By Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has denied allegations that he may lay off staff before November 1 to save $100 million. He said in his tweet that these are only slanders and that nothing like this would happen.
Thursday marked the official closing of Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, for which discussions had begun in April. According to reports published in the United States on Sunday, Musk plans to begin firing Twitter staff before the November 1 deadline for stock awards included in compensation packages.
As The New York Times reported on Saturday, he has reportedly ordered layoffs throughout the firm, with certain teams being reduced more than others, and that layoffs will take place before the November 1 deadline, when workers are set to get stock awards as part of their remuneration.
Mr Musk expressed concern that the site may become a safe online space for bigotry and hatred last week. Twitter can’t turn into a “hellscape,” where people say anything they want without repercussions, as he put it.
Mr Musk tweeted a screenshot of a New York Times headline claiming he sent a link to a “site known to propagate fake news” after he denied the job layoffs allegation. According to the New York Times’s lead story, Mr Musk removed his response to a tweet from former US presidential contender Hillary Clinton over the weekend.
What Musk will do as Twitter Chief
What he will do as CEO is a mystery to everyone. It is predicted that with him at the helm, Twitter’s rules will loosen, and significant cost savings will be realized. Toys with Republican talking points include ranting at Twitter’s “left-wing” staff, advocating for more “free speech” on the network, and suggesting he may remove former President Trump Trump’s permanent ban before the November midterms.
The publication said that the layoffs would occur before November 1, the day employees were scheduled to surplus resources of shares in the firm as a significant portion of their compensation arrangements.
Users of Twitter have begun speculating about the future of the social media site now that Elon Musk has acquired it. Some have highlighted worry that more permissive free speech standards might lead to the readmission of users who have been banned for spreading hate speech or false information.
The billionaire has said that there would be no real changes to Twitter’s material moderation procedures despite his worries about the number of false accounts on the network, which caused the purchase to be delayed. Musk reportedly intends to relax the social network’s editorial stance, which has been heavily criticized for excessive content censorship.
The billions of dollars in cash investors who’d earn shares in Twitter have pledged to Musk are less assured. Musk’s first lineup of equity investors was wide, ranging from Middle Eastern royal funds to funds controlled by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and other tech sector friends. They shared Musk’s vision for Twitter’s future.
There has been a dramatic back-and-forth between Twitter and the world’s richest man since Musk revealed his $54.20 per share bid six months ago. At first, Twitter resisted the deal by adopting a poison pill, and then it sued Musk after he unveiled plans to abandon the offer over concerns about spam accounts on Twitter.
Musk has suggested many changes to Twitter to increase the platform’s popularity and revenue. An example of a more general idea is to add a payment system to Twitter and market it as “X, the everything app.” An example of a more particular idea is to allow users to choose their preferred recommendation systems. He suggests encrypting direct messages and improving Twitter Blue, the paid tier, maybe by allowing customers to pay again for the blue “verified” checkmark.
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