The claim comes (on Twitter, of course) from Richie Assaly, digital producer for the Toronto Star, who says he previously worked as a member of the editorial team. Assaly says “team leaders, management and curators are posting that they’ve been fired.” The move, if true, “will make Twitter noisier, more dangerous and less interesting,” he argues. Looks like Elon Musk fired his entire team of editors. These were the people who countered misinformation, built conversations through the Explore page, and helped make Twitter an unparalleled source for breaking news. This will make Twitter noisier, more dangerous and less interesting — Richie Assaly (@rdassaly) November 4, 2022 Musk, in his tweet accusing “activist groups” of pressuring advertisers to pull off Twitter, causing a “massive” drop in revenue, insisted: “Nothing has changed with content retention.” Updated at 16:40 GMT Important events BETA filters Key Events (27) Twitter (29) Elon Musk (22) United Kingdom (17) USA (15) Bank of England (7)
The NAACP is urging all companies to stop advertising on Twitter
The NAACP has called for a complete advertising boycott of Twitter. Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, who met with Elon Musk on Tuesday, issued a statement calling on all companies to stop advertising on the platform: It is unethical, dangerous and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, voter denial and conspiracy theories. Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, racial slurs have increased and conspiracy theories have spread. When we met with Elon Musk, he made commitments that gave us cautious optimism, but until steps are taken to make Twitter a safe space, companies cannot in good conscience put their money behind Twitter. Twitter needs to win over its advertisers by creating a platform that protects our democracy and rids itself of any content or account that spews hate and misinformation. Any account promoting hate, voter denial, and any other form of misinformation or misinformation is not allowed back on Twitter. As we did in 2020 for Facebook, the NAACP will meet with advertisers privately to discuss their ongoing relationship with Twitter. Unlike Elon Musk’s previous ventures, this shouldn’t be rocket science.” Updated at 21:18 GMT Some details from a New York Times report on accidental mass terminations:
The layoffs were reportedly so chaotic that “in a late-night meeting about Twitter’s Blue subscription product, at least one employee was locked out of company systems during the call.”
For the laid-off workers, “access was cut off in a staggered and seemingly arbitrary manner,” the report said. “Some people received text messages from colleagues saying they had been logged out of some work apps, but were temporarily able to open their email or work apps, before eventually losing access as well.”
Updated at 21:19 GMT Eddie Perez, the former director of Twitter’s civic integrity group who resigned in September, told The Associated Press that he feared mass layoffs so close to the midterms could allow misinformation to “spread like wildfire,” especially in post-election period when votes are still being counted: “I find it hard to believe that it doesn’t have a substantial impact on their ability to manage the volume of misinformation out there,” he said, adding that there simply may not be enough staff to compensate for it. Perez is now a board member at a non-profit election integrity organization, the OSET Institute. He warned that “some candidates may not concede and some may claim electoral irregularities and this is likely to create a new cycle of fakers”. This is an important point. The Twitter “curation” team includes many former journalists, and the team has had a major impact in highlighting reliable, authoritative content from responsible news sources, before disinformation and debunking. Firing them before an election is dumb, dumb. https://t.co/Xfhi09L9Ij — Edward Perez (@eddie1perez) November 4, 2022 Updated at 20:58 GMT Elon Musk responded to a tweet criticizing the platform’s ad system, saying he “agreed” that “Twitter has the worst ad platform of any social media company.” The tweet he was responding to said that Twitter’s AD roi is so terrible it’s basically a black hole. Musk, who is overseeing mass layoffs today, said he is “working on it.” CNN has some details on Elon Musk’s appearance at an investment conference in New York on Friday morning, in which he largely ignored the furor over Twitter and talked warmly about electric cars and spaceships. In what the network says was “a friendly interview” with financier Ron Barron, a prominent shareholder in Musk’s electric car company Tesla, the billionaire talked about his ambition to lower the cost of his vehicles and one day reach the Mars through his SpaceX venture. Elon Musk speaks Friday at the Baron investment conference in Manhattan. Photo: Johnny Wolf Studio/AP In brief comments on Twitter’s $44 billion purchase, Musk said, “I tried to get out of the deal,” then added, “I think there’s tremendous potential … and I think it could be one of the most valuable companies in the world”. Baron, according to CNN, said Musk had fired “half of Twitter,” and Musk nodded, though he did not comment on the remark. He appeared to see the layoffs as necessary for a company that, like other social media companies, faced “revenue challenges” before his takeover as advertisers review spending amid fears of a recession. Musk acknowledged that “some major advertisers have stopped spending on Twitter” in the week since he bought the company, but did not expand on his tweet from earlier today accusing “activist groups” of driving away ad revenue.
