Musk puts “about 50 percent” of Twitter employees on the street worldwide – also team that tackles misinformation would be fired | News

Musk had already informed the staff in an email on Thursday that layoffs would follow today. “Team, in an effort to get Twitter on the right track, we are embarking on the difficult process of reducing our global workforce,” the email reads. This is necessary “to ensure the success of the company in the future”.

All Twitter employees would receive an e-mail by 5 p.m. GMT today with the subject “Your Role at Twitter” (“Your Role at Twitter”). Anyone who is allowed to keep their job received that email at their professional email address. Those who were fired were informed about “the next steps” via their personal e-mail address. “Today is your last working day at the company”, the leavers were told today. The email also says that they will lose access to their work computers and emails with immediate effect.

The company’s offices will remain closed throughout the day.

Meanwhile, Twitter employees from departments as diverse as content management, ethical AI, marketing and communications, public policy, wellness and other teams tweeted that they have lost their jobs.

Several media report that the curation team was fired, which in the US is responsible, among other things, for tackling misinformation that is shared via the social network. “Executives, management and trustees are all saying they have been kicked out,” said ex-employee Richie Assaly, who was part of the team in the past. “That will make Twitter louder, more dangerous and less interesting,” he guarantees.

The curation team plays a key role in reporting events that affect the world, such as elections, breaking news and sports, by ensuring that users can vet information that is presented. The team is viewed internally as an important filter against misleading information.

Rumors are also circulating on Twitter that the entire communications team, the human rights team and another team responsible for ethics, transparency and accountability in machine language have been kicked out, although that has not yet been officially confirmed.

In India, Twitter is firing almost all staff, the business newspaper Mint reports on the basis of insiders.

Twitter employees have since filed a complaint against the company. According to the employees, Musk would not have informed them sufficiently, which is against the law.

Five Twitter employees have therefore filed a class action lawsuit in the federal court of San Francisco. The federal Employee Adaptation and Retraining Act, known as the “WARN Act,” prohibits large companies from laying off their workforce en masse without giving them at least 60 days notice. “Twitter is now dealing with mass layoffs without the required notice under the federal WARN Act,” the indictment reads.

If Elon Musk also decides to cut the workforce in Europe, he will have to comply with European labor legislation. In the United Kingdom, where Twitter employed 281 people last year, British employers are required by law to prove that there are grounds for firing employees. If more than twenty employees of a company are made redundant, the company must follow the consultation rules. For example, Twitter will have to report to the government. There should also be a period of at least 30 days between the application for resignation and the actual departure.

The countries of the European Union also generally require employers to observe a notice period if they lay off a significant number of employees.

Several Twitter employees share on their social media channels that they no longer have access to their work email before they were officially notified that they were being knocked on the door. They say goodbye to their job and their colleagues via social media. The hashtags #oneteam and #lovewhereyouworked are circulating on the platform, as well as countless blue hearts. “It is official. I’m a free bird,” tweet ex-employee Caroline Bergin. “It was an absolute honor to be part of this team,” writes Yash Agarwal. “One of the best career choices of my life,” said Carmen Kiew.

Musk, the richest person in the world, who also heads four other companies, including car maker Tesla, previously dismissed the entire board of Twitter to become the company’s interim CEO.

The layoff is part of Musk’s quest to find ways to pay for the massive $44 billion deal. To take over Twitter, Musk has to go into serious debt. He has already sold $15.5 billion worth of Tesla stock.

Sources reported Thursday to the news agency ‘Reuters’ that Musk has also been pointed out by advisers that the company must cut one to three million dollars (about the same amount in euros) per day.

According to The New York Times, Musk is not only under pressure to cut costs at the company he acquired last week, but also to increase revenues. Earlier this week, Musk announced that the blue check marks that indicate that a Twitter account is authentic will now cost 8 euros per month. In addition, there are said to be plans to make users pay for private messaging and viewing certain videos, according to The New York Times.

In addition, Musk would like to bring back the Vine app, which allows users to make short videos of just six seconds. The Twitter feature ‘Notes’, which allows users to write longer texts such as articles on the platform, would then be put on hold again. The plan to develop a crypto wallet for Twitter is also unlikely to go ahead.

Finally, ‘Revue’, the newsletter platform that Twitter took over in early 2021, would disappear by the end of this year. The founder of ‘Revue’, Dutchman Martijn de Kuijper, also reacted disappointed to the announcement of the wave of layoffs. “What a disaster Sorry everyone “, De Kuijper wrote on Twitter. A little later, the Dutchman announced that he was the only one from his team not to have been fired.