Washington [US], November 5 (ANI): Days after taking control of Twitter, Elon Musk, on Friday, began firing hundreds of employees in departments across the company. As per Tech Crunch, key Twitter teams including Human Rights, Accessibility, Al Ethics and Curation have been axed so far by the Tesla CEO.
The particular news was also confirmed by fired employees on social media. Many posted farewell messages confirming that they have been let go under the mass layoff at Twitter by the microblogging site’s new boss Musk.
Human Rights
In a tweet, former Twitter Human Rights Counsel Shannon Raj Singh shared news that the company’s human rights team was eliminated on Friday. “Yesterday was my last day at Twitter: the entire Human Rights team has been cut from the company. I am enormously proud of the work we did to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, to protect those at-risk in global conflicts & crises including Ethiopia,Afghanistan, and Ukraine, and to defend the needs of those particularly at risk of human rights abuse by virtue of their social media presence, such as journalists & human rights defenders,” Shannon’s post on Twitter read. The team worked to protect users facing human rights violations around the globe, including activists, journalists and people affected by conflicts like the war in Ukraine.
Accessibility Experience
The news of axing of Accessibility Experience team of Twitter was confirmed by the former head of the particular department Gerard K. Cohen.
“I am officially no longer the Engineering Manager for the Accessibility Experience Team at Twitter. I have words.Along with me, my entire engineering team has been let go. Before I get into my own thoughts, I want to honor them. If you are looking to hire some brilliant accessibility engineers, keep reading,” he tweeted.
The team improved the product for people with disabilities. The team appears to have had a lot still in the works before it was disbanded, Tech Crunch reported.
Communications
It’s not yet clear what parts of Twitter’s communications team have been cut outright, but the cuts are deep enough that many prominent comms employees at the company were affected.
“Twitter is so special. After 4 yrs, I’m leaving with the fullest, experiences I never imagined, and unbreakable bonds with so many Tweeps. My head is held high, knowing I gave it my absolute all.@TwitterComms: We have so much to be proud of. Time to fly even higher! #OneTeam,” now former employee at Twitter Communications tweeted.
Machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability
Musk dissolved a team known internally as META, which was well-respected for its exploratory work in ethical AI and algorithmic transparency. Rumman Chowdhury, the team’s director, was eliminated, along with the team’s engineers and other members.
Curation
According to Tech Crunch, Curation team was also axed by Musk.The Curation team curated the moments tab, programmed the trending topics section, provided context on those topics and also handled live events. The team also worked to fight misinformation on the platform. Musk, on Saturday, defended his layoff decision as he stressed “unfortunately there is no choice”. He shared that Twitter “is losing $ 4 million a day.”
“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required (sic),” Musk tweeted amid wide criticism of how layoffs have been carried out within a week of acquisition. Musk had taken over the firm last week when three top executives – CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde – were asked to leave.
‘I own the responsibility’: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey apologizes amid mass layoffs under Elon Musk
Co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, issued an apology on Saturday to those who were working at present and had been laid off since Elon Musk’s takeover of the microblogging site.
In the midst of the massive layoffs at the San Francisco-based social media behemoth, Dorsey asserted that he was to blame for everyone’s present situation and that he was aware that many people were ‘angry’ with him. He expressed regret for growing the “company too quickly.” “Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment is. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that,” he wrote on Twitter.
While expressing his gratitude and love for every individual who has ever worked for Twitter, he added that he did not anticipate that sentiment to ever be reciprocated. “I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment…or ever…and I understand.”
As per the reports of the New York Post, Dorsey one of four co-founders of Twitter stepped down as CEO a year ago this month.
Dorsey created a social media business called Bluesky, a new kind of decentralised network that claims to give users and developers greater power, just a little over a week after his fellow billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter for an estimated $44 billion and started firing half the workforce. According to New York Post, Dorsey, who also founded the monetary-payment company Block, chose to roll over his $1 billion stake, or 18 million shares, in Twitter rather than cashing out.
Elon Musk started laying off Twitter employees on Friday. As per an unsigned internal memo seen by The Verge, Twitter employees were notified in the email that the layoffs were set to begin. Musk is expected to cut roughly half of Twitter’s roughly 7,500-person workforce. The layoff came a week after Musk became the Twitter owner. (ANI)
“Trash me all day, but it’ll cost USD 8”: Elon Musk on Twitter blue tick fee
Seems like Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk does not get affected by the criticism he has been receiving over his decision to charge Twitter users to get verified accounts. On Saturday, Musk took to Twitter and reiterated his stance on the blue tick fee.
“Trash me all day, but it’ll cost $8,” he tweeted.
After Musk became the new CEO of Twitter, reports circulated on social media that stated the microblogging site would charge USD 20 per month for blue verification badge. On Tuesday, Musk confirmed the reports and announced that the company will charge USD 8 a month for Twitter’s subscription service with priority in replies, mentions, and searches.
“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for USD 8/month,” he tweeted. However, Musk’s decision of implementing the blue tick fee did not go well with many.
The Twitter Blue subscription launched widely almost a year ago as a way to view ad-free articles from some publishers and make other tweaks to the app, such as a different color home screen icon.
Apart from “blue tick fee”, Musk has also been receiving a lot of hate on Twitter for laying off employees.
Defending his decision to fire employees, Musk said that it was needed as Twitter was losing more than USD 4 million per day. “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over USD 4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required,” Musk tweeted.
In April, Twitter accepted Musk’s proposal to buy and make the social media service private. However, Musk soon began sowing doubt about his intentions to follow through with the agreement, alleging that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.
In July, in a surprising turn of events, Musk who had long been showing his interest to buy Twitter terminated the deal. The Tesla CEO did so by alleging that Twitter violated their mutual purchase agreement by misrepresenting the number of spam and fake bot accounts on its platform.
After Musk put out the deal termination announcement, the market saw a sharp decline. Later, Twitter sued Musk accusing him of using bots as a pretext to exit a deal. Again, last week, Musk confirmed that he would move forward with the Twitter buyout at the originally agreed price of USD 54.20 per share. (ANI)
