By Aaron Miller-
Thousands of Twitter employees were ordered to stay home Friday to await a round of layoffs that could see half of the payroll axed, as new stinking rich owner Elon Musk launches his comprehensive overhaul of the company.
Twitter employees have received an email informing them to expect word on their future at the company at the start of business on Friday, California time.
Wealthy owner, Elon Musk, is expected to reduce the platform’s workforce of 8,000 by as much as half
He says Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue because activists are pressuring advertisers – something he says is “extremely messed up”
A class action lawsuit has already been filed against the company over the amount of notice given
Billionaire Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX top boss, is considering charging 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.
Musk 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.
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.
Closed And Suspended
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.