Elon Musk said on Friday evening: “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day."
(Brian Lawless/PA)
SAT, 05 NOV, 2022
TED HENNESSEY, PA
Twitter employees who lost their jobs have been offered a three-month payoff, according to Elon Musk, who said the company is losing more than $4 million US dollars (€4.1 million) a day.
The social media company began widespread staff cuts around the world on Friday, with suggestions as many as half of its more than 7,500 staff could be axed.
Its head of safety later said jobs cuts have affected about 15% of the trust and safety department, as opposed to approximately 50% of cuts company-wide.
New owner Musk is thought to want to drastically reduce costs at the company after completing his $44 billion dollar (€44.7 billion) takeover of the platform last week, since tweeting “we need to pay the bills somehow”.
He said on Friday evening: “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.
“Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance.”
The billionaire also tweeted a series of posts by head of safety Yoel Roth, which said: “Here are the facts about where Twitter’s Trust & Safety and moderation capacity stands today.
“While we said goodbye to incredibly talented friends and colleagues yesterday, our core moderation capabilities remain in place.
“Yesterday’s reduction in force affected approximately 15% of our Trust & Safety organisation (as opposed to approximately 50% cuts company-wide), with our front-line moderation staff experiencing the least impact.
“Last week, for security reasons, we restricted access to our internal tools for some users, including some members of my team.
“Most of the 2,000-plus content moderators working on front-line review were not impacted, and access will be fully restored in the coming days.
“More than 80% of our incoming content moderation volume was completely unaffected by this access change. The daily volume of moderation actions we take stayed steady through this period.”
Musk, followed this with a tweet saying: “Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.
“In fact, we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press.”
He had earlier accused “activist groups” of “pressuring” advertisers into leaving the social media giant and causing a drop in revenue.
The Tesla owner also replied to posts and memes from users about advertising, in one saying: “Twitter will not censor accurate information about anything.”
SAT, 05 NOV, 2022
TED HENNESSEY, PA
Twitter employees who lost their jobs have been offered a three-month payoff, according to Elon Musk, who said the company is losing more than $4 million US dollars (€4.1 million) a day.
The social media company began widespread staff cuts around the world on Friday, with suggestions as many as half of its more than 7,500 staff could be axed.
Its head of safety later said jobs cuts have affected about 15% of the trust and safety department, as opposed to approximately 50% of cuts company-wide.
New owner Musk is thought to want to drastically reduce costs at the company after completing his $44 billion dollar (€44.7 billion) takeover of the platform last week, since tweeting “we need to pay the bills somehow”.
He said on Friday evening: “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.
“Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance.”
The billionaire also tweeted a series of posts by head of safety Yoel Roth, which said: “Here are the facts about where Twitter’s Trust & Safety and moderation capacity stands today.
“While we said goodbye to incredibly talented friends and colleagues yesterday, our core moderation capabilities remain in place.
“Yesterday’s reduction in force affected approximately 15% of our Trust & Safety organisation (as opposed to approximately 50% cuts company-wide), with our front-line moderation staff experiencing the least impact.
“Last week, for security reasons, we restricted access to our internal tools for some users, including some members of my team.
“Most of the 2,000-plus content moderators working on front-line review were not impacted, and access will be fully restored in the coming days.
“More than 80% of our incoming content moderation volume was completely unaffected by this access change. The daily volume of moderation actions we take stayed steady through this period.”
Musk, followed this with a tweet saying: “Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.
“In fact, we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press.”
He had earlier accused “activist groups” of “pressuring” advertisers into leaving the social media giant and causing a drop in revenue.
The Tesla owner also replied to posts and memes from users about advertising, in one saying: “Twitter will not censor accurate information about anything.”
Twitter’s offices in London (Aaron Chown/PA)
Online safety groups and campaigners have expressed concerns about Mr Musk’s plans to allow more free speech on the site and reverse permanent bans given to controversial figures, including former US president Donald Trump.
There have been reports that some advertisers have been concerned about the possibility of such figures returning and appearing alongside their adverts on the site.
An internal email sent to staff on the job cuts on Friday said the action to cut jobs was “unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward”.
Staff had been told that everyone received an email by 4pm Irish time on Friday, with those who are affected by the cuts set to receive the message on their personal email address rather than the one associated with their work.
