Twitter announced it had begun informing employees that they should be fired after ownership of the social networking platform was transferred to Elon Musk.
Employees began messaging each other on social media, announcing their departure.
An internal email claimed that the job cuts were “intended to put Twitter on a healthy path.”
The company said it will temporarily close its offices and that its employees will not be able to enter until they know if they have lost their jobs.
The billionaire will become CEO of Twitter after buying the company last week for $ 44 billion.
“We will move forward with the difficult process of reducing corporate jobs globally,” Twitter said in its email.
“We recognize that this process will impact a number of people who have made significant contributions to Twitter, but unfortunately the process is necessary for the company to be successful.”
The company said it will immediately restrict access to offices, in order to ensure the safety of employees and the integrity of Twitter’s systems and user data.
Every employee should receive an email titled “Your Work on Twitter” at 4:00 GMT on Friday.
Employees will be notified of their career fate on Twitter via email and the next steps they need to take.
Twitter explained that the nature of the company’s work and the spread of employees to various regions of the world made it dependent on email to communicate with them.
“Exodus of talents”
Word has spread that at least half of Twitter’s 8,000 jobs will be cut.
The site is struggling to make a profit. One solution to the problem is a reduction in wage payments.
Simon Balmain, a senior Twitter UK official, told the BBC: “I think they fired me, disconnected my device from the Twitter system and messaging platform.”
“Every employee received an email informing them of a massive layoff. An hour later, the process of scanning computers and denying entry began.”
“Maybe most of the people working in Britain were asleep and didn’t understand the word. I was working in Los Angeles, so I was awake when it happened.”
Another Twitter employee said he was anxiously waiting for the email to make sure he was fired or kept in his job, adding that he would stay awake until the message arrived.
“The brain drain from this layoff will reshape the tech industry we know,” Balmain said. “We care about each other, we connect with each other and the solidarity between us is wonderful.”
And Bloomberg has cited unnamed sources as saying that several senior officials have been asked to prepare lists of employees who should be fired.
Binance digital currency platform invested in Twitter as part of Musk’s acquisition of the site. “Reducing the number of workers is a reasonable process,” said its chief executive, Changping Zhao.
In an Internet conference in Lisbon, Zhao criticized the site’s slowness in listing new properties given the size of the workforce.
to pay for blue sign
The dismissal comes after criticism from Twitter for attempting to raise funds by charging $ 8 per month to each account that wants to get the blue check mark indicating the identity of the account holder.
In addition to the blue check mark, those who pay will be able to promote their posts more broadly and receive fewer ads.
“We have to foot the bill one way or another,” Musk wrote of his plan.
Twitter hasn’t made a profit for years, and its user numbers have stagnated at around 300 million subscribers.
Many experts believe the richest man in the world overpayed for the deal, given the current economic conditions and the declining value of the world’s largest tech companies.
But Branden Borman, Twitter’s former director of global communications, questioned the company’s ability to justify requiring users to pay to stay “on the same level” as other users.
The impact of the layoff on Twitter’s performance is unknown.
And the US media has already reported that employees are required to work longer hours since Musk took over.
In May, he said his expectations of corporate rules would be too extreme, but too low for himself.
dismissal of the board of directors
After the deal was concluded, nine board members left, leaving Musk alone in command of the ship.
Among the departures are President Brett Taylor and CEO Parag Agrawal.
Other officials have announced that they will leave the company, or are believed to leave.
And the US media reported that a number of Musk’s allies have joined the company.
