Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, defended the decision on Saturday, claiming that there was 'no choice because the firm was losing millions of dollars daily. This comes amid a wave of widespread layoffs at Twitter around the world, including in India, and the outrage that followed.
Elon Musk made the decision to fire over 50% of the Twitter workers. After overnight limiting access to the company's headquarters and internal systems, employees were notified by email of their employment status.
To announce their departure, employees are tweeting using the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked and a saluting emoji. Elon justified the choice by claiming that the business was losing $4 million daily. Three months' worth of severance pay was provided to everyone who lost their jobs.
In contrast to a profit of $66 million during the same period last year, the corporation reported a net loss of $270 million for the second quarter that concluded on June 30, 2022. There are rumors that up to half of Twitter's 8,000 jobs could be eliminated. The website has trouble turning a profit. Making a dent in the salary cost is one method to solve the issue.
Simon Balmain, a senior community manager for Twitter in the UK, said that he had been signed out of both his work laptop and the Slack chat app, leading him to fear that he had been fired.
After already terminating some employees, several Twitter employees on Thursday night filed a class action complaint, according to CNN, alleging that Twitter violated the federal and California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act).
According to the WARN Act, if a mass layoff "affects 50 or more employees at a single site of employment," the employer has to give 60 days written notice in advance. Additionally, Twitter has let go of the majority of its over 200 Indian staff. According to sources, the engineering, sales and marketing, and communications teams will all be affected".
Following Elon Musk's takeover of the social media company, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey finally spoke out about the widespread layoffs. He stated, " 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 apologise for that.”
The cost-cutting comes in response to criticism of Twitter's efforts to collect money by putting up a proposal to charge $8 (£7) per month for a blue check-mark that says, "Verified."Those that pay could receive more promotion for their tweets and see fewer advertisements in addition to the verification badge.
Since a few years prior, Twitter has not turned a profit, and its monthly user base of around 300 million people has remained broadly stable. Experts cautioned that Twitter's ability to battle misinformation may be impacted by the dismissal of half of its workers, particularly with the US midterm elections set for next week.
