The Implications of Elon Musk's Announcement on Twitter's Layoffs

Elon Musk has made his mark since taking control of Twitter by firing nearly half its employees with little warning, citing fears from advertisers that his plans to scale back misinformation and security protections will cause their ads to drop off the platform.

Reportedly, these cuts include product trust and safety teams; policy, curatration, and vital engineering groups. However, some have expressed their concerns that such moves could make it more challenging to prevent disinformation during elections.

1. Reputation Damage

Elon Musk promised when he took control of Twitter he would tackle its reputation and safety issues, firing top executives such as CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal; several top privacy and security executives, along with its head of trust and safety have left. Recently it was announced that more than half of their workforce will be laid off; these cuts may impact key projects like moderation verification and other forms of security measures.

The decision has generated widespread dismay among tech industry members and raised fears for Twitter's future. Furthermore, advertisers have found it increasingly challenging to work with the platform since advertisers paused spending as soon as it was announced; many remain uncertain whether Twitter will protect their brands against violence, misinformation and election-related harassment.

Some employees have expressed worry over their future with the company after being informed they might lose their jobs unless they commit to working harder. A memo sent out by management stated that its new focus would be "hardcore", requiring employees to put in long hours with high intensity work environments. Employees had until Friday to sign a form stating their acceptance or face termination and three month severance pay.

Many employees who were laid off reported working on teams focused on human rights, global conflicts and bias-checking algorithms for bias on Facebook. One member of Facebook's Civic Integrity team, Eddie Perez, warned that cutting staff so close to midterm elections could increase disinformation by enabling political ad buys with false or misleading data to appear alongside tweets supporting candidates with misinformed tweets supporting them.

Fired employees could turn away from Twitter altogether and force a further decline of talent, further hampering its ability to compete as competitors such as Meta grow in popularity.

2. Loss of Expertise

As Twitter prepares to lay off many of their rank-and-file workers, it will lose an enormous amount of expertise in key areas - engineers who design and maintain automated systems that analyze 37.5 million tweets posted per hour, staffers who set policies, as well as content moderators employees who continuously review posts for offensive material or potential threats such as offensive language or hate speech.

Uncertain is also what effect these layoffs will have on security at Twitter; last week, major advertisers such as General Motors and Pfizer suspended ads due to fears that Musk would reduce misinformation and security protections on Twitter - which accounts for 90% of revenue at Twitter.

Musk had pledged that when he purchased Twitter, he would uphold its election-integrity measures - measures designed to protect voters by not placing ads near content that may inflame or influence voters - however when he fired the head of public policy team and reduced trust and safety employees by 15% he appeared to break those promises. Some experts claimed he had abandoned them.

Civil rights activists and fact-checking experts are concerned that cutting Twitter staff may leave it more susceptible to dangerous disinformation and conspiracy theories just days before midterm elections. To combat this threat, civil rights advocates and fact-checking experts are calling upon Twitter to rehire all staff it cut and restore funding for fact checking and moderation services which were already compromised due to cuts made within engineering, product, and management teams.

On Thursday evening, Twitter employees began sharing messages of solidarity using the workplace hashtag #OneTeam online. Furthermore, some employees confirmed to Recode that their email and Slack accounts had been locked out by management.

Many employees were informed of their layoffs via an email on Friday morning, with many receiving three months' severance pay and eligibility for benefits. Many may face significant salary reduction due to this sudden change at their company, potentially leaving them in dire financial straits. Furthermore, employment lawyers caution that such dramatic shifts may raise legal concerns which may prompt lawsuits from former workers who were let go.

3. Disappointment

Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion last week with the intention of "fixing its broken parts." Less than one week into his takeover, that appears to be exactly what's happening - starting by firing Twitter employees from rank and file positions and disbanding its content moderation division.

Twitter's Compliance Team, responsible for monitoring tweets for violence and hate speech and violating their terms of service, had recently been reduced from 7500 employees to around 500 workers as part of this move, raising fears that Musk's goal to avoid anarchy on his platform will soon come true.

Twitter's layoffs have resulted in employees filing suit and advertisers opting-out, leading to calls for advertisers to boycott the platform. Announced via company-wide email Thursday afternoon, these layoffs informed employees they'd receive an update by Friday morning as to whether or not they'd been retained or laid off; by late Thursday evening some employees reported being locked out of work email accounts and Slack platforms without receiving official confirmation on whether they'd remain employees.

Some of the affected workers are well-known Musk supporters; however, even dedicated employees could find themselves at risk if they can't meet tough deadlines. According to an email sent from Twitter to the founder of editorial newsletter service Revue, some targeted engineers had been identified as being "extremely hardcore", being asked to commit to long hours with increased intensity at high intensity levels in order to meet an impending deadline. Twitter offices remained closed on Friday due to this development, and said in its email they look forward to sharing "our vision soon!"

Twitter's layoffs have also caused problems as there hasn't been any plan or timeline outlined for how they will improve or save the website, which can only exacerbate employees and shareholders concerns as Twitter continues posting massive losses.

As Twitter reduces costs, there is increasing concern that they will no longer be able to compete effectively against their rivals and sustain the status quo - potentially risking their position as the go-to place for public service providers such as schools, police departments, utility companies and news outlets to share vital information with the public.

4. Legal Issues

As a result of Twitter's massive layoffs, employees are facing legal issues. According to employment lawyers, mass firings could have potentially violated California law as it requires companies to give workers 60 days' notice before being laid off, said Emma Bartlett from CM Murray LLP's San Francisco office. She noted that firing many employees within 24 hours may trigger some type of government requirement to provide notice, according to California statute.

Early November, a group of former Twitter employees filed a class action lawsuit alleging the company violated federal and California law by failing to notify employees about changes and updates as promised. This case has been assigned to US District Judge Loretta Lynch for adjudication; her decision could set precedent and affect whether similar lawsuits against Twitter will be granted in future cases.

If employees who were fired are successful in winning their cases against the company, they could receive substantial damages from it. Mass firings could also expose it to discrimination claims should it appear they disproportionally affected women, people of color and older workers.

As soon as he became CEO of Twitter in late October, Musk quickly changed the company by purging much of its top leadership and cutting thousands of workers - prompting outrage among free speech advocates, who felt Twitter had shut out conservative voices by refusing to reinstate banned accounts and charging users $8 a month for identity verification which many on the left oppose. This move created widespread outrage.

As of Friday afternoon, Twitter employees could face job loss according to an internal memo sent out in an internal meeting. Workers warned in this memo to expect long hours and intense work; workers also started receiving emails warning them their laptops were being remotely wiped and access to Slack and Gmail was being restricted, according to reports by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Twitter employees who were let go due to global office closure are unlikely to find jobs easily, with likely only engineers and support staff remaining within US borders compared with most employees currently located elsewhere overseas.