Employment lawyer: Musk at risk of discrimination claims
The speed of the layoffs could expose Elon Musk and Twitter to discrimination claims if it turns out they disproportionately affected women, people of color or older workers, an employment lawyer told The Associated Press. Attorney Peter Rahbar, founder of the New York law firm Rahbar Group, told the agency that most employers are “very careful about making layoffs of this magnitude.” He said: “Firstly, they want to make sure that there is justification and secondly that a non-discriminatory process is used. And third, they want to do everything they can to not draw attention to it, for those reasons. “For some reason, [Musk] he wants to fire half the company without doing due diligence on what they do or who these people are and without any respect for the law.” Twitter is already facing a class-action lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Thursday by former employees who say it denied them the required notice period that they were going to lose their jobs.
Summary
It’s after 3pm in New York (where Elon Musk has spent much of the day) and time to take stock of what’s going on:
Thousands of former Twitter employees have learned they are being laid off as billionaire owner Elon Musk continues to transform his recently purchased titan. Musk posted a tweet accusing “activist groups” of pushing advertisers to pull from Twitter, causing a “massive drop in revenue.” The company attached and later removed a note to the post adding “context,” suggesting advertisers were concerned about the platform’s direction. Dozens of former employees (known as Tweeps), from many areas of the company, posted farewell messages, setting the hashtags #LoveWhereYouWorked and #OneTeam trending. Reports suggest that Musk has axed entire departments at Twitter, including the curation team that moderates misinformation. a human rights group; and another responsible for machine language ethics, transparency and accountability. Twitter is facing a class-action lawsuit from former employees who say they were not given enough notice under US federal law that they lost their jobs after they discovered they had been let go when their work accounts were closed.
Please stay tuned, lots of news coming on Twitter. Updated at 19:14 GMT Here are some more tweets from former Twitter employees who now know their fate. The first, from lawyer Shannon Raj Singh, claims the company’s entire human rights team has the ax to grind. Twitter has yet to confirm this. Yesterday was my last day on Twitter: the entire Human Rights team has been cut from the company. I am very proud of the work we have done to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, to protect those at risk in global conflicts and crises, including in Ethiopia, — Shannon Raj Singh (@ShannonRSingh) November 4, 2022 This, from Joan Deitchman, a former senior engineer, suggests that Twitter’s Machine Language (ML) Ethics, Transparency and Accountability team suffered a similar fate: Others paint a picture of widespread departures, and a large number of people from many areas of the Twitter empire are now looking for new beginnings. The hashtags #lovewhereyouworked and #oneteam are trending. Looks like I’m unemployed. I just logged out remotely from my work laptop and was removed from Slack. #OneTeam forever. I loved you all so much. So sad it had to end like this 💔 — Simon Balmain (@SBkcrn) November 4, 2022 Well, my entire team just got locked out. officially ex-Tweep. it’s been a crazy ride 🫡💙 #OneTeam — neeks (@neeks_cap) November 4, 2022 Twitter is so special. After 4 years, I leave with the most fulfilling 💙, experiences I never imagined and unbreakable bonds with so many Tweeps. My head is held high, knowing that I gave it my all. @TwitterComms: We have so…
