The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has completed his £38 billion takeover of Twitter, and since then users have been reminiscing about Myspace and Tumblr.
Since his takeover, Musk has also launched a purge of the company’s top executives. After months of uncertainty, the eccentric entrepreneur confirmed the deal with a tweet, saying: “The bird is freed”.
On its purchase, reports emerged that Mr Musk had fired the company’s chief executive, Parag Agrawal, as well as its legal chief, Vijaya Gadde. Other bigwigs to face the chop included chief financial officer Ned Segal and general counsel Sean Edgett.
The previously publicly traded company, which reported annual revenues of more than £4 billion in 2021, became private with Mr Musk’s purchase.
The takeover sparked fears that Mr Musk will now loosen moderation rules and lift the ban on former president Donald Trump as the United States prepares for mid-term elections early next month.
In response to the takeover, users have been sharing jokes and memes about how, now that Mr Musk is at the helm, they’d rather be on Myspace or Tumblr.
In 2013, Tumblr was sold to Yahoo for more than $1 billion and lost its value almost immediately. In response, users exacerbated Yahoo’s poor management, by making Tumblr even weirder and wilder.
Now, Twitter users are trying to make the social platform suffer the same fate, by bombarding Mr Musk with posts.
One said: “Me getting ready in case we have to leave Twitter for myspace”
me getting ready in case we have to leave Twitter for myspace pic.twitter.com/F5F5f4qpbD
— STATE OF THE SCREAM (@SOTSPodcast) October 28, 2022
Another added: “Honestly if MySpace straight up rebooted the circa 2008-era site where we could all tweak our pages with custom CSS and have our favourite songs it would kill every other social media platform by next week.”
Honestly if MySpace staight up rebooted the circa 2008-era site where we could all tweak our pages with custom CSS and have our favorite songs it would kill every other social media platform by next week.
— Soft Dracula (@synoisia) October 28, 2022
A third said: “We should all just go back to MySpace.”
We should all just go back to MySpace. pic.twitter.com/2VcE1Uu5lH
— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) October 31, 2022
There were many more jokes along the same path.
@elonmusk Here’s the deal Is El; I’m the best thing on this wretched site so send the cat treats my way or I’m opening a MySpace account…
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) October 26, 2022
I don't understand why Myspace is trending.
— 🦝GØDDAMNITJEREMY🦝 (@GODDAMNITJEREMY) October 28, 2022
If you're old enough to have a MySpace, you're probably too old to remember your login.😂😂😂
My costume at work today was MySpace Tom. I thought it was creative & I even shaved my beard for it. Then I found out the majority of people don't know who he is 😂. #Halloween2022 pic.twitter.com/1ZXlXnosxw
— SPENCER (@SpencerSticek) October 26, 2022
.@MySpace it’s time to step into your destiny
— Natasha “Boo👻 Bees🐝” Oladokun 🎃 (@NatashaOladokun) October 31, 2022
What if we all defected back to MySpace?
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) October 28, 2022
Imagine buying MySpace in 2008 for 44 Billion
— Tom Green (@tomgreenlive) October 29, 2022
Time to dust off the MySpace account. Just kidding. If we leave they win.
— The Raccfather 🦝🦝🦝 (@lucasj8) October 28, 2022
Others made the same joke about Tumblr.
If tumblr announced that you could post porn again right now but that they would moderate hate speech, twitter would probably be dead before the weekend was over.
— Peril Jinx ♂️ - FemBOO👻 (@minusplnp) October 28, 2022
Musk buying twitter and immediately putting out a letter to advertisers to tell them he’s gonna make the place better for them
— 🎃 kenny gesserit 🦝 🦇 (@KennyGesserit) October 27, 2022
Tumblr users: pic.twitter.com/wqRTIdC3E6
see y'all on tumblr https://t.co/jJUSN1gXNi
— Duolingo (@duolingo) October 27, 2022
If you're looking to come back to Tumblr, understand that it's mostly controlled by wizards now.
— FEMIURGE (@NORMALHOROSCOPE) October 28, 2022
But, will you be leaving Twitter for a more retro social platform?