Twitter began widespread layoffs as new owner Elon Musk overhauls the company, raising grave concerns about chaos enveloping the social media platform and its ability to fight disinformation just days ahead of the US midterm elections.
The speed and size of the cuts also opened Musk and Twitter to lawsuits. At least one was filed alleging Twitter violated federal law by not providing fired employees with the required notice.
The San Francisco-based company told workers by email that they would learn Friday if they had been laid off. About half of the company’s staff of 7500 was let go, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety & integrity, confirmed in a tweet.
Employees were abruptly locked out of their company Slack and email accounts and barred from going into the office ahead of the mass layoffs.
Musk tweeted that there was no choice but to cut the jobs “when the company is losing over $4M/day.” He did not provide details on the daily losses at the company and said employees who lost their jobs were offered three months’ pay as a severance.
No other social media platform comes close to Twitter as a place where public agencies and other vital service providers — election boards, police departments, utilities, schools and news outlets — keep people reliably informed. Many fear Musk’s layoffs will gut it and render it lawless.
Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.
Roth said the company’s front-line moderation staff was the group the least impacted by the job cuts.
He added that Twitter’s “efforts on election integrity — including harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote and combatting state-backed information operations — remain a top priority.”
Here are the facts about where Twitter’s Trust & Safety and moderation capacity stands today:
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 4, 2022
tl;dr: While we said goodbye to incredibly talented friends and colleagues yesterday, our core moderation capabilities remain in place.
Musk, meanwhile, tweeted that “Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.”
But a Twitter employee who spoke with The Associated Press said it will be a lot harder to get that work done starting next week after losing so many colleagues.
“This will impact our ability to provide support for elections, definitely,” said the employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for job security.
Trust and Safety personnel getting sacked at Twitter...... what the hell are things coming too???? pic.twitter.com/uUZYCEJJVb
— Dawn Helen Parker 💙🌻☮️ (@DawnParkerNYC) November 4, 2022
The employee said there’s no “concrete sense of direction” except for what Musk says publicly on Twitter.
“I follow his tweets and they affect how we prioritize our work,” said the employee. “It’s a very healthy indicator of what to prioritise.”
One of the thousands to be fired was Gerard Cohen, an Engineering Manager for the Accessibility Experience Team at Twitter.
He took to the platform to honour the rest of the engineering team, who were also fired.
“So, the Accessibility Experience Team at Twitter is no longer,” he said.
“We had so much more to do, but we worked hard.
“There aren’t very many people that have had the opportunity to make such an important global platform like Twitter accessible, but we understood the mission.
“I hate the way this ended, but I’m so very proud of everything we were able to accomplish together. Now I have other places to help make accessible.” Mr Cohen concluded.
Several employees who tweeted about losing their jobs said Twitter eliminated their entire teams, including one focused on human rights and global conflicts, another checking Twitter’s algorithms for bias in how tweets get amplified, and an engineering team devoted to making the social platform more accessible for people with disabilities.
Well, I got my letter. No, not a Hogwarts letter. 😔 #LoveWhereYouWorked 💙
— Joseph J. Nuñez (@joey_comms) November 4, 2022
Eddie Perez, a Twitter civic integrity team manager who quit in September, said he fears the layoffs so close to the midterms could allow disinformation to “spread like wildfire” during the post-election vote-counting period in particular.
“I have a hard time believing that it doesn’t have a material impact on their ability to manage the amount of disinformation out there,” he said, adding that there simply may not be enough employees to beat it back.
Twitter’s employees have been expecting layoffs since 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 emailed notices went out, many Twitter employees took to the platform to express support for each other — often simply tweeting blue heart emojis to signify its blue bird logo — and salute emojis in replies to each other.
A Twitter manager said many employees found out they had been laid off when they could no longer log into the company’s systems. The manager said the way the layoffs were conducted showed a “lack of care and thoughtfulness.” The manager, who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for job security, said managers were not given any notice about who would be getting laid off.
