After firing about half of its employees following last Friday’s takeover by Elon Musk, Twitter is now reaching out to dozens who lost their jobs to bring them back. The news agency reports Bloomberg citing informed circles. Some ex-employees who were supposed to come back were wrongly fired. Others were fired before management realized that their work and experience could be necessary for the platform’s future plans.
Twitter fired nearly 3,700 employees via email this week to cut costs following its acquisition by Musk in late October. Many employees found out they had lost their jobs after their access to company-wide systems like email and Slack was suddenