Sources: on October 28, Twitter engineers were told to print out their last 30 to 60 days of code for Elon Musk to review, and then told to shred the printouts

Twitter has a new CEO. And he'd like to see your code, please — Elon Musk took over Twitter on Thursday like a military general …

Platformer 2022-10-30 Casey Newton

Context & Ripple Effects

Musk had already told employees that layoffs and moderation were on the agenda in his first staff address after agreeing to buy Twitter. He had also framed opening Twitter’s algorithms to build trust as a core objective.

The reported code-printing order turns that broad agenda into an immediate, owner-led inspection of Twitter’s engineering work, following an earlier report of the same instruction.

First-order effects

Twitter engineers must divert time to assembling recent work for Musk’s review and handling the subsequent destruction of printed source code.
Musk gains a direct view into recent engineering output rather than relying solely on Twitter’s existing management chain.

Second-order effects

The review gives Musk an internal basis for decisions on the layoffs and moderation priorities he had previously raised with employees, putting affected engineering teams under more immediate scrutiny.
Twitter’s stated ambition to make its algorithms more open now runs alongside a tightly controlled internal review process, making the company’s software governance a central operational issue.

Third-order effects

If owner-led review becomes the operating model, Twitter’s engineering organization shifts toward centralized control over code and technical priorities rather than conventional delegated software management.

The trend: Twitter is becoming an early test of whether a new owner can impose direct control over a large platform’s codebase while pursuing changes to how that platform is governed.

