Elon Musk starts big round of layoffs at Twitter

Elon Musk has embarked on a major layoff at Twitter. Between Thursday and Friday, an unknown number of platform employees received an email about this. According to an employee who can keep his or her job, the layoffs are numerous.

It is currently unknown how many of the approximately 7,500 employees will be laid off. The Washington Post, which got hold of the email in question, spoke to several anonymous employees of the company and describes the number of layoffs as a ‘sharpening drop’. “They are falling in droves,” says one of those employees, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

It will become clear in the near future how many layoffs have actually occurred. Musk told potential investors he plans to lay off nearly 75 percent of the workforce, The Washington Post reported. Bloomberg Sources revealed that Musk denied that intention again. On Thursday, The Verge wrote that it would involve 3800 people, based on conversations with employees.

The newspaper also reports that employees received an email with the subject line ‘your role at Twitter’. Those who are fired will receive that e-mail at their personal e-mail address instead of their Twitter e-mail. Affected employees will lose all access to the email and internal Slack. The offices are also temporarily closed, even for those who will not be fired: “To ensure the safety of every employee, as well as Twitter systems and data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all access passes will be blocked. If you are on or on the road to an office, please return home.”

Musk has borrowed more than $12 billion to pay for Twitter, for which he paid a total of $44 billion. According to the newspaper, he would have previously admitted that he paid too much for the platform. Musk wants to make Twitter profitable, which it isn’t at the moment.