OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
New Twitter CEO Elon Musk has made a subtle but potentially telling change to his profile that may signal tough times ahead for him and for the remaining staff at the company.
Shortly after Musk took over earlier this month, he changed his profile to say “Chief Twit.” But over the weekend, he changed his location to read “Hell” — after getting no small amount of pushback and grief for laying off roughly half of the platform’s 7,500 employees worldwide. He also updated his profile to read, “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator.”
The SpaceX and Tesla founder and CEO, meanwhile, has also been attempting to assure advertisers and users that he is not sacking content moderation on the platform. In fact, according to a report over the weekend, Musk did not lay off any of the approximately 2,000 content moderation staff.
“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone [who] exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required,” he explained on the platform after locking out all employees on Friday following an email sent to every staffer warning them of what was coming a day earlier.
Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.
Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
Still, Musk is facing a lawsuit from at least four former employees who claim he violated state law by not giving them enough warning before laying them off.
In addition, Musk also reminded platform users that content moderation was not going away.
“Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged. In fact, we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press,” he tweeted Friday.
Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.
In fact, we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
Regarding the layoffs, The Daily Caller noted further:
Despite the mass layoffs, the platform’s 2000 content moderators were mostly “not impacted,” according to Twitter’s Head of Safety and Integrity Yoel Roth. He added that the daily volume of “moderation actions” is the same under Musk as it was under the previous leadership.
As the midterms approach, Roth also stated that combatting “harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote” remains Twitter’s “top priority.”
Here are the facts about where Twitter’s Trust & Safety and moderation capacity stands today:
tl;dr: While we said goodbye to incredibly talented friends and colleagues yesterday, our core moderation capabilities remain in place.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 4, 2022
Before making his statement, Musk said that Twitter experienced a “massive drop in revenue” after left-wing “activist groups” pressured advertisers to leave the platform, accusing them of “trying to destroy free speech in America.”
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.
Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
On Saturday, founder and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologized to the staff who were terminated, claiming he grew the company too fast.
“Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient,” Dorsey said. “They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. 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,” he continued. “I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment…or ever…and I understand.”
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. 💙
— jack (@jack) November 5, 2022
Regardless of his assurances, there have been unhinged attacks against Musk and his team, including from President Joe Biden, who accused the new CEO of “buying an outfit that sends and spews lies all across the world” during a fundraiser in Illinois Friday evening. “There’s no editors anymore in America.”
“How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake? What is at stake? So there’s a lot going on, a lot going on. But we have an enormous opportunity, enormous opportunity,” Biden added.
Many users, however, pushed back on the detractors and encouraged Musk to move forward with what they see as needed changes in how content is viewed.
“It’s time to stop appeasing the activists because they will stop at nothing to hurt Twitter regardless of what you do,” conservative Ian Miles Cheong said in response, prompting Musk to reply, “You’re right.”
“Dear @elonmusk: You have nearly 114,000,000 Twitter followers. Name and shame the advertisers who are succumbing to the advertiser boycotts. So we can counter-boycott them. And get your $8 monthly subscription going asap. So we can start to make-up for lost revenue now,” Mike Davis said.
“Glad to see you finally realize how fascist the lunatic left is. Let the Conservatives back on Twitter, get rid of all algorithms and shadow bans, etc, on us – and we’ll bring our advertising dollars with us. Our spending power is enormous,” the popular Catturd account noted as well.
