Tag: Twitter layoffs

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Elon Musk lays off a fresh set of employees after saying dismissals were done

Employees who once successfully avoided major layoffs at Twitter were not safe from future cuts, despite promises from company CEO Elon Musk.

After Musk laid off employees across its headquarters in November, those who remained were told there would be no more layoffs, according to The Verge. But recent events show that hasn’t been the case.

The publication reports the company laid off dozens from Twitter’s sales and engineering departments, including one employee who was responsible for engineering the platform’s ad business.

Musk has also reportedly given employees one week to fix ad targeting in Twitter’s main feed. The Verge reports Musk wants Twitter’s ads to work like Google search ads, focusing on keywords instead of user activity.

One of the laid-off employees is Marcin Kadluczka, an engineer manager for monetization. The Verge reports Kadluczka “reported directly to Musk,” and he issued his one-week deadline just prior to laying off employees.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: The Verge 

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Musk is ready to hire new Twitter employees after laying off thousands

Elon Musk is ready to hire employees for Twitter after weeks of layoffs that dramatically reduced its workforce.

Musk shared the news with employees in an all-hands meeting on Monday, The Verge reports. Twitter is reportedly focusing recruitment efforts on engineering and sales employees.

“In terms of critical hired, I would say people who are great at writing software are the highest priority,” Musk said.

One of those new “hires” is George Hotz, an iPhone hacker who has accepted a 12-week “internship” at Twitter to fix the platform’s search feature and remove a prompt that blocks web browsing without logging in.

At the meeting, Musk also told employees there are no plans to move Twitter’s headquarters from San Franciso to Texas, The Verge reports. However, being “dual-headquartered” in California and Texas could be possible.

“If we want to move the headquarters to Texas, I think it would play into the idea that Twitter has gone from being left-wing to right-wing, which is not the case,” Musk said. “This is not a right-wing takeover of Twitter. It is a moderate-wing takeover of Twitter.”

Musk went on to talk about Twitter having “people with a wide array of views,” an ironic statement, given he fired employees for being critical of his words. 

Musk held the meeting on the same day cuts were made in the sales department. The Verge reports that only 2,700 people remain at the company that once stood 7,400 strong.

All of MobileSyrup’s Elon Musk x Twitter coverage can be found here.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: The Verge

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Musk considering more layoffs at Twitter

Despite multiple rounds of layoffs at Twitter, remaining employees aren’t safe from the threat of job cuts.

Bloomberg reports Twitter owner Elon Musk is considering laying off employees in the sales and partnerships teams.

The latest round of job cuts came after Musk sent out an email outlining his vision for Twitter 2.0, which forced employees to sign on to a rigorous work life or find work elsewhere. Hundreds of employees opted to leave the company. It’s unclear how many people will be impacted by Musk’s most recent consideration.

Twitter’s workforce first started to dwindle when Musk issued mass layoffs soon after buying the social media platform, dismissing nearly 50 percent of its employees. Contract staff were then cut, and  Musks’ emailed ultimatum came soon after. Musk also fired several individual employees who were critical of him. 

It’s unclear how many employees remain in the workforce, which once stood at 7,500.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Bloomberg

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Elon Musk fires Twitter engineers for criticizing him

Elon Musk’s love of free speech appears to be selective.

The owner of Twitter previously called the app “the platform for free speech around the world.” Yet when his own employees criticize him, the rules no longer stand.

On November 13th, former Twitter engineer Eric Frohnhoefer, who was part of the platform’s operating team for Android, said Musk’s statement on Twitter’s performance was “wrong.” Musk asked Frohnhoefer to correct him and explain what he was doing to address why “Twitter is super slow on Android.”

Frohnhoefer replied with a series of tweets, including one stating these questions should be asked privately.

In a now-deleted but well-documented reply, Musk wrote, “he’s fired.”

Another engineer was fired for a similar response. Ben Leib also tweeted a reply to Musk’s tweet on Twitter’s performance.

“As the former tech lead for timelines infrastructure at Twitter, I can confidently say this man has no idea wtf he’s talking about,” Leib wrote.

Leib told Bloomberg he was fired on November 13th, the same day he responded to Musk.

