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Hours after Elon Musk decided to lay off almost 50% of Twitter’s staff, the company’s employees received an email alert about the status of their work after they were banned from offices and cut off los access to internal systems during the night.
Elon Musk fired 50 percent of Twitter’s employees on Friday and defended the decision by saying the company was losing $4 million a day. All those who lost their jobs received three months’ compensation.
“Team, in an effort to put Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” the internal memo said.
As the email notices went out, many Twitter employees took to the platform to express support for one another, often simply tweeting blue heart emojis to stand for their blue bird logo, and greeting emojis in the answers
One manager described the process as “excusable” saying he and his colleagues were given no warning about who in their team would be fired.
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Musk says he’s not doing Twitter for the money
Elon Musk said he won’t take over Twitter for the money in an interview with the Financial Times in October.
He said: “I don’t do Twitter for the money.
“It’s not like I’m trying to buy a yacht and I can’t afford it. I don’t have a boat.
“But I think it’s important that people have the most trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas and that it’s as reliable and transparent as possible.”
However, within days of taking over the company, he has fired roughly 50% of the staff, claiming that Twitter was losing $4 million a day.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain November 5, 2022 11:15 am
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Elon Musk fires Twitter’s human rights team as part of broad layoffs at the platform
The billionaire laid off Twitter employees on Friday, a week after the world’s richest person closed his long-running $44 billion deal for the San Francisco-based company.
The mass layoffs occurred when Mr. Musk admitted that “some of the major advertisers have stopped spending on Twitter” since his takeover, with companies including GM, Audi and General Mills halting their advertising following the acquisition.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain November 5, 2022 10:45 am
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Lawsuits begin to pile up as Twitter employees get locked out of work accounts
A lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of an employee who was fired and three others who were locked out of their work accounts. It alleges that Twitter violated the law by failing to provide the required notice.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification statute requires employers with at least 100 workers to disclose layoffs involving 500 or more employees, regardless of whether a company is publicly or privately traded, such as Twitter.
Twitter filed notices Friday afternoon in California for its offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose. The layoffs affected 983 state employees, according to the documents. Twitter said it will continue to pay wages and benefits to workers through Jan. 4, and employees were notified Friday.
The layoffs affected Twitter offices around the world. In the UK, the law should give notice to employees, said Emma Bartlett, partner specializing in employment and partnership law at CM Murray LLP.
The speed of the layoffs could also open Musk and Twitter to discrimination claims if it turns out, for example, that they disproportionately affected women, people of color or older workers.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain November 5, 2022 10:15 am
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Fired Twitter employees tweet blue heart emojis in solidarity with each other
Twitter employees have been expecting layoffs since Elon Musk took the helm. He fired top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, and removed the company’s board of directors on his first day as owner.
As the email notices went out, many Twitter employees took to the platform to express support for one another, often simply tweeting blue heart emojis to stand for their blue bird logo, and greeting emojis in the answers
A Twitter manager said many employees discovered they had been fired when they could no longer log into the company’s systems. The manager said the way the dismissals were carried out showed a “lack of care and thought”.
The manager, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity out of concern for job security, said managers were not given any notice of who would be fired.
“For me as a manager, it’s been excruciating because I had to figure out what my team was going to look like through tweeting and texting and calling people,” the employee said. “That’s a very difficult way to take care of your people. And Twitter managers care a lot about their people.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain November 5, 2022 09:45
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“Unfortunately, there is no choice”: Elon Musk defends the destruction of Twitter staff
Elon Musk has defended laying off half of Twitter’s nearly 8,000 workers, saying “unfortunately, there is no choice”.
Musk insisted the platform’s commitment to moderation remained “absolutely unchanged” following reports that the company’s disinformation team was fired.
He tweeted: “Regarding Twitter downsizing, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4m (£3.5m) a day.
“Everyone who left was offered three months’ compensation, which is 50 percent more than legally required.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain November 5, 2022 09:15
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Twitter staff cuts ‘not acceptable’, Irish PM says
Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin has criticized the way staff were let go on Twitter, saying it was “unacceptable” and “unprecedented”.
“We are concerned and our concern is there for the employees of Twitter,” he told reporters in Co Tipperary.
“What I would say is that no matter who you are or what industry you’re in, you should always treat people with dignity and respect, and Twitter employees deserve to be treated with respect,” he added.
Read the full story here:
Maryam Zakir-Hussain November 5, 2022 8:45 am
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Government urged to stop Twitter from creating ‘digital P&O’ amid job cuts
The UK government has been urged to step in to prevent Twitter from creating a “digital P&O” as the company carries out major job cuts to save money.
The social media company began worldwide staff cuts on Friday, with suggestions that up to half of its more than 7,500 employees could be cut in what the company called “an effort to put Twitter on a healthy path “.
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Maroosha Muzaffar November 5, 2022 8:15 am
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Twitter employees describe traumatic moments when they discovered they had been fired
Hours after Elon Musk decided to lay off almost 50% of Twitter’s staff, employees of the social media giant have described moments when they realized their access to emails and laptops had been blocked.
Employees received a note Thursday informing them that they would receive an email to their private accounts if they had been fired.
Chris Younie whose bio reads “Entertainment Partnerships @Twitter” wrote: “Well this doesn’t look promising. Can’t log into emails. Mac won’t turn on. But thankful this is happening at 3am . I really appreciate the guys’ thoughtfulness in the face of the weather. Meanwhile, to everyone else on Twitter, you’re the best. #OneTeam.”
Another employee, Jaseem Abid, wrote: “Woke up with no access / gmail / office and laptop remotely wiped. Have you been fired without even a confirmation email while you were sleeping? There is always a new bass.”
Maroosha Muzaffar November 5, 2022 8:13 am
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Biden says Twitter is spreading lies around the world
US President Joe Biden said on Friday that Elon Musk had bought a social media platform from Twitter that broadcasts lies around the world.
Twitter laid off half its workforce on Friday, but said the cuts were minor to the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation as advertisers cut spending amid concerns about content moderation .
Biden said at a fundraiser: “And now what we’re all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys a suit that sends, that spews lies all over the world… There are no publishers in America anymore. There are no publishers . How do we expect kids to understand what’s at stake?”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters earlier that Biden had been clear about the need to reduce hate speech and misinformation.
“That belief extends to Twitter, it extends to Facebook and any other social media platform where users can spread misinformation,” he said.
Musk has vowed to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a “hellscape.” But major advertisers have expressed apprehension about his takeover for months.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain November 5, 2022 7:45 am
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Twitter may have lost more than a million accounts since Elon Musk took over, report suggests
Twitter may have lost more than a million accounts since Tesla boss Elon Musk closed his deal to buy the microblogging platform for $44 billion and took over the company, a new report suggests analysis
Since the Tesla giant took over Twitter on Oct. 27, more than 850,000 accounts have been disabled and nearly 500,000 likely suspended, Bot Sentinel, a company that tracks inauthentic behavior on Twitter, first reported time MIT Technology Review.
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Maroosha Muzaffar November 5, 2022 7:15 am