Tesla CEO Elon Musk is reportedly planning to lay off nearly 75% of Twitter's workforce once the billionaire finalizes the contentious deal with the bird app company. According to reports, this move will likely cause internal turmoil at Twitter.
According to the Washington Post, the agreement will significantly affect Twitter's ability to regulate harmful content and avoid data security crises.
Based on the same report, Elon Musk informed prospective investors in his deal to buy the company that he intended to sack nearly 7,500 employees, significantly lowering the company to a skeleton workforce of slightly more than 2,000.
By the end of next year, Twitter already intended to make significant cuts and reduce payroll by about $800 million, also according to the Post.
Why the Massive Cut?
The Twitter deal could be one of the roughest in recent memory. Both parties were involved in a series of legal scuffles after the Tesla CEO tried to back out of the deal, citing the prevalence of bots on Twitter. But Elon Musk has recently decided to proceed with the agreement, which is expected to be signed next week.
Elon Musk held a virtual town hall meeting with Twitter employees in June when the deal was still in its early stages. Employees were already doubtful whether Elon would lay off Twitter employees or change the company's approach to moderating and policing the social media platform's content at the time.
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Perceived Implications
These reservations are beginning to materialize in light of recent reports which suggest that such widespread layoffs would affect the experience for millions of users. Pertaining to one data scientist, users of Twitter would be more vulnerable to hacks and exposed to objectionable content like child pornography.
Forbes emphasizes that the company's planned cuts apparently include vital infrastructure such as data centers, which might make securing data more complicated and defending against security risks for Twitter's more than 200 million estimated daily active users.
According to GeekWire, any future cuts could affect Twitter employees in the Seattle area, depending on which services and job types are affected. The company first established itself in the city in 2012, and a year later, the office had nearly doubled in size to nearly 100 staff members.
It is worth noting that Musk came into the deal with a lot of ambitions, and it is unclear how he will manage to incorporate his lofty plans of growing the business with a skeletal workforce of only 2000 people.
According to the Gizmodo report, Musk and tech investor Jason Calanis discussed increasing the number of verified users, giving paid users better perks, and paying a "Creator Team" to publish content on Twitter first.
Another concern is whether a small workforce can handle the escalating problems in the Twitter space. This news is certain to generate additional debate in the coming days, as well as possible action or even employee protests. Could planning to gut 75% of the workforce be Musk's Hail Mary shot at running away from the deal?
Another issue hounding Musk's purchase of the social media platform is Washington's significant focus on the world's richest man's recent move. Gizmodo details that Musk has recently stated his intentions to reintroduce the accounts of far-right figures such as former President Donald Trump. The Biden administration is concerned that these actions will pose a threat to national security.
Washington has not implied it yet, but they could be on the lookout for Musk after the billionaire's recent pro-China stances.
