Elon Musk justifies layoffs at Twitter, says he had 'no choice'

Twitter CEO Elon Musk broke his silence and justified the mass layoffs at the company amid a wave of ex-employees sharing their ordeal and announcing their resignations on social media.

Musk, whose recent acquisition of Twitter was followed by a large number of layoffs, defended his actions by claiming that he had "no choice" as Twitter was experiencing losses of over $4 million per day. 

In a tweet on November 5, the billionaire wrote, “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, which is 50% more than legally required,” he added.

Musk’s statement came as social media platforms continue to be flooded with Twitter’s workforce bringing shocking revelations to light, such as sleeping at the office, putting in extra hours at work, and receiving blunt emails about their role at Twitter after Musk took over the company as the CEO.

Twitter's head of safety addresses job cuts

Apprehensions grew as Twitter’s head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth said that "approximately 50% cuts” occurred “company-wide", with people fearing the future of employees who are directly responsible for monitoring and removing harmful material on the platform.

Addressing this, Roth wrote, “Here are the facts about where Twitter’s Trust & Safety and moderation capacity stands today: tl;dr: While we said goodbye to incredibly talented friends and colleagues yesterday, our core moderation capabilities remain in place.”

He further revealed that front-line moderators at the company continue to be the least impacted segment in the layoffs. “Yesterday’s reduction in force affected approximately 15% of our Trust & Safety organization (as opposed to approximately 50% cuts company-wide), with our front-line moderation staff experiencing the least impact,” Roth wrote on Twitter. 

Employees file lawsuit after mass layoffs

Earlier on Friday, an email was sent to staffers that justified the job cuts and stated that it was "unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward". Following this, employees revealed that they had lost access to their work laptops and workplace communication platform Slack, according to BBC. 

Employees from various verticals including marketing, engineering, communications and product development said that they had been fired from their positions at the company. This resulted in former employees filing a class action lawsuit, accusing Twitter of laying off its workforce without providing a notice of 60 days, which is a violation of federal and Californian law.