Edited by: TJVNews.com
Billionaire Elon Musk continues to make headlines for his planned purchase of the social media platform Twitter and has indicated in previous remarks that if he were to plunk down $44 billion for it, he would attempt to transform the operation by cutting staff. It now appears that his plans to downsize the company and make it leaner by reducing the number of employees could reach new heights.
According to a new report from the Washington Post, Musk told prospective investors he plans to purge 75% of Twitter’s workforce, or around 5,600 employees, as was reported on the Tech Crunch web site.
The Daily Mail of the UK reported that that would leave the company with just a skeleton crew of just over 2,000 employees, which experts say would make it difficult for the social media company to tamp down on what it deems to be ‘misinformation.’
The Washington Post noted that Twitter already planned to cut around a quarter of its workforce — but leaving a quarter of the workforce is a different situation altogether, TechCrunch reported.
The deal, which is now to back on track after months of Musk sowing chaos, is expected to close by October 28.
Twitter employees took to the social media site they fear they will be laid off from Thursday night to express their concerns about the potential layoffs, the Daily Mail of the UK reported.
The Daily Mail of the UK also reported that Matt Walker, a product designer for Twitter, went off on Musk and former CEO Jack Dorsey in a series of tweets Thursday night, writing: ‘Every decision Jack has made has gotten us to this point.’
He also tweeted that the common thread between the news of MailChimp’s CEO writing in an email that pronouns do ‘more harm than good’ and Musk’s planned layoffs is ‘billionaires are a**holes.’
And in his final tweet, Walker wrote that he was ‘doom scrolling on the very source of the doom,’ as was reported by The Daily Mail of the UK.
A finance advisor for the company, meanwhile, asked if anyone cared about her while Steph Jeong, a designer, simply tweeted: ‘Sigh.’
According to the Washington Post story, Twitter management had planned to cut its payroll by $800 million by the end of 2023, representing a 25% reduction in headcount. As such, Musk’s $44 billion acquisition is a “golden ticket for the struggling company,” according to the Washington Post article, “potentially helping its leadership avoid painful announcements that would have demoralized the staff and possibly crippled the service’s ability to combat misinformation, hate speech and spam.”
Many tech companies are contending with hiring freezes and layoffs amid a slowing economy, though no other tech company of Twitter’s size has laid off such a large percentage of its workforce in recent months, Yahoo Finance reported.
Variety.com reported that progressive groups are concerned that the right-leaning Musk may roll back Twitter’s policies restricting hate speech and misinformation. Musk has said he wants to make Twitter adhere to principles of “free speech” — and has accused the company of censoring conservatives.
Musk has also said he would reinstate Donald Trump’s account on Twitter, after the social network permanently banned him in the wake of Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol for violating its prohibition on incitement to violence after he praised the rioters, as was reported by Variety. Musk called Twitter’s ban on Trump a “morally bad decision” and “flat-out wrong.” YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Snapchat and other tech platforms also banned Trump for similar policy violations.
Experts who spoke to the Post said that layoffs of this size could open Twitter up to a higher risk of hacks and offensive content on the site.
