Twitter asks some fired staff to return, says 'laid off by mistake': Report

By Team Newsable | First Published Nov 7, 2022, 3:01 PM IST

Twitter is now asking dozens of its employees to return, claiming they were fired by mistake, according to reports. "Some people who were asked to return were mistakenly laid off. Others were let go before management realised their work and experience would be needed to build the new features Musk envisions," according to reliable sources.

Following Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc, the firm reduced its workforce by nearly half on Friday. Now, the company is reaching out to dozens of laid-off employees, asking them to return, as per reports.

'It was a mistake,' claims Twitter and has asked some of its employees to return. According to the report, which cited people familiar with the situation, others were let go before management realised that their work and experience might be required to build the new features Elon Musk envisions. Twitter has yet to respond to the move.

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According to Yoel Roth, the company's head of safety and integrity, Twitter recently laid off 50 per cent of its employees, including members of the trust and safety team.

According to tweets from the social media company's employees, teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights, machine learning ethics, and some product and engineering teams were among those laid off.

Elon Musk defended the mass layoffs, saying the move was 'unfortunately necessary' as the company was losing over $4 million daily. Regarding Twitter's force reduction, Musk said on Twitter that there is "unfortunately no alternative when the firm is losing over $4M/day; every one that exited was offered three months of severance, which is 50 per cent more than legally necessary."

The company said in an internal email that the layoffs are 'an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path.'

As per the email, the challenging process of downsizing our global team will begin on Friday. "We recognise that this will have an impact on several individuals who have made significant contributions to Twitter, but this action is, unfortunately, necessary to ensure the company's future success," according to the email.

In Musk's first major revision of the social media platform, Twitter's app in Apple's App Store was updated on Saturday to begin charging $8 for sought-after blue check verification marks.

Also read: Twitter Blue to launch in India in 'less than a month', confirms Elon Musk

Also read: Gigi Hadid quits Twitter after Elon Musk takes over; read her post

Also read: Facebook parent Meta to begin large-scale layoffs this week: Report

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