On Nov. 13, Musk apologized on Twitter for the social network is “very slow in many countries” and accused the app of being poorly configured. These public technical criticisms led several Twitter engineers to speak out against their new boss and accuse him of knowing nothing about how Twitter works.
The first was Eric Fronhofer, developer of Twitter’s Android app, who offered Musk a very technical response. He openly defended his team and workings to Musk and explained why there were problems with the mobile app and that Musk misunderstood the situation.
Fronhofer then suggested considering a “big overhaul” of his code, which is now more than 10 years old, and cutting features – many of which are brand new features invented by Musk himself.
When a Twitter user suggested that Fronhofer provide this feedback privately in a private conversation with Ilon, he replied that public criticism from Musk would be met with public feedback. As a result, Musk wrote about Eric Fronhofer’s firing without explaining the reason for the event.
Like many others caught up in Twitter’s recent mass layoffs, Fronhofer wasn’t informed of his firing outside of Twitter. He lost access to his work accounts.
Another engineer, Sasha Solomon, also responded publicly to Musk’s criticism, noting that firing half of Twitter’s employees probably didn’t affect Android download speeds.
