On Friday, Nov. 4, Twitter laid off about half of its employees. This came after billionaire Elon Musk took over the company and announced that Twitter was losing over $4 million per day. As a result, it was forced to cut costs.
However, Musk defended the layoffs, stating that the affected employees were given generous severance packages.
“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” he tweeted. “Everyone [that] exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.”
This has not suppressed the anger of the former employees, who have reportedly filed a class action lawsuit against the company for violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. This law requires employers to give a 60-day notice of a mass layoff.
Even after cutting half of its employees, Twitter continues to lose money due to the backlash against Musk becoming CEO. In turn, he has blamed activist groups for damaging the company.
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” Musk tweeted. “Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
He did not reveal how much revenue was lost from the pullback in advertisements.
In response to these layoffs, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey expressed his apologies 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,” he wrote in a tweet. “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…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.”
However, Twitter has begun to reach out to dozens of employees who were laid off, asking them to return to work. These individuals were either let go mistakenly or deemed crucial for the company’s growth under Musk.
These layoffs mark the beginning of many changes in the company. Twitter has also announced that it will begin to implement a new subscription plan for the blue verification checkmark. Users will have to pay $7.99 per month through the new monthly subscription service Twitter Blue, but it has been delayed until after the midterm elections.
“Power to the people,” the announcement of Twitter Blue said. “Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.”
Since Musk’s takeover, the company has introduced rapid developments, hoping to make up for the lost revenue. However, these measures have divided public opinion on how to feel about the new leadership.
