Elon Musk latest news: Twitter staff find laptops wiped overnight as layoffs begin

The billionaire fired employees across Twitter on Friday, a week after the world’s richest person closed his protracted $44bn deal for the San Francisco-based company.

The mass layoffs came as Mr Musk admitted that “a number of major advertisers have stopped spending on Twitter” since his takeover, with firms such as GM, Audi and General Mills pausing their advertising after the takeover.

A lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of one employee who was laid off and three others who were locked out of their work accounts. It alleges Twitter violated the law by not providing the required notice.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification statute requires employers with at least 100 workers to disclose layoffs involving 500 or more employees, regardless of whether a company is publicly traded or privately held, as Twitter is now.

Twitter filed notifications late Friday in California for its offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose. The layoffs affected 983 employees in the state, according to the filings. Twitter said it will continue to pay wages and benefits to the workers through Jan. 4 and employees were notified on Friday.

The layoffs affected Twitter’s offices around the world. In the United Kingdom, it would be required by law to give employees notice, said Emma Bartlett, a partner specializing in employment and partnership law at CM Murray LLP.

The speed of the layoffs could also open Musk and Twitter up to discrimination claims if it turns out, for instance, that they disproportionally affected women, people of color or older workers.

Twitter’s employees have been expecting layoffs since Elon Musk took the helm. He 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 took to the platform to express support for each other — often simply tweeting blue heart emojis to signify its blue bird logo — and salute emojis in replies to each other.

A Twitter manager said many employees found out they had been laid off when they could no longer log into the company’s systems. The manager said the way the layoffs were conducted showed a “lack of care and thoughtfulness.”

The manager, who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for job security, said managers were not given any notice about who would be getting laid off.

“For me as a manager, it’s been excruciating because I had to find out about what my team was going to look like through tweets and through texting and calling people,” the employee said. “That’s a really hard way to care for your people. And managers at Twitter care a lot about their people.”

Elon Musk has defended sacking half of Twitter’s almost 8,000 workers, saying “unfortunately, there is no choice”.

Mr Musk insisted that the platform’s commitment to moderation remained “absolutely unchanged” following reports that the company’s misinformation team was laid off.

He tweeted: “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4m (£3.5m) a day.

“Everyone exited was offered three months of severance, which is 50 per cent more than legally required.”

Irish premier Micheal Martin has criticised the way in which staff were let go at Twitter, saying that it was “not acceptable” and was “fairly unprecedented”.

“We are concerned, and our concern is there for the employees of Twitter,” he told reporters in Co Tipperary.

“What I would say is no matter who you are or what sector you are in, one must always treat people with dignity and respect, and the employees at Twitter deserve to be treated with respect,” he added.

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The UK government has been urged to intervene to stop Twitter creating a “digital P&O”, as the company carries out sweeping job cuts to save money.

The social media company began widespread staff cuts around the world on Friday, with suggestions as many as half of its more than 7,500 staff could be axed in what the company called “an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path”.

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Hours after Elon Musk decided to lay off almost 50 per cent of Twitter staff, the employees of the social media giant have described moments they realised their access to emails and laptops had been blocked.

The employees were sent a memo on Thursday informing them that they would receive an email in their private accounts if they had been laid off.

Chris Younie whose bio reads “Entertainment Partnerships @Twitter” wrote: “Well this isn’t looking promising. Can’t log into emails. Mac wont turn on. But so grateful this is happening at 3am. Really appreciate the thoughtfulness on the timing front guys. Meanwhile to everyone else at Twitter, you’re the best. #OneTeam.”

Another employee, Jaseem Abid wrote: “Woke up to no slack/gmail/office access and laptop remotely wiped out. Got fired without even a confirmation email while sleeping? There is always a new low.”

US president Joe Biden said on Friday that Elon Musk had purchased a social media platform in Twitter that spews lies across the world.

Twitter laid off half its workforce on Friday but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.

Biden said at a fundraiser: “And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends – that spews lies all across the world… There’s no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters earlier that Biden had been clear about the need to reduce hate speech and misinformation.

“That belief extends to Twitter, it extends to Facebook and any other social media platforms where users can spread misinformation,” she said.

Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a “hellscape.” But major advertisers have expressed apprehension about his takeover for months.

Twitter may have lost more than a million accounts since Tesla chief Elon Musk closed his deal to buy the microblogging platform for $44bn and took over the company, a new analysis suggests.

Since the Tesla titan took over Twitter on 27 October, over 850,000 accounts were deactivated and nearly 500,000 likely suspended, according to Bot Sentinel, a firm that tracks inauthentic behaviour on Twitter, MIT Technology Review first reported.

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Elon Musk blamed “activist groups” for a “massive drop” in revenue at Twitter, as his company began drastic job cuts.

The billionaire began firing workers at offices around the world, raising grave concerns about the social media platform as a source of reliable information just days ahead of the US midterm elections.

The speed and size of the cuts also opened Musk and Twitter to legal action. At least one lawsuit has been filed in San Francisco alleging that the company has broken the law by not providing the required notice.

There are suggestions that as many as half of its 7,500-plus staff could be axed in what the company called “an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path”.

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