Elon Musk Denies Claims that He Will Lay Off Twitter Workers Before November

Elon Musk, Chief Twit, denied allegations made in a New York Times article published over the weekend that he planned to fire workers before Tuesday, November 1, preventing them from earning stock awards as part of their pay, as reported first by TechCrunch.

Musk responded with the statement "This is false" after deputy managing editor of ProPublica Eric Umansky tweeted that he was "making sure to fire people at Twitter before part of their year-end compensation kicks in on Tuesday."

However, the billionaire did not elaborate on which part of the statement was specifically false.

The New Chief Twit

A screenshot from the NYT article that was highlighted in Umansky's tweet claimed that stock grants make up a sizeable amount of an employee's income and that by terminating employees before that date, Musk may be able to avoid paying the grants.

Earlier reports also suggested that Musk will terminate 75% of Twitter employees, but last week, he denied those claims after paying a visit to the company's headquarters before his acquisition took place.

However, top Twitter executives such as CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett, and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde have reportedly been laid off.

Musk's $44 billion purchase of the social media company was finalized on Thursday. On Friday morning, the New York Stock Exchange, where Twitter has been traded since 2013, suspended trading its stock.

On November 8, the bird app will formally be delisted from the stock market.

Musk will purchase each share for $54.20, which will be given to current shareholders. However, Twitter's recent change to private status still brings uncertainty as to how it will impact current workers with stock grants, as noted by TechCrunch.

Chief Twit Shares a Conspiracy Theory

The richest man in the world also came under fire after sharing a conspiracy theory on his newly-owned platform. The conspiracy centered on the husband of US Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

But after a few hours, the Chief Twit eventually deleted his tweet. The conspiracy theory he tweeted is about the recent attack on Pelosi's husband, which also contains a link to the anti-LGBT media outlet in response to a tweet by Hillary Clinton.

This tweet came after Yoel Roth, Head of Safety and Integrity at Twitter, said that the app's policies on slurs and trolling campaigns have not changed.

Musk is known to be a staunch supporter of free speech and his previous statements to reconsider Twitter's content moderation methods and lifting former President Donald Trump's permanent ban can attest to that.

However, he wrote in an open letter that he doesn't want the platform to become a "free-for-all-hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences."

His earlier "free speech for all" statements alarmed activist groups, who claimed that Musk would transform Twitter into a "megaphone to extremists" by rolling back policies that banned users who propagate hate speech and false information.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jace Dela Cruz