Staff have since taken to Twitter to confirm they are leaving the company, with some revealing they have been logged out of their work laptops and internal messaging systems.
Twitter employee Simon Balmain told Sky News: “Late last night we all received an email saying there is going to be a large reduction in headcount and the email stated that if we would be laid off, it would go to our personal email and if not to our work email.
And it was about an hour after that, this is in the early hours of the morning UK, like 2am, that I noticed my work laptop was remotely wiped and my email access and Slack access were both revoked.
“And then I got in touch with a few colleagues, and it seemed a lot of people were seeing the same thing.”
A BEIS spokesperson said: “We are watching what is happening at Twitter with interest.
“While we cannot comment on the individual cases, we expect companies to treat their employees fairly and our thoughts are with those who have lost their jobs.
“There are clear rules companies must follow when making large numbers of redundancies which includes consulting with staff and notifying the Redundancy Payments Service.”
Twitter employees deserve 'respect', says Taoiseach
The company employed around 500 people in its Dublin office before the cuts.
Photo: Patrick Pleul/Pool via AP, File
SAT, 05 NOV, 2022 -
CÁIT CADEN, NEIL MICHAEL, LIZ DUNPHY
Twitter has come under fire from politicians and trade unions for the manner in which its controversial new owner Elon Musk handled mass job cuts at the social media giant.
The company began layoffs among its 7,500 workforce on Friday, with the 500 people employed in Ireland also in the firing line.
A company-wide email was issued to staff mapping out the downsizing plans, with many employees finding out their jobs had been cut when they found themselves locked out of office buildings, computers and email accounts.
Defending the decision, Musk said Twitter has had "a massive drop in revenue", pinning the blame on "activist groups pressuring advertisers."
The move comes just a week after the billionaire closed his €45bn buyout of Twitter.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin slammed the measures as "unacceptable" and said the employees deserved "to be treated with respect."
"We are concerned," he said.
"The summary notice of dismissal or you are no longer working (for Twitter), is not acceptable.
"That is not the way we conduct industrial relations or organise relationships between employers and employees.
"There has to be respect - there has to be dignity in situations like this."
Michael McGrath, the Minister for Public Expenditure, also voiced concern over the handling of the cuts.
“It's a very dark day for anyone to suffer the loss of their job, their livelihood. I do think that when difficult decisions have to be made, there is a way of doing it,” he said.
“The Government and all of our agencies will be working now to make sure that there are alternative opportunities provided to people who are bringing highly valued skills and experiences to the table."
Union officials were also swift to condemn the move.
ICTU Congress General Secretary Owen Reidy slammed the approach to the job cuts as "appalling".
"These workers should have had the right to consultation and the consideration of alternative decisions," he said.
One of the hundreds of Dublin-based people who lost their job in the company was six months pregnant internal communications manager Shona O’Toole, who tweeted that after eight and a half years with the company her “time at Twitter has come to a bittersweet end.”
The Twitter job cuts followed the announcement of the downsizing of operations at Stripe, which was founded by Limerick brothers John and Patrick Collison. It said it needed to make the company “leaner” to combat economic pressures such as inflation, so it announced it would slim down its workforce by 14%, or 1,000 jobs.
However, experts are bullish about the health of the tech sector despite the job losses.
IDA Ireland interim boss Mary Buckley said that the job cuts do not mark the end of the booming number of tech jobs across the country.
“Absolutely there are headwinds ahead, and we’re conscious of that, but if you look at the commitments that have been made it has been a strong FDI performance year to date,” said Ms Buckley.
There were over 150 foreign direct investments into Ireland during the first half of the year, representing a 9% increase on last year. Around 18,000 jobs were created by these companies setting up in Ireland.
In addition, data management company NetApp opened its new international headquarters in Cork and is set to create 500 Irish jobs by 2025.
“Over time, we may not see the same levels of growth per annum, but we have a strong base of FDI companies here in Ireland,” Ms Buckley said.
Online safety groups and campaigners have expressed concerns about Mr Musk’s plans to allow more free speech on the site and reverse permanent bans given to controversial figures, including former US president Donald Trump.
There have been reports that some advertisers have been concerned about the possibility of such figures returning and appearing alongside their adverts on the site.
