What’s happening to Twitter? Fears of a platform on the brink as offices shut down, chaos ensues

If you’ve been on Twitter this morning, you’ve probably seen the trending hashtags #TwitterMigration, #RIPTwitter, and #TwitterIsOverParty. The overall gist of the people posting these hashtags seems to be a fear of Twitter’s imminent collapse. Here’s what to know about the event that is fueling that fear.

What’s happened? On Thursday, Twitter abruptly shut its offices, according to multiple reports. The shutdown came after Elon Musk, the site’s new owner, gave an ultimatum to employees, and the deadline for that ultimatum passed. The ultimatum asked employees to sign on to his “extremely hardcore” work philosophy, which essentially asked workers to agree to work insane hours, or quit with three months of severance pay.
How many people signed on to Musk’s ultimatum? It’s hard to know for sure. Insider reports that fewer than 50% of Twitter’s remaining workforce of 4,000 workers signed on. If Musk sticks to his ultimatum, that means Twitter is about to lose another 2,000 or so workers, which makes one wonder how much longer the platform can continue to run.
But why did Musk close Twitter’s offices? An internal Twitter Slack message seen by Insider said the closure was likely to “prevent physical sabotage while [the company] sort[s] out access revocations.” In other words, it seems like Twitter is worried disgruntled employees could wreak havoc on their way out the door.
Why are Twitter users acting like the service might shut down? While Twitter isn’t the largest social media platform, it’s still a huge one. Large platforms need teams of people working day in and day out to make sure they run as they should. Users now fear that that the company simply won’t have enough people left to keep it running—especially with Twitter offices closed.
Are Twitter offices closed for the foreseeable future? No. Reports suggest the offices are scheduled to reopen on Monday. But that’s not a guarantee. Things at Twitter are so chaotic, no one can say for sure what may happen by Monday.
I’m worried about losing my Twitter data if the service does shut down. What can I do? Twitter allows users to download an archive of their accounts. Twitter has instructions on how to do that here.

This story is developing.