Thousands of Twitter employees were ordered to stay home Friday to await a
bracing round of layoffs that could see half of the payroll axed as new owner
Elon Musk launches his major overhaul of the company.
اضافة اعلان
A company-wide email seen by AFP said Twitter employees would receive word
on their future at the company via email at the start of business Friday,
California time.
The cull is part of Musk's push to find ways to pay for the mammoth $44
billion deal for which he took on billions of dollars in debt and sold $15.5
billion worth of Tesla shares, his electric car company.
Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief, has been scrambling to find new ways for
Twitter to make money after his mammoth buyout, including an idea to charge
users $8 a month for verified accounts.
The moves would help overcome the potential loss of advertisers, Twitter’s
main source of revenue, with many of the world’s top brands putting their ad
buys on hold, spooked by Musk’s well-known disdain for content moderation.
The mercurial tycoon on Friday complained on Twitter of a "massive drop
in revenue" that he blamed on "activist groups" that were
pressuring advertisers.
"We did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed
up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America," he added.
This appeared to refer to Musk's recent meeting with civil rights groups in
which he heard concerns that Twitter would open the floodgates to hate speech.
In an effort to soothe nerves, Musk had vowed that Twitter will not become a
"free-for-all hellscape", but his pledge was quickly followed by a
tweet relaying a conspiracy theory about an assault on the husband of the US
House Speaker.
Though extremely influential with opinion-makers and celebrities, the
California company has long struggled to generate profit and has failed to keep
pace with Facebook, Instagram and TikTok in gaining new users.
"In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through
the difficult process of reducing our global workforce," the company email
said.
The email did not give a number but the Washington Post and New York Times
reported that about half of Twitter's 7,500 employees -- mostly based in San
Francisco -- will be let go.
- 'Return home' -
The company said that in order to "ensure the safety" of employees
and sensitive data, the main offices would remain closed and all badge
access suspended.
"Those on the way to the office should turn around and return home,"
the email added.
It also said that those still employed at the company would find out on
their company email, while those shown the door would get notice on their
personal email.
Some workers had already begun to learn their fates and took to Twitter to
say goodbye to colleagues.
"Spoiler Alert: I do not have a job," tweeted ex-employee Blake
Herzinger as others reported losing access to company servers and email
accounts.
Twitter employees have been bracing for this kind of bad news since Musk
completed his acquisition late last week and quickly set about dissolving its
board and firing its chief executive and top managers.
Late on Thursday, a group of five Twitter employees who had already been
fired filed a class action complaint against the company on the grounds that
they had not been given the required 60-day notice period as required by law.
The lawsuit references the US Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification
(WARN) Act, which provides workers a right to advance notice in cases of mass
layoffs or plant closings.
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