Twitter begins mass layoffs

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The billionaire explained that there was no choice since Twitter is losing more than $4 million a day. “Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, while nothing has changed with content moderation and we’ve done everything we can to appease activists“, he explained.

Mass layoffs at Twitter

New Twitter boss Elon Musk has laid off around 50% of the social media company’s employees. The billionaire sent an email to all Twitter employees on Thursday evening to inform them of the end of their employment.

“In an effort to put Twitter on a healthy path, we’ll go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday.“, says the letter. “This action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the success of the company in the future.”

The letter adds that at 9 a.m. PST on Friday, November 4, “everyone will receive a one-to-one email with the subject: Your role at Twitter… If your job is not affected, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email address. If your job is affected, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email.“. The letter continues:

To help ensure the safety of every employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please go home.

Musk explained in a tweet on Friday that downsizing was inevitable since Twitter is losing more than $4 million a day. He pointed out, however, that all those who were made redundant were offered three months of severance pay, noting that this is 50% more than the legally required amount.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of security and integrity, revealed on Friday that Musk cut Twitter’s company-wide workforce by 50%. “Yesterday’s downsizing affected around 15% of our Trust & Safety organization (as opposed to around 50% reductions across the business), with our frontline moderation staff least impacted “, he tweeted. According to Twitter’s annual report, the company had more than 7,500 full-time employees as of December 31, 2021.

Twitter employees filed a federal lawsuit Thursday accusing the social media giant of violating a federal law called “Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification” (WARN), which governs termination notices.

Massive drop in revenue

Musk also revealed in a tweet on Friday that “Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue.“Before its takeover, the social media company said it got 90% of its revenue from advertisers. However, major companies have stopped advertising on the platform, allegedly over concerns about how Musk will affect content moderation policies.

The billionaire claimed that “activist groups lobbying advertisers“led to the drop in revenues,”although nothing has changed with content moderation and we have done everything we can to appease activists“, he tweeted on Friday. “They’re trying to destroy free speech in America“.

In a bid to generate revenue for Twitter, Elon Musk decided to charge users $8 per month to have a blue check mark next to their name.

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