Discussion

@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
Here it is: Twitter engineers were told today to *print out* their last 30 to 60 days of code, so they could show it to Elon Musk himself. Then they were told wait, no, actually, please shred all that code you just printed out. Subscribe to read ➡️ https://www.platformer.news/ ..…
@leahculver Leah Culver on x
Happy Friday all. https://twitter.com/...
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
the bird is freed
@broderick Ryan Broderick on x
I think a lot of weirdos on here are really desperate to make Elon Musk into some kind of evil mastermind when really he's just a le epic South Park edgelord who's going to slash the site's resources and let it atrophy for very boring capitalism reasons. https://www.garbageday.em…
@soonergrunt @soonergrunt on x
I am not a coder. I can do some light scripting to get some data here and there, automate a task or two. But I thought Elon's “print out your code so we can go over it” was fucking stupid, but... It got worse. Read it all. https://twitter.com/...
@artificialnix Nix on x
to be fair, this would be exactly how any boomer who's never written a line of code in their life would try to manage a tech company https://twitter.com/...
@sarahjeong Sarah Jeong on x
still not over measuring code in printed pages https://twitter.com/...
@kazweida Kaz Weida on x
There is something particularly threatening about allowing a platform that is a haven for journalists to be owned by a government that had a journalist assassinated for exposing corruption. https://twitter.com/...
@thepacketrat Sean Gallagher on x
Because sure, a look at printed code that mostly reflects methods invoked from header files is totally illuminating. https://twitter.com/...
@s3rioussam Sam Sharma on x
An *electric* clown car. https://twitter.com/...
@moochava Kyle Marquis on x
It's honestly fascinating to watch these “alpha moves” that I don't respond to at all and can, in fact, barely process. https://twitter.com/...
@mmasnick Mike Masnick on x
To be fair they did their investment in 2011 and just rolled it over (i.e. didn't take Elon's buyout). But... yeah. Remember this when Elon talks again about verifying all users and being a free speech platform... https://twitter.com/...
@espiers Elizabeth Spiers on x
This just reminds me of the time Jared asked me to produce a model with traffic projections and I made one with dynamic formulas (because nerd) and then he made me print it out to review then whined that the (changeable in the model) input variables were too low https://twitter.c…
@random_walker Arvind Narayanan on x
The simplest explanation is that the absurdity is the point. Makes the place intolerable for anyone who isn't a loyal minion and increases the likelihood they leave on their own. https://twitter.com/...
@djbigdaddy @djbigdaddy on x
This is idiotic. Engineers who stay there are nuts. https://twitter.com/...
@maxberger Max Berger on x
You can tell @elonmusk really cares about freedom of speech because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the second biggest shareholder in his purchase of Twitter. https://twitter.com/...
@scottnover Scott Nover on x
“Dear employees about to be fired, please print out all trade secrets. Wait—actually, please don't.” https://twitter.com/...
@parismarx Paris Marx on x
This brings to mind how angry Elon Musk got when @ummjackson told @cameronwilson that Musk doesn't understand code nearly as well as leads people to believe. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@drandrewthaler Andrew Thaler on x
I love how everyone is trying to figure out what the Grand Culture Discourse is, when it's almost certainly just that GM doesn't want to give money to a company privately owned by their direct competitor. https://twitter.com/...
@rmfifthcircuit Raffi Melkonian on x
Me, sending colleagues email to print out their last 30-60 days of legal briefing because I want to brief pair https://twitter.com/...
@laseletzky @laseletzky on x
Nobody does more harm than those who think they know everything lol https://twitter.com/...
@alexhern @alexhern on x
He's spent so long in companies where anyone who tells him his ideas are dumb is fired on the spot that he thinks his ideas are genius https://twitter.com/...
@helenkennedy Helen Kennedy on x
Elon and the Bone Saudis. What a team! https://twitter.com/...
@nealerichmond Neale Richmond on x
Ah lads, from the original pied piper himself https://twitter.com/...
@andrewbeckusa Andrew Beck on x
Considering I've been seeing ads for their electric cars everywhere on Twitter this could be more about not wanting to give their money indirectly to the category leader. https://twitter.com/...
@mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on x
Congratulations Elon https://www.cnbc.com/...
@chiproytx Chip Roy on x
Totally fine with it before. https://twitter.com/...
@tedcruz Ted Cruz on x
The most important development for Free Speech in decades. https://twitter.com/...
@timcast Tim Pool on x
Veritas, Babylon Bee, JBP, Alex Jones, Trump, Carpe Donktum, James Lindsay, Milo, Sargon, Loomer So many more https://twitter.com/...
@nichcarlson Nich Carlson on x
Have been thinking... Does it really matter that Trump isn't on here anymore? Seems to me all of his Truth posts get reported on the way his tweets used to. And many of them become screengrab tweets anyway. https://twitter.com/...
@nigel_farage Nigel Farage on x
Their arrogance knows no bounds. https://twitter.com/...
@juddlegum Judd Legum on x
REMINDER: The new owner of one of the most powerful communications platforms in the world is a Ron DeSantis supporter https://twitter.com/...
@noahpinion @noahpinion on x
After Gamergate, everyone who ran Twitter saw what the quote-tweet had turned this platform into. And yet they kept it, because they knew it was their money-maker. Twitter as a video game where you get clout for hate was the only way they knew how to get rich.
@davidmackau David Mack on x
omg https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@brandyzadrozny Brandy Zadrozny on x
First order of business for the world's richest man, now in charge of the global town square: digging into catturd. https://twitter.com/...
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
With Elon in charge of Twitter, do republicans drop the push to repeal section 230? The social media censorship line seems to be toast as well.
@edludlow Ed Ludlow on x
Update to $TWTR status on @TheTerminal “acquired by private investor” Someone frame this. https://twitter.com/...
@silvermanjacob Jacob Silverman on x
Just want everyone to keep in mind that the old Twitter regime was really bad — just ask Saudi users. The new regime will find new forms of failure, innovated upon by Elon's crack team of five Joe Rogan knockoffs. (Also, DMs were never secure but especially not now.)
@jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x
No, NYT, he's not “cleaning house.” He is purging the company of responsible adults with expertise and experience. Be careful of your words. How Twitter Will Change as a Private Company https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@sherman4949 Alex Sherman on x
Twitter ditched a CEO who already had one other CEO job to get one who already has three other CEO jobs. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@danielmcfadin Daniel McFadin on x
Less than two weeks before the midterms. I can only guess whose about to be given a new lease on Twitter life. https://twitter.com/...
@samir @samir on x
everyone who was banned but allowed to come back should have to have a skeleton avatar https://twitter.com/...

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