Twitter lays off “close to 50%” of its employees, including its office in Mexico

Twitter announced this Friday the dismissal of “close to 50%” of its 7,500 employees in the world, which includes workers from its office in Mexico, a week after being acquired by the richest man on the planet, Elon Musk.

“Nearly 50% of the workforce will be affected” by the layoffs, says an email accessed by AFP, which was sent to employees of Twitter who lost their jobs after the purchase of the company for 44,000 million dollars.

The firm’s employees had been called to stay home this Friday pending the round of layoffs, within the framework of a company restructuring launched by Musk.

The Californian firm communicated its decision to each employee by email, and announced the temporary closure of offices.

“As announced earlier today, Twitter is downsizing to help improve the health of the company. These decisions are never easy, and it is with regret that we are writing to inform you that your position at Twitter is affected. Today (Friday) is his last day of work,” indicates one of the emails sent to employees to which the AFP has had access.

Workers have been bracing for downsizing since Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of the company last week, quickly moving to dissolve its board of directors and fire its chief executive and top managers.

reactions in the network

Some workers had already found out on Friday that they had been fired and turned to the blue bird network to say goodbye to their colleagues.

“I don’t have a job,” tweeted former employee Blake Herzinger, as others reported losing access to the company’s servers and email accounts.

An email sent to Twitter employees on Thursday told them not to report to work on Friday.

“Our offices will be temporarily closed and all access credentials will be suspended,” the message said. He also pointed out that Twitter is going through an “incredibly challenging” time.

“We recognize that this will affect a number of people who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but unfortunately this action is necessary to ensure the success of the company in the future,” it said.

On Thursday night, five recently fired Twitter employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company for failing to receive the 60-day notice required by US law for mass layoffs, according to the text of the claim consulted by AFP.

Musk complains

To finance the Twitter purchase, Musk heavily borrowed the company, whose financial health is already fragile after posting significant losses in the first two quarters of the year.

Musk, a 51-year-old South African-born engineer with US and Canadian citizenship and also head of Tesla y SpaceXtook loans worth 13,000 million dollars, which will have to be repaid by Twitter and not by him.

He also sold about $15.5 billion of his shares in Tesla twice, in April and August, and backed $12.5 billion in loans with his shares in the automaker.

On Friday, Musk blamed Twitter’s falling revenue on “a group of activists who put pressure on advertisers even though nothing changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.”

“It’s really nonsense! They are trying to destroy free speech in America,” he added.

Advertisements are Twitter’s main source of income and Musk has tried to calm things down by ensuring that the platform will not become “hell for everyone”.

But big companies like General Motors and Volkswagen stopped advertising on Twitter after the acquisition.

Civil rights groups have raised concerns that Musk allows unchecked misinformation and hate speech on the social network and reinstates blocked accounts, including that of former US President Donald Trump, who was expelled shortly after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill. on January 6, 2021.

Musk announced that he will form a committee to assess the social network’s future policy on posts and the reinstatement of blocked accounts.

One of the main ideas raised by Musk since his takeover is the establishment of a subscription of eight dollars a month that allows users to have their account certified and be less exposed to advertising.

But this project has raised a lot of criticism and reluctance, especially among users who already have an authenticated account.

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