Has it already started? Happy layoff eve! pic.twitter.com/0AcaQjGJvm
— Rumman Chowdhury (@ruchowdh) November 4, 2022
“For me as a manager, it’s been excruciating because I had to find out about what my team was going to look like through tweets and through texting and calling people,” the employee said. “That’s a really hard way to care for your people. And managers at Twitter care a lot about their people.”
Rachel Bonn, a marketing manager at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, said she had lost laptop access despite being eight months pregnant, even as she raises a 9-month-old child.
Last Thursday in the SF office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter. 8 months pregnant and have a 9 month old.
— rachel bonn (@RachBonn) November 4, 2022
Just got cut off from laptop access #LoveWhereYouWorked 💙 https://t.co/rhwntoR98l pic.twitter.com/KE8gUwABlU
A coalition of civil rights groups escalated their calls Friday for brands to pause advertising buys on the platform. The layoffs are particularly dangerous ahead of the elections, the groups warned, and for transgender users and other groups facing violence inspired by hate speech that proliferates online.
In a tweet, Musk blamed activists for what he described as a “massive drop in revenue” since he took over Twitter late last week.
It's all over, folks. So grateful for the time I had with my amazing team of tweeps and wish it could have been longer. #lovewhereyouworked 💙💙💙
— Anna Hughes (@AnnaTweetsToo) November 4, 2022
Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg said there is “little Musk can say to appease advertisers when he’s keeping the company in a constant state of uncertainty and turmoil, and appears indifferent to Twitter employees and the law.”
“Musk needs advertisers more than they need him,” she said. “Pulling ads from Twitter is a quick and painless decision for most brands.”
Twitter’s head of internal communications, Julie Steele, also indicated she had been laid off.
“Twitter is so special. After 4 yrs, I’m leaving with the fullest [heart], experiences I never imagined, and unbreakable bonds with so many Tweeps,” Steele tweeted. “My head is held high, knowing I gave it my absolute all. @TwitterComms: We have so much to be proud of. Time to fly even higher!”
Twitter is so special. After 4 yrs, I’m leaving with the fullest 💙, experiences I never imagined, and unbreakable bonds with so many Tweeps. My head is held high, knowing I gave it my absolute all. @TwitterComms: We have so much to be proud of. Time to fly even higher! #OneTeam pic.twitter.com/5tVUP575A6
— Julie Steele (@juliezsteele) November 4, 2022
Another fired engineer, Andrew Hayward, claimed TwitterA11y [Twitter Accessibility – the team in charge of making Twitter accessible for everyone] was “defunct” after the team was gutted.
“It brings me no great pleasure to say that, for all intents and purposes, [Twitter Accessibility] is defunct. I wish it wasn’t – there was so much we had planned – but here we are,” he said.
Trust and Safety member at Twitter Andrew Briercliffe was another casualty.
“Well, what a ride it’s been. But alas, it appears I’m one of the unfortunate ones at Twitter,” he posted on his LinkedIn account.
“Many amazing colleagues and friends during my time and getting to work on the worst content from a different perspective.”
“Team members may be laid off, but the work continues, and I applaud those having to work even harder now trying to tackle this issue.”
A lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of one employee who was laid off and three others who were locked out of their work accounts. It alleges Twitter violated the law by not providing 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 traded or privately held, as Twitter is now.
It was a great run while it lasted. Love to all my fellow Tweeps. P.S. Elon, come take your dumb laptop. It’s not paying rent anymore. pic.twitter.com/L0LCy3D7qV
— Tim Kettering (@timmytwits) November 4, 2022
The layoffs affected Twitter’s offices around the world. In the United Kingdom, it would be required by law to give employees notice, said Emma Bartlett, a partner specializing in employment and partnership law at CM Murray LLP.
The speed of the layoffs could also open Musk and Twitter up to discrimination claims if it turns out, for instance, that they disproportionally affected women, people of colour or older workers.
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