Musk defends mass layoffs saying he had ‘no choice’ – Saudi Gazette

Musk defends mass layoffs saying he had ‘no choice’ – Saudi Gazette

NEW YORK — Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has defended laying off around half of the online platform’s workforce, saying he had “no choice”.

50% of Twitter employees were fired on Friday, according to Yoel Roth head of safety and integrity at the social media giant.

In a Tweet, Musk said “regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4 million/day.”

Musk, the world’s richest man, maintained, “Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.”

On Friday, Twitter Inc. temporarily closed its offices after telling employees they will be informed by email later in the day whether they are being laid off.

Twitter had 7,500 workers before Musk’s takeover, meaning around 3,700 jobs were lost.

The billionaire founder of SpaceX, Tesla and PayPal is seeking to slash costs at the social platform he acquired just a week ago for $44 billion (€44.9 billion).

In his Tweet defending the layoffs, Musk said all departing employees were offered “3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required”.

Reports of mass layoffs on Friday prompted concerns about content moderation, with NGOs and campaigners claiming the changes could mean more harmful material or misinformation on the site.

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