An internal email sent to staff on the job cuts on Friday said the action to cut jobs was “unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward”.
Staff had been told that everyone received an email by 4pm Irish time on Friday, with those who are affected by the cuts set to receive the message on their personal email address rather than the one associated with their work.
Staff have since taken to Twitter to confirm they are leaving the company, with some revealing they have been logged out of their work laptops and internal messaging systems.
Twitter employee Simon Balmain told Sky News: “Late last night we all received an email saying there is going to be a large reduction in headcount and the email stated that if we would be laid off, it would go to our personal email and if not to our work email.
And it was about an hour after that, this is in the early hours of the morning UK, like 2am, that I noticed my work laptop was remotely wiped and my email access and Slack access were both revoked.
“And then I got in touch with a few colleagues, and it seemed a lot of people were seeing the same thing.”
A BEIS spokesperson said: “We are watching what is happening at Twitter with interest.
“While we cannot comment on the individual cases, we expect companies to treat their employees fairly and our thoughts are with those who have lost their jobs.
“There are clear rules companies must follow when making large numbers of redundancies which includes consulting with staff and notifying the Redundancy Payments Service.”
Twitter employees deserve 'respect', says Taoiseach
The company employed around 500 people in its Dublin office before the cuts.
Photo: Patrick Pleul/Pool via AP, File
SAT, 05 NOV, 2022 -
CÁIT CADEN, NEIL MICHAEL, LIZ DUNPHY
Twitter has come under fire from politicians and trade unions for the manner in which its controversial new owner Elon Musk handled mass job cuts at the social media giant.
The company began layoffs among its 7,500 workforce on Friday, with the 500 people employed in Ireland also in the firing line.
A company-wide email was issued to staff mapping out the downsizing plans, with many employees finding out their jobs had been cut when they found themselves locked out of office buildings, computers and email accounts.
Defending the decision, Musk said Twitter has had "a massive drop in revenue", pinning the blame on "activist groups pressuring advertisers."
The move comes just a week after the billionaire closed his €45bn buyout of Twitter.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin slammed the measures as "unacceptable" and said the employees deserved "to be treated with respect."
"We are concerned," he said.
"The summary notice of dismissal or you are no longer working (for Twitter), is not acceptable.
"That is not the way we conduct industrial relations or organise relationships between employers and employees.
"There has to be respect - there has to be dignity in situations like this."
Michael McGrath, the Minister for Public Expenditure, also voiced concern over the handling of the cuts.
“It's a very dark day for anyone to suffer the loss of their job, their livelihood. I do think that when difficult decisions have to be made, there is a way of doing it,” he said.
“The Government and all of our agencies will be working now to make sure that there are alternative opportunities provided to people who are bringing highly valued skills and experiences to the table."
Union officials were also swift to condemn the move.
ICTU Congress General Secretary Owen Reidy slammed the approach to the job cuts as "appalling".
"These workers should have had the right to consultation and the consideration of alternative decisions," he said.
One of the hundreds of Dublin-based people who lost their job in the company was six months pregnant internal communications manager Shona O’Toole, who tweeted that after eight and a half years with the company her “time at Twitter has come to a bittersweet end.”
The Twitter job cuts followed the announcement of the downsizing of operations at Stripe, which was founded by Limerick brothers John and Patrick Collison. It said it needed to make the company “leaner” to combat economic pressures such as inflation, so it announced it would slim down its workforce by 14%, or 1,000 jobs.
However, experts are bullish about the health of the tech sector despite the job losses.
IDA Ireland interim boss Mary Buckley said that the job cuts do not mark the end of the booming number of tech jobs across the country.
“Absolutely there are headwinds ahead, and we’re conscious of that, but if you look at the commitments that have been made it has been a strong FDI performance year to date,” said Ms Buckley.
There were over 150 foreign direct investments into Ireland during the first half of the year, representing a 9% increase on last year. Around 18,000 jobs were created by these companies setting up in Ireland.
In addition, data management company NetApp opened its new international headquarters in Cork and is set to create 500 Irish jobs by 2025.
“Over time, we may not see the same levels of growth per annum, but we have a strong base of FDI companies here in Ireland,” Ms Buckley said.
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