Musk fires thousands of Twitter employees, triggers doubts on content moderation

Gulf Today Report

After months of uncertainty, the axe has finally fallen on Twitter staff the world over. The new boss of the social media giant and the world’s richest man, the mercurial Elon Musk, started slashing thousands of jobs on financial grounds soon after he took over the helm of affairs – the firm was losing over $4 million daily, he said.

Musk has turfed out human rights, accessibility, AI ethics and curation teams at Twitter.

In one fell swoop, nearly 3,800 employees lost their jobs across the globe, including in India, where several sections were wound up, including the entire marketing and communications departments.

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The move, coming just ahead of the American midterm polls, has raised doubts about Twitter’s abilities on content moderation and fighting disinformation.

The layoffs are particularly dangerous ahead of the elections, as they could lay the ground for some groups to fall prey to violence inspired by hate speech that proliferates online.

Musk has given three months of severance pay to everyone who has been asked to go.

The San Francisco-based company told workers by email on Thursday that they would learn on Friday if they had been laid off, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, confirmed in a tweet.

No other social media platform comes close to Twitter as the go-to centrepoint for information. Many fear the downsizing will gut the social media platform and render it lawless.

The firm has seen a massive drop in revenues as activist groups pile on pressure on its advertisers.

Already several multinational firms have pulled ads from the social media giant. They include General Motors, Volkswagen, Audi, and Pfizer. United Airlines Holdings Inc, General Mills Inc have also paused advertising on Twitter, so has Mondelez International Inc.—the maker of Oreos.

Employees, surrounded by gloom and doubt, feel directionless at what is touted as a brutal step. Those who are not in the line of fire are equally nervy, wondering whether they are next.

Parag Agrawal

Musk 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 drew solace from each other.

President Joe Biden, at a campaign event in Illinois Friday night, said: "Now what are we all worried about? Elon Musk, who goes out and buys an outfit that sends and spews lies all across the world. ... How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?”