Elon Musk fires Twitter employees who criticized him

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk continued to cut Twitter’s workforce in his third week of ownership of the social media company, firing employees who had criticized him and firing contractors.

Early Tuesday morning, Mr. Musk to fire nearly two dozen Twitter employees who had publicly and privately opposed him, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The billionaire, who completed a $44 billion takeover of Twitter last month, later confirmed the exits on the platform and mocked the former employees.

The layoffs followed cuts to Twitter’s contract staff over the weekend. Many of the contractors work in content moderation and data science and were fired without notice, five people familiar with the matter said.

Mr Musk has acted quickly to transform Twitter as he has painted a grim picture of his finances. He laid off half of the company’s 7,500 employees this month while urging the remaining employees to quickly build and launch new products. Last week, he said Twitter was facing the possibility of bankruptcy and needed to become more “hard core” to survive. Musk plans to reorganize the company to eliminate middle managers, six people familiar with the matter said.

At the same time, Mr. Musk tried to keep Twitter staff motivated. On Monday, he sent employees a brief message, which was reviewed by The New York Times, explaining that “exceptional amounts of stock would be awarded for exceptional performance.” Mr. Musk compared the structure to how things worked at SpaceX, his private rocket maker, but gave no further details.

Twitter is under financial strain as some advertisers have pulled out of it. Macy’s has halted its ad spend on the platform, a person familiar with the decision said. The fashion company Balenciaga has deleted its Twitter account. And Omnicom Media Group, whose agencies represent companies like PepsiCo and McDonald’s, urged its customers to cease operations on Twitter in a memo citing risks that “have risen sharply to a level most would find unacceptable said a person familiar with the memo. .

Twitter and Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The Platformer newsletter previously reported the contractor’s cuts.

Musk’s resignation followed a tweet posted Sunday in which he wrote that Twitter was “super slow in a lot of countries” because of how it handled data.

“This is wrong,” says Eric Frohnhoefer, a Twitter developer, responded. Mr. Musk invited Mr. Frohnhoefer to correct the mistake, and the two exchanged several messages.

Then Mr. tweeted. Musk on Monday that Mr. Frohnhoefer was “fired”. He later deleted the tweet.

Mr. Frohnhoefer did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Musk’s team was asked to sift through messages on Twitter’s internal chat platform and compile a list of employees who disobeyed, people briefed on the plan said. They also searched employee tweets, looking for criticism. Those deemed rule breakers received emails around 1:30 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday saying they had been fired, according to emails reviewed by The Times.

Several Twitter employees who shared news of Mr Frohnhoefer’s firing in internal chats were deleted, six people familiar with the events said. They were told they had been fired for “violation of company policy”, according to emails seen by The Times.

“I want to apologize for firing these geniuses,” Mr Musk tweeted sarcastic on tuesday. “Their immense talent will undoubtedly come in handy elsewhere.” In another tweethe mocked a former employee and suggested that the person’s Twitter posts about him were triggered by “a tragic case of Gilles de la Tourette in adults.”

Melissa Ingle, a data science contractor who worked to track down political disinformation, said she was not notified of any layoffs but lost access to her Twitter email and internal systems Saturday afternoon. Hours later, her contracting management company, Magnit, informed her that Twitter was in “a reprioritisation and savings exercise” and that her last day would be Monday, according to an email The Times had seen.

“As a contractor, I don’t get severance pay,” Ms Ingle said. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to pay the rent or take care of my kids.”

Magnit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some workers are concerned they won’t be reimbursed for work-related expense reports they submitted before the mass layoffs, two people familiar with the issue said. Some have accumulated thousands of dollars in expenses that have not been paid out, while others have been told that expenses that were not approved by hiring managers before the mass layoffs will not be reimbursed.

The remaining Twitter employees are bracing for a company-wide reorganization, which could take place before the end of the week, six people said. During the layoffs, Mr. Musk expelled many managers, creating a flatter structure. At his first meeting with employees on Thursday, Mr Musk said design, program management and engineering would report directly to him, according to a recording heard by The Times.

Tiffany Hu reporting contributed.