Elon Musk made a hasty decision to lay off half of Twitter’s employees, days after he completed his $44 billion acquisition of the company that now he is being forced to return some of the workers to their roles.
Bloomberg reports that Twitter is now reaching out to dozens of workers who were among the 3,700 fired late last week, asking them to return to work as they are needed to build new features Musk wants to introduce to the platform.
The report, which cites two people with knowledge of the matter, said some of the employees had been laid off before it was realized how much their experience is needed for Musk’s Twitter vision.
Twitter with roughly 7,500 employees had to cut about 3,700 of its workforce, following a claim by Musk that the platform is losing $4 million daily.
“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted on Friday.
The decision to lay them off has come with fierce criticism and some of the staff have initiated a class action lawsuit against Twitter.
Many of the sacked employees said they became aware of their situation after their access to company-wide systems, such as email and Slack, were suddenly denied when they woke the next day.
Musk has been criticized over how he is handling the social media company since he took over – firing firstly the executives and then others, including the ethical AI team, the communications team and the human rights organization – all deemed essential by advertisers. Ad buyers are concerned about Twitter direction since Musk’s takeover, especially as it relates to content moderation. And 75% of the sacked employees is said to be from the section of Twitter that moderates contents.
Most advertisers, including United Airlines, Pfizer and General Motors, have paused ads on Twitter, causing the company a massive loss in revenue.
Musk had claimed that the massive drop in revenue is as a result of “activists groups pressuring advertisers”, adding that “they’re trying to destroy free speech.”
In response to this, an advertiser, Lou Paskalis, told Musk: “Elon, Great chat yesterday, As you heard overwhelmingly from senior advertisers on the call, the issue concerning us all is content moderation and its impact on BRAND SAFETY/SUITABILITY. You say you’re committed to moderation, but you just laid off 75% of the moderation team!
“Advertisers are not being manipulated by activist groups, they are being compelled by established principles around the types of companies they can do business with. These principles include an assessment of the platforms commitment to brand safety and suitability.”
Musk rolled out a plan to Twitter Blue last week, by monetizing the verification. He put the price at $8 per month, riling up further controversy on the platform. The $8 per month verification check is believed to be an avenue he is trying to use to make up for the lost ad revenue.
The idea has been widely criticized and employees have expressed concern that the verification, which will be available for every user, may be used to, among other things, spread disinformation that will disrupt Tuesday’s midterm elections. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Twitter will delay changes to the check marks until after the elections.
Musk, pushing new products, including half the ads, the ability to post longer videos and get priority ranking in replies, mentions and searches, appears to have understood that the remaining close to 3,700 Twitter employees can’t get the job done. The people who spoke with Bloomberg said the employees have slept at the office in some cases as the push to meet new deadlines becomes tighter.
Musk has justified the monetization of the check marks. Besides his aim to generate revenue from it, he said on Sunday that “widespread verification will democratize journalism & empower the voice of the people.” He then warned that impersonation will no longer be tolerated in a clear attempt to allay concern that the idea will be exploited.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended,” he said.
“Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning. This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue.”
