{"id":22742,"date":"2022-11-21T09:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T09:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul"},"modified":"2022-11-21T09:45:45","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T09:45:45","slug":"twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul","title":{"rendered":"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>Twitter sacked half of its 7 500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubled company just a week after his blockbuster takeover.<\/p>\n

An internal document seen by AFP said \u201croughly 50%\u201d of employees were impacted and would be denied access to company computers and email on an immediate basis.<\/p>\n

Workers around the world were shown the door and took to Twitter to vent their frustration or disbelief and say goodbye to one of Silicon Valley\u2019s most iconic companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWoke up to the news that my time working at Twitter has come to an end. I am heartbroken. I am in denial,\u201d said Michele Austin, Twitter\u2019s director of public policy for the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarding Twitter\u2019s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M\/day,\u201d Musk tweeted Friday evening in his first comment on the subject, 24 hours after the company\u2019s initial email notifying employees of forthcoming layoffs.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the layoffs, Twitter closed access to its offices worldwide, asking employees to stay at home to await news of their fate through an email. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty inhumane way to treat people. It seems like a mercenary effort, they\u2019re trying to save money at all cost,\u201d said one dismissed employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

The cull is part of Musk\u2019s push to find ways to pay for the mammoth $44 billion deal for which he took on billions of dollars in debt and sold $15.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla, his electric car company.<\/p>\n

Company sources said that Musk\u2019s teams were imposing a furious pace on the remaining employees, bringing in Tesla developers to oversee the work of \u201cTweeps,\u201d the inhouse name for Twitter workers.<\/p>\n

Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief, is said to owe $1 billion in annual interest alone to pay for a deal he tried to wiggle out from almost as soon as he made it in April.<\/p>\n

Musk has been scrambling to find new ways for Twitter to make money after his mammoth buyout, including an idea to charge users $8 a month for verified accounts.<\/p>\n

The moves would help overcome the potential loss of advertisers, Twitter\u2019s main source of revenue, with many of the world\u2019s top brands putting their ad buys on hold, spooked by Musk\u2019s well-known disdain for content controls.<\/p>\n

\u2018Messed up!<\/p>\n

The mercurial tycoon on Friday complained on Twitter of a \u201cmassive drop in revenue\u201d that he blamed on \u201cactivist groups\u201d that were pressuring advertisers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They\u2019re trying to destroy free speech in America,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

This appeared to refer to Musk\u2019s recent meeting with civil rights groups in which he heard concerns that Twitter would open the floodgates to hate speech a week before midterm election in the United States.<\/p>\n

In an effort to soothe nerves, Musk had vowed that Twitter will not become a \u201cfree-for-all hellscape,\u201d but since taking over the company he also has shared a tweet relaying a conspiracy theory about an assault on the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are witnessing the real time destruction of one of the world\u2019s most powerful communication systems. Elon Musk is an erratic billionaire who is dangerously unqualified to run this platform,\u201d said Nicole Gill, Executive Director of Accountable Tech. She was part of a coalition of 60 rights groups calling on Friday for a boycott by advertisers of the Musk-owned platform.<\/p>\n

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, a leading civil rights organization, said it would be \u201cimmoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism and conspiracy theories.
\n\u201cUntil actions are taken to make this a safe space, we call on companies to pause all advertising on Twitter,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Twitter head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tried to soothe concerns, saying that about 15% of his department had been let go in comparison to the 50-percent cuts company-wide. The site\u2019s \u201ccore moderation capabilities remain in place,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n

Though extremely influential with opinion-makers and celebrities, the California company has long struggled to generate profit and has failed to keep pace with Facebook, Instagram and TikTok in gaining new users.<\/p>\n

In the sign that matters were not improving, data showed Twitter may have lost more than a million users since Musk took over. Estimates from Bot Sentinel, a firm that tracks Twitter accounts, suggested that more than 875,000 users deactivated their accounts between October 27 and November 1, while half a million more were suspended.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. Twitter sacked half of its 7 500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubled company just a week after his blockbuster takeover. An internal document seen by AFP said \u201croughly 50%\u201d of employees were impacted and would be denied access to company computers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,245,241,2008],"class_list":["post-22742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius","tag-twitter"],"yoast_head":"\nTwitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twitter sacked half of its 7 500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubl ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Twitter sacked half of its 7 500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubl ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-21T09:30:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-21T09:45:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-21T09:30:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-21T09:45:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul\"},\"wordCount\":795,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\",\"Twitter\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul\",\"name\":\"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul - Mauritius\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-21T09:30:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-21T09:45:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Twitter sacked half of its 7 500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubl ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768,\"caption\":\"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/\",\"name\":\"Mauritius\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul - Mauritius","description":"Twitter sacked half of its 7 500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubl ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul","og_description":"Twitter sacked half of its 7 500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubl ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul","og_site_name":"Mauritius","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-11-21T09:30:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-21T09:45:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul","datePublished":"2022-11-21T09:30:51+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-21T09:45:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul"},"wordCount":795,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Mauritius","Mauritius","Twitter"],"articleSection":["all news","miscellaneous"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul","name":"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul - Mauritius","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-21T09:30:51+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-21T09:45:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Twitter sacked half of its 7 500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubl ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669010486.27.jpg","width":1024,"height":768,"caption":"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-sacks-half-of-staff-as-musk-launches-overhaul#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Twitter sacks half of staff as Musk launches overhaul"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/","name":"Mauritius","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}