A look at Twitter's culture before Elon Musk's takeover, when employees focused on improving the health of online conversations rather than growth at all costs

the early '10s, Twitter was at the height of its power. The company had yet to turn a profit, but it had played a crucial role …

The Verge 2023-12-13 Zoë Schiffer

Context & Ripple Effects

This account supplies the institutional baseline for Twitter’s later transition: a company that treated the quality of public conversation as a product concern despite unresolved profitability. It also helps explain why the subsequent reduction of the team dedicated to civil conversation mattered beyond a routine staffing change.

Related coverage frames the takeover period as a sharp break in operating culture, including accounts of layoffs and product relaunches that disrupted the organization. The contrast makes trust-and-safety capacity an issue of governance and product strategy, not merely employee preference.

First-order effects

The reporting clarifies that pre-takeover Twitter employees and teams were organized around conversation health, providing a concrete benchmark against which the post-takeover company can be assessed.
It elevates the significance of the health function’s later contraction: reducing a mission-oriented team changes which product outcomes receive sustained internal ownership.

Second-order effects

A company that de-emphasizes dedicated conversation-health work must rely more heavily on remaining product, policy, and moderation functions to manage harmful or degraded interactions.
The cultural contrast raises the stakes for users, advertisers, and partners whose willingness to participate depends on whether platform governance remains a visible operating priority.

Third-order effects

If ownership changes repeatedly reset platform values and specialist teams, trust and safety becomes less durable as institutional infrastructure and more contingent on leadership strategy.
The case fits a broader tension in social platforms: financial and growth pressures can conflict with long-horizon investment in the conditions that sustain healthy public participation.

The trend: Social platforms are increasingly being judged not only by product growth but by whether governance and trust-safety capabilities survive shifts in ownership and strategy.

