Elon Musk, who is rapidly transforming the social media company, has also reduced his contractor workforce.Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, ordered the firing of nearly two dozen employees who had pushed back against him publicly and privately.Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, ordered the firing of nearly two dozen employees who had publicly and privately pushed back against him.
By Kate Conger, Ryan Mack and Mike Isaacs
SAN FRANCISCO – Elon Musk has continued to cut Twitter’s workforce in his third week as owner of the social media company, firing employees who criticized him and cutting contractors.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Musk’s team ordered about two dozen Twitter employees who had publicly and privately called for backtracking, three people familiar with the matter said. The billionaire, who completed a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month, later confirmed his exit from the platform and mocked former employees.The firing follows cuts to Twitter’s contract workforce over the weekend.
Mr. Musk has moved quickly to replace Twitter
Mr. Musk has moved quickly to replace Twitter as he paints a grim picture of its finances. He laid off half of the company’s 7,500 workers this month, while pushing the remaining employees to rapidly build and launch new products. Last week, he said Twitter faced the possibility of bankruptcy and needed to become more “hard-core” to survive. Mr. Musk plans to reorganize the company to eliminate middle managers, six people familiar with the matter said.
At the same time, Mr. Musk has tried to keep Twitter staff motivated. On Monday, he sent a brief message to employees, seen by The New York Times, explaining that “exceptional performance will be rewarded with an extraordinary amount of stock.” Mr Musk compared the structure to how things work at SpaceX, his private rocket company, but did not provide further details.
Changes to Elon Musk’s Twitter
A quick revision. Elon Musk has moved quickly to overhaul Twitter since completing a $44 billion purchase of the social media company in October, warning of a bleak financial picture and a need for new products. Here’s a look at some of the changes so far:
Going privte. As part of Mr. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, he is delisting the company’s stock and taking it out of the hands of public shareholders. Making Twitter a private company gives Mr. Musk some advantages, including not having to make quarterly financial disclosures. Private companies are also subject to less regulatory scrutiny.
Just a week after closing the severance deal, Mr. Musk cut nearly half of Twitter’s workforce, or about 3,700 jobs. The layoffs affected several divisions across the company, including engineering and machine learning units, teams managing content moderation, and sales and advertising departments.
Confirmation Subscriptions.
Twitter started charging users $7.99 a month to get a verification checkmark on their profiles. But the subscription service was halted after some users exploited it to wreak havoc on the platform by pretending to be high-profile brands and sending disruptive tweets.
Content moderation. Shortly after closing the deal to buy Twitter, Mr. Musk said the company would create a content moderation council that would decide which types of posts to keep and which to remove. But advertisers have curbed their spending on Twitter over fears that Mr. Musk will loosen content rules on the platform.
Other possible changes. As Mr. Musk and his advisers look for ways to generate more revenue at the company, they are said to have discussed adding paid direct messages, which would allow users to send private messages to high-profile users. The company has also filed registration paperwork to pave the way for processing payments.
financial pressure
Twitter is under financial pressure as some advertisers pull away. Macy’s has halted its advertising spending on the platform, a person familiar with the decision said. Fashion company Balenciaga has deleted its Twitter account. And Omnicom Media Group, whose agencies represent companies such as PepsiCo and McDonald’s, urged its clients to curtail their activity on Twitter, citing in a memo the risks that are “increasingly have risen to levels that may be largely unacceptable,” said a person familiar with the memo. .
Twitter and Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The Platformer Newsletter previously reported the contractor shortage.
Mr Musk’s dismissal followed a tweet posted on Sunday, in which he wrote that Twitter was “slow in many countries” because of the way it handled data.“That’s wrong,” replied Eric Fraunhofer, a Twitter developer. Mr. Musk invited Mr. Fraunhofer to correct the error, and the two exchanged several messages.