Twitter’s workforce seems to be dwindling by the day. Earlier this month, Musk issued mass layoffs, reducing Twitter’s workforce by almost 50 percent. Thousands of contract employees were also recently forced to leave the company.

Moreover, Musk has lashed out at others who have used Twitter to poke fun at him. Most notable were several celebrity accounts that received bans or suspensions for impersonating Musk. Moreover, Twitter had to suspend the rollout of its revamped Blue subscription after a flood of accounts impersonated high-profile people and companies.

All of MobileSyrup’s Elon Musk x Twitter coverage can be found here.

Via: Bloomberg

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Twitter shows thousands of contract workers the door

Twitter is continuing to reduce its workforce after its wave of mass layoffs earlier this month.

The most recent cuts target contract employees, with 4,400 of its 5,500 contact employees being “eliminated.” According to Casey Newton, the founder of Platformer, the move will “have significant impact” on content moderators and the site’s core infrastructure services.

Impacted employees are in the U.S and abroad, and Twitter gave them no warning. “Contractors aren’t being notified at all, they’re just losing access to Slack and email. Managers figured it out when their workers just disappeared from the system,” Newton tweeted.

The recent cuts further highlight growing concerns about the spread of misinformation.

Twitter cut its workforce before reinstating some. The company’s former head of content moderation, Yoel Roth, tweeted that the initial layoffs impacted moderation staff the least. However, that has now changed.

Employees have launched a class action lawsuit as Twitter continues to face the threat of bankruptcy.

All of MobileSyrup’s Elon Musk x Twitter coverage can be found here.

Source: @CaseyNewton

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Elon Musk’s first week at Twitter has been a hot mess

It’s been one week since the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, acquired a platform initially created to share ideas and turned it into a pit of hate speech.

The $44 billion USD (roughly $59 billion CAD) acquisition gives Musk complete control over the platform, and that’s not a role he has taken lightly.

In mere days, Musk announced plans that would change the way people use Twitter: charging more for Twitter Blue, making users pay for their verification status, and sharing plans to introduce a paywall video feature.

To recap, here’s what Musk did during his first week as “Chief Twit:”

Job cuts

Fears of job cuts were shared long before Musk took over the company. But the reality of it has only begun to sink in. In an email to employees, the company said they would know their faith in the company on Friday.

It’s not clear how many employees will be cut, but Twitter is full of former employees saying they’ve been let go. A lawsuit surrounding the firings has also been filed. Musk disputed news that 75 percent of the workforce would be let go but didn’t deny layoffs. Various executives were the first to go.

New employees?

According to The Washington Post, some of the people who were laid off were part of groups Musk put together to work on new products. Musk also brought over employees from Tesla, the Boring Company, and Neuralink to work on Twitter code. Reports indicate 50 of the employees came from Tesla. It’s unclear what this means for Twitter’s workforce and if the employees Musk brought in will take over key roles at Twitter.

Banned users

Twitter has yet to outline official plans for what the platform will look like under Musk’s reign. But there are a few things to expect, one being the possibility of banned users once again using Twitter. In a tweet earlier this week, Musk shared it’ll be a few weeks before a process to examine the matter is in place. “Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on [the] platform until we have a clear process for doing so.”

Verified users

Musk’s announcement to move verification under the Twitter Blue subscription has (unsurprisingly) led to backlash and phishing scams. The blue checkmark was initially designated for accounts sharing information that was an interest to the public, think journalists, politicians, etc., to verify authenticity. Users often had to apply for the distinction and go through a review process. Now Musk is proposing a method to let people buy the status for $8 a month.

Twitter Blue

Before Musk took over, the subscription service offered various features that may or may not have been an interest to you. The old subscription costs $4.99 a month in the U.S., but it will now cost $8 a month. The price hike is one of Musk’s attempts to make money on the acquisition and “pay the bills.” As previously reported, some of the company’s bills come from the acquisition. Twitter had to take on $13 billion USD  (roughly $17.6 billion CAD) in debt to take the company private, and will reportedly pay over $1 billion USD (roughly $1.4 billion CAD) on annual interest payments.