Elon Musk called a Netflix engineer a 'jacka**' after he was pressed on his plans to reform Twitter.
The billionaire recently acquired the social media platform, bringing in a raft of controversial changes, but he did not react kindly to a line of questioning on a recent Twitter Space.
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Answering questions from hacker and software engineer George Hotz about planned changes on Twitter, the 51-year-old Chief Twit said: "I think, frankly, if you want to have a really high velocity of features, we'll just need to do a total re-write of the whole thing."
Ian Brown - who worked for Twitter for eight years before moving to Netflix last year - seemed surprised by the answer.
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"Seriously? A total re-write? That's your prediction for velocity?" he asked.
After Musk confirmed this, Hotz asked him to clarify what he meant, to which he said: "I mean, I just think like, literally, you could either try to amend the crazy stack that exists, or re-write it."
By the way, in layman's terms, a stack refers to the layers of technology and software required to operate complex online services such as Twitter.
Anyway, Brown was not satisfied with this response, and decided to take Musk to task on what exactly made Twitter's stack so 'crazy', with Musk responding by asking who he was.
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Brown continued: "Come on man, take me from top to bottom.
"What does the stack look like right now? What's so crazy about it? What is so abnormal about this stack versus every other large-scale system on the planet, buddy? Come on. Give it to me."
Musk evidently didn't take kindly to the grilling - or the tone - and by this point seemed clear on who Brown was.
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"Amazing. Wow. You're a jacka**," Musk replied.
And after Hotz called for people to keep things civil and confirmed he had taken the mic from Brown, Musk added: "Good - what a moron."
Musk has confirmed he will step down as chief executive of Twitter, as soon as he finds someone 'foolish enough to take the job'.
More than 57 percent of users who voted in a Twitter poll Musk posted on Sunday (18 December) night said he should step down – a result he said he would abide by.
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He went on to question the result, but confirmed in a tweet early on Wednesday (21 December) morning that he would relinquish his role as head of the social media platform once he finds a successor.
Musk wrote: "I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!
"After that, I will just run the software & servers teams."
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The Tesla and SpaceX boss only took control of Twitter two months ago, but his tenure has been turbulent.
He has overseen more than half of the company's global workforce being laid off, the loosening of content moderation and reinstatement of previously banned accounts which some groups say has caused a spike in hateful and abusive content on the site.
Musk's reign has also seen a fumbled rollout of the Twitter Blue subscription service, as well as advertisers pausing spending with the firm over concerns about his 'absolute free speech' approach.
The Twitter saga has begun to impact his other businesses, with Tesla share prices down since his social media takeover as the controversies affect confidence in Musk and his management style.
Jake Massey