Daily Times

The world has been abuzz ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. Soon after taking over Twitter, Musk fired Vijaya Gadde, a top legal and policy executive at Twitter. Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and General Counsel Sean Edgett were also compelled to leave the company by Chief Twit, Musk.

The word “gutted” has become synonymous with Twitter and Elon Musk following his decision to implement mass layoffs. According to a report by The Verge, the areas in Twitter that have been distraught include “product trust and safety, policy, communications, tweet curation, ethical AI, data science, research, machine learning, social good, accessibility.” Musk has released almost 50 per cent of the 7,500 employees at Twitter, leaving the social media giant hanging on Musk’s intentions are still unclear. Some of the employees at Twitter view that the company will need to manoeuvre through turbulent times.

Many employees chose to remain anonymous as they vetted out their frustration. Musk, as the news reports claim, used an unorthodox way to fire employees. The layoffs that began on November 3, 2022, were initiated following the circulation of an unsigned memo. It stated that the company will “go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce.” Even before the employees were given a chance to react, they were unable to access their work accounts. They received an email titled, “Your Role at Twitter”, that shared the bitter reality. It has also been reported that those who were part of the layoff were offered a severance pay of three months. Musk even Tweeted the reason for the layoffs, “Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.” According to Reuters, “Twitter Inc laid off half its workforce on Friday but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.”

The word “gutted” has become synonymous with Twitter and Elon Musk following his decision to implement mass layoffs.

Before the mass layoffs, Musk shared his views on advertisers’ spend on Twitter. He mentioned a massive drop in revenue from the advertiser retreat. Musk placed the responsibility on a civil rights coalition group compelling top advertisers of Twitter to pursue action if Musk did not guard content moderation.

Among those who were asked to leave included 199 employees from San Jose and Los Angeles and 784 employees from the headquarters in San Francisco.

Yoel Roth, who looks after Twitter’s safety and integrity shared that the layoff affected 15 per cent of his team that works for thwarting the dissemination of misinformation and other content that may be harmful. Earlier, Musk ensured that Twitter will not descend to a ‘hellscpape’ and that he will restore free speech. One wonders how will laying off 3,700 people will help him achieve his goal. Even the US President, Joe Biden, shared his views over the Twitter frenzy when he opined that Musk bought a social media platform that spreads lies.

When speaking at a fundraiser, Biden said, “And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends – that spews lies all across the world.” He further added, “There’s no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?” It is uncertain what will Chief Twit do tomorrow. The digital world should be ready for anything.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist.