something, anything, else.

Waterluvian4• 3 years ago

The rate at which drama happens at Twitter probably makes it especially tricky to time an exit to avoid it looking like the reason.

I think in the absence of evidence we just take the man at his word.

senttoschool• 3 years ago

Everyone went against me on HN when I said it's dangerous of BBC to associate the Desantis event with Dabiri without evidence: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36082410#36082475

Freedom22• 3 years ago

I think what's most important is that "curious" discussion was generated out of your comment! Despite what you may think, I believe the discussion spawned out of it was a resounding success.

sillysaurusx3• 3 years ago

There’s a huge influx of new HN users. Like, a massive spike over the last few months. I don’t think it’s worth worrying about voting patterns until they’ve had time to steep in HN’s culture. I’ve noticed similar fluctuations in pretty much anything remotely controversial I’ve posted.

The more alarming aspect was the shrillness of replies, which seem to generally go unchallenged. I don’t like the idea that people think HN is for loudness. But thankfully that seems to be a minor fluctuation.

The sibling reply from Freedom2 is right too — your comment (other than the downvote complaints, which I know is hard to resist) generated some good discussion.

blibble• 3 years ago

2. Second point is that evidently twitter didn’t pay its bills (hosting maybe?) for Spaces. Source: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/twitter-cut-key-soft...

you could have some fun here if you were a creditor who Musk was refusing to pay

leave the service running, and cut it off at the point it does as much political damage as possible to Musk

23B17• 3 years ago

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/25/706715377/man-pleads-guilty-t...

remote_phone5• 3 years ago

Second point is that evidently twitter didn’t pay its bills (hosting maybe?) for Spaces.

This is Musk’s #1 play in his playbook. Stop paying people and see who is willing to fight for it legally. Then negotiate down.

He did the same thing with Solar Roof customers when he doubled their price and asked them to sign a new contract even if they had a signed contract. My friend was one of those and he simply refused to sign anything because he knew better but I wonder how many signed the new contract. Eventually they relented and honored the original price but it was disgusting to even have to deal with that.

23B17• 3 years ago

Musk is as much a dirtbag industrialist as the rest – Jobs, Gates, Sergey/Brin, Bezos, Waltons, Sacklers, Rockefeller, JP Morgan.

We admire them for their successes, which they use to camouflage their misdeeds. Worth studying but never becoming.

ck2• 3 years ago

We won't know the truth until he is well clear of Musk's grasp.

Remember Musk clawed-back severance and bonuses on many people who already left.

Would you put someone on a two-week notice in charge of a nationwide critical launch?

In any case, hard to care no matter what the truth is, one more stupid twitter thing where it's a death by 1000 self-inflicted cuts.

I still don't get why there isn't an alternative, it's just a brand name, the service could have be replicated.

throwaway5959• 3 years ago

“Remember Musk clawed-back severance and bonuses on many people who already left.”

How does that work?

mhh__• 3 years ago

clickbaiting.

Perhaps, but the reasoning seems to basically boil down to "Journalists should take everything as gospel unless explicitly proven otherwise"

23B17• 3 years ago

Journalists should take everything as heresy and then do the job they're supposed to do, which is prove or disprove it.

shusaku• 3 years ago

I feel like every live streaming event always makes me feel like I’m stuck in a work zoom meeting. There’s just something about the ambiance. Technical glitches aside, I feel like spaces wasn’t the right venue for this, it’s like a meeting with middle management.

TheFreim• 3 years ago

It was a venue where one expects something more casual, but it was just reading a script and reading questions which were also likely scripted. Did not fit the tone of the site at all. It seems like DeSantis wanted to make some sort of statement, whatever that may be, by using twitter but acted the same way one would on television. Love him or hate him, Trump's team has had a better handling of social media over the years.

cout2• 3 years ago

What is it with using the word "boss" in headlines recently? It comes across to me as negative, perhaps because it makes me think of "crime boss". Is that the intent or am I off base?

leros• 3 years ago

It's regional. It's used in the UK and this is a BBC article.

cout2• 3 years ago

That makes sense if it's a construction used in the UK that's starting to be adopted elsewhere. I've been seeing it in US media (NPR, USA Today, Newsweek, to name a few).

Twitter engineering boss Foad Dabiri quits day after DeSantis launch glitches

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