Discussion

@martinsfp @martinsfp on threads
This is an excellent collection of articles about the death of Twitter. Well worth a read - especially Sarah Jeong on harassment and @reckless1280 on how journalists' addiction to Twitter was terrible for everyone: https://www.theverge.com/...
@qasimnauman Qasim Nauman on threads
This special @verge series contains some of the best writing on late-stage Twitter, especially @reckless1280 on the platform's relationship with the news. https://www.theverge.com/...
@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
THE YEAR TWITTER DIED might be our most chaotic, ambitious package ever: - @reporterzoe on the Twitter work culture that Elon destroyed - @aliteralpsyduck on Twitter as a vector for harassment - me with @ezraklein @semaforben @lpolgreen @choiresicha on Twitter's broken relationsh…
@m0qazi Mohammed Qazi on threads
The work I did and the people I worked with made me feel so proud of working at Twitter. Funny story post-musk: Even EM's security was annoyed with his staying late. Once he walked out of the conference room on the 10th floor, which now served as his office, while staring at hi…
@andyyang Andy Yang on threads
It was more than a job. Grateful I got to work on something I truly loved.
@technicallymims Christopher Mims on threads
the illustrations and page layout for this are the most fun thing I've seen on the web in AGES I love that the Verge invests in things like this
@shaneafsar Shane Afsar on threads
Much of this rings true to as to why I joined (pre Elon). It's a sad reminder to me of how things could have been, but it's also been wonderful to see great tweeps thrive in new endeavors.
@cdylanparks DylanParks on threads
All true, and it was the best job I ever had. Important to note that we also worked very hard to build a sustainable business, one that big brand advertisers could be proud to support. It wasn't all fun and games, it was also a lot of hard work.... Staywoke
@j.b.robertson Joshua Robertson on threads
It's sad what happened to Twitter, not just to users but to the people who worked there, it did seem to be a good place. Will be reading this peice for a better understanding, Ty. Sadly there will be no redemption arc for Twitter. It's dead, Jim.
@luke.pfister Luke Pfister on threads
When my wife was hit with a severe post-viral syndrome and I was struggling to balance work/childcare, my team was there for me. They gave me the space I needed to focus on my family and not worry about work. It meant the world to me.
@racsterls Rachel Sterling on threads
Twitter was the hardest job I ever had. I don't think I slept well for 3 years. We cared so much about what we were building and we knew every decision we made lived in a gray area that would be publicly scrutinized from every angle. …
@mikecvet Mike Cvet on threads
Another element of the culture was the feeling of being the underdog against much larger rivals. Twitter was a comparatively small company vs the mindshare the service had in the world
@mikecvet Mike Cvet on threads
We could never really compete with Meta or Google or others for pay or other things, as you mentioned. But we routinely told idealistic candidates that they'd have an outsized impact on the global conversation, and I think that was mostly true
@reporterzoe Zoe Schiffer on threads
I wrote about Twitter's culture pre Elon Musk when the company cared about the free speech of employees and embraced work life balance: https://www.theverge.com/...
@reichenstein@mastodon.social Oliver Reichenstein on mastodon
Among the big tech blogs, The Verge is one of the strongholds that, when you get featured, still brings heaps of traffic and then they also still do wild custom articles like: https://www.theverge.com/...
@verge @verge on x
To reflect on what this website once was, The Verge presents a special series, The Year Twitter Died, a look back on the highs and lows of the platform. Twitter was always “the hellsite,” but it also represented a moment we may never have again https://www.theverge.com/...
@weinberz @weinberz on x
the @verge feature on the death of twitter is a very touching eulogy. twitter was many things, but I am continuously surprised with how important the connections I made on here have been in my life and there were some really good jokes https://www.theverge.com/...
@bcmerchant Brian Merchant on x
A long and dark and indispensable piece on the power and disaster of Twitter in all its context-collapsing glory/hellishness from @sarahjeong, who lived it more than any of us https://www.theverge.com/...
@drleostrauss @drleostrauss on x
Jack Dorsey loathed Twitter's advertiser-based business model. And associated moderation. Fails to give coveted SV tech valuations multiples. He wanted EM to buy Twitter. To break it. Just regrets EM so clumsy.
@sarahjeong Sarah Jeong on x
rip 🕯️ https://www.theverge.com/...
@kyliebytes Kylie Robison on x
fucking love this of course https://www.theverge.com/...
@verge @verge on x
But after Elon Musk's acquisition, we watched this platform degrade — both as a usable social network and as a major influence on politics, entertainment, and business. (Also, all the funny people left) [image]
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
this was really well done https://www.theverge.com/...
@jackmjenkins Jack Jenkins on x
What a brief, bleak and accurate way to sum up the shift that ended up collapsing the entire digital media boom of the 2010s. https://www.theverge.com/... [image]
@steven_aquino Steven Aquino on x
A personal thought to add to this excellent @reckless story. Nilay didn't talk to me, but I truly believe my beat as a tech reporter wouldn't have been possible these last almost 11 years without Twitter. My career arc shaped in part due to Twitter. https://www.theverge.com/...
@digiphile Alex Howard on x
Based upon my feed this AM, the death of Twitter as a platform for news & analysis continues to be greatly exaggerated. Its influence on news media, however, is not, as @reckless recounts: https://www.theverge.com/... Media companies not building social networks for distribution,…
@_jonbrady Jon Brady on x
This @verge series on The Year Twitter Died is very good at examining just how toxic, angry and festering X, formerly Twitter, has become. It has become a haven for everyone who has lost touch with reality, and there's no coming back from that. https://www.theverge.com/...
@kyliebytes Kylie Robison on x
“Threads is to Twitter as methadone is to heroin,” says Klein. “You don't use it for the same purpose. It's a pale echo to my understanding of what the original thing is.” https://www.theverge.com/...
@emilykdrewry Emily Drewry on x
“But while Twitter was always an incredible place to talk about stories and ideas, it was never a particularly good place for reporters to find and refine new ideas themselves. ” https://www.theverge.com/... This whole package is so well done 👏 @verge
@kristenradtke Kristen Radtke on x
This big, beautiful beast chronicling the end of Twitter and archiving some of what it did best is up today @verge. Come for the graveyard, stay of the deranged animations: https://www.theverge.com/...
@verge @verge on x
This website used to be Twitter. It was never the biggest social network, but for over a decade, it was easily the fastest, most influential, and funniest platform https://www.theverge.com/... [image]
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on threads
It takes a real business genius to overpay for a company, mismanage it until the revenue drops to half of what it was then yell at the remaining advertisers on the site who are asking you to stop being antisemitic. All of this ignores the fact that the math for Twitter being acq…
@pkafka Peter Kafka on threads
Musk's ad sales are down 50%, because of Musk. But his costs are down even more. The world's richest man can run his own Truth Social as long as he wants.
@alexkantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on threads
Twitter is going to make $2.5 billion in advertising this year. It did $5 billion in revenue the year before Musk took over. https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @kurtwag8
@esg.hound Eric Roesch on threads
Is 50% of your revenues going directly to debt coupon payments good or nah?
@ashzade_ Ash Zade on threads
The “GFY” strategy in action.
@intelwire.bsky.social J.M. Berger on bluesky
Still a shockingly high amount of revenue, frankly [embedded post]
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Twitter is going to make $2.5 billion in advertising this year. It did $5 billion in revenue the year before Musk took over. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@_danilo Danilo on x
Well, DHH was right about one thing: “he ain't Steve Jobs” Within a year of Jobs's return to Apple, the turnaround was well on its way, eking out its first (modest) profit in years And I remind you it was a HARDWARE BUSINESS drowning in physical inventory

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