I'm pretty sure he meant it literally--IM is his primary interface for Twitter so when it's down his personal usage pattern goes down also. The post, like many

I'm pretty sure he meant it literally--IM is his primary interface for Twitter so when it's down his personal usage pattern goes down also. The post, like many complaints on Twitter, is pretty dramatic. I don't mean to defend that, just point out a bit of context that most people don't have (or if you're Valleywag, don't care about).