OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Billionaire Elon Musk is taking heat for laying off roughly half of Twitter’s 7,500 worldwide employees on Friday, but he’s since defended his action.
“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.
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
He added that “Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged,” while noting that “hateful speech” on the platform had “declined below prior norms” since he acquired the platform, contrary to many expectations.
The Daily Caller adds:
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
The remarks by the current and former CEO of the platform come as Musk will try to turn around Twitter’s performance after it has failed to turn a profit for years.
But already, there have been unhinged attacks against Musk and his team, including from President Joe Biden, who accused Musk 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.
After several advertisers suspended their ads on the platform, Musk threatened to go nuclear on those groups who pushed for them to leave.
As advertisers have begun to question their relationships with Twitter, after the new CEO has taken control, he said that caving to the left boycotts will have a “thermonuclear” reaction and he will name and shame those companies.
“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,” he noted on Twitter.
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
“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 makeup 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.
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.
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) November 4, 2022
