The social network Twitter fired half of its 7,500 employees on Friday when new owner Elon Musk carried out a radical overhaul a week after taking over the company.
An internal document seen by the AFP news agency says the layoffs affected “about 50%” of employees, who were immediately denied access to corporate computers and work email.
Redundant employees around the world took to Twitter to express their displeasure or disbelief at what was happening and greet the Silicon Valley company.
“[Šorīt] when I woke up, I found that my time on Twitter was over. I am deeply shocked. I deny, “said Michelle Austin, Twitter’s former director of public policy for the US and Canada.
In view of the upcoming layoffs, Twitter has shut down access to its offices around the world, asking employees to stay home on Friday and wait for an email about their future fate.
“It’s a pretty inhumane way of dealing with people. It sounds greedy, they’re trying to save money at all costs,” said one of the fired employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The layoffs are part of Musk’s attempts to find ways to pay for his $ 44 billion Twitter acquisition, which has already seen him take on billions of dollars in debt and sell $ 15.5 billion worth of shares. in his electric car company Tesla.
Musk is looking for new ways to monetize his purchased Twitter, one of which is an eight-dollar monthly fee for verified accounts.
