The social network Twitter loses four million dollars (about four million euros) a day, which justifies the dismissal of staff, said the new owner, the billionaire Elon Musk.
Without specifying the total number of layoffs, Musk justified the decision, in a message posted on that network: “there is no remedy when the company is losing about four million a day.”
According to the US press, more than 3,700 workers will be laid off, which represents more than half of the company’s global workforce.
On Friday, Musk had already indicated that Twitter had recorded a drastic drop in revenue, due to the departure of several advertisers due to “activist groups” that allegedly pressured companies to advertise.
As for the laid-off employees, Musk said they were all offered compensation equal to three months’ salary, or “50% more than legally required.”
However, some workers have already sued the company for unfair dismissal, since they did not receive the 60-day notice required by current labor legislation in San Francisco, where Twitter is based.
On the content moderation policy, Musk said it “remains absolutely unchanged,” adding: “Contrary to what you may read in the press, we’ve seen at certain points in the week that hate speech has dropped below our previous standards.
The businessman has defended an absolutist vision of freedom of expression that critics say could lead to a resurgence of abuses such as harassment, hate speech or disinformation.
Several groups have already decided to suspend advertising on Twitter, including US agri-food giant General Mills, US carmaker General Motors and German competitor Volkswagen.
Source: TSF
