Twitter users are fed up with Elon Musk, who has made several changes since he bought the social networking platform last October.
Numerous Twitter users launched a campaign aptly called #BlockElon on Feb. 14 so they longer have to see his tweets.
DON'T MISS: Elon Musk May Remain Twitter CEO for Another Year
Other users said their timeline is filled with tweets from Musk, who took the company private for $44 billion. His changes to ramp up revenue have not been successful as advertisers have fled the platform.
One Twitter user, @HighwindMkII, said he blocked the billionaire.
"Started seeing a ton of his tweets on Monday and figured he did something shady, so I blocked him because I think he's an asshat and a manbaby. Looks like I was right."
Another Twitter user, @Eve6, said blocking Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla (TSLA) would infuriate him.
"Hashtags are aesthetically repellent but #blockelon is trending and i know that makes him furious so lfg," she tweeted.
Twitter user, @keithedwards, encouraged other users of the platform to also block Musk.
"I simply believe we should all block Elon," he tweeted.
Some users such as @KenCox warned that simply blocking Musk's account was not enough.
"Sure, but prepare for him to make his account unblockable, unmutable, and a mandatory follow. #BlockElon," he tweeted.
Another user, @BFriedmanDC, said that he wanted to view Musk's tweets even though he is not a fan of him.
"People keep saying to block Elon Musk," he tweeted. "Dunno what y'all are here for, but watching a fascist loser light $44 billion on fire while being painfully rejected by the people he most wants to impress is exactly why I frequent this website. I'll never block this dude."
By Tuesday evening, #BlockElon was trending as the number one topic on Twitter, encouraging users such as @evirae to take the initiative.
"I am deceased, good night lmao #BlockElon," she tweeted.
Frustrated Twitter Users Mute Him
Musk's latest focus has been on his view counts, which is how many people can see the tweets he posts.
Musk pushed for answers and asked the engineering team on Feb. 7 why his engagement numbers had declined. He said that he should have more than "tens of thousands of impressions" since he has over 100 million followers, Platformer reported, citing several sources.
Out of the two remaining principal engineers that had not been fired in 2022 by Musk, one said that the likely culprit was that the public had started to lose interest in his incessant, late night tweets.
Musk was shown data that detailed the amount of engagement on his Twitter account. Data from a Google Trends chart was also provided, according to Platformer's article.
The billionaire, who was once the richest man in the world and now ranks second, had a score of "100" in terms of popularity last April. But Musk fell from the peak popularity ranking and now has a score of only nine.
A Twitter engineer said he was the employee that was fired by Musk after refusing to "artificially inflate his view counts.
"The engineer, who goes by the name "jordan," said he turned down the request from Musk, to increase the number of view counts for his personal account.
"This was me, my 6.5-year stint at Twitter comes to an end today," he tweeted. "Proud of the work we did and have full confidence the three or four people left will be able to honor Elon’s requests to artificially inflate his view counts (and view counts for advertisers). Not me though."
Musk Staying on as Twitter CEO
Twitter users and Tesla shareholders are likely dismayed that Musk plans to stay in charge of the platform for the following year. He had previously said that he would find another CEO to run Twitter.
Musk has gone back on his word to find a CEO soon.
His focus on Twitter meant he was spending less time at Tesla, frustrating some shareholders and markets that see the platform as an unwelcome distraction. Faced with criticism, Musk announced on Dec. 20 that he would step down as CEO of Twitter after organizing a poll in which he asked users of the platform to vote whether or not he should continue to lead the company.
Nearly 18 million users voted and yes won with 57.5% of the votes cast. Musk promised to abide by the result.
"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" the billionaire said on Dec.20. "After that, I will just run the software & servers teams."
But now it appears that Musk may remain CEO of Twitter until the end of the year. This is what he declared on Feb. 15 during a virtual appearance at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
"I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it's in a financially healthy place and that the product roadmap is clearly laid out," Musk said during a remote video interview. "I'm guessing probably towards the end of this year should be a good timing to find someone else to run the company, because I think it should be in a stable condition around, you know the end of this year."
Musk completed the acquisition of the social network on Oct. 27 and He immediately fired the entire management team, including CEO Parag Agrawal. The serial entrepreneur, who was already CEO of Tesla, founder of SpaceX and is also involved in two other companies, then became the boss of Twitter 2.0.
He had embarked on a race to revamp the platform that had cost him dearly. The billionaire was in debt to the tune of $13 billion to finance the deal. He has since transferred this debt to Twitter's balance sheet.
Musk has launched various initiatives to deal with the financial shortfall linked to the exodus of advertisers. He had also launched an unprecedented austerity cure by eliminating a total of 5,200 jobs or 69.3% of Twitter's workforce at the time of his arrival.
He also decided to make the platform a bastion of free speech by reactivating most of the accounts of conservatives and right-wing extremists suspended by Twitter 1.0 for violating the safeguards put in place against xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and the spread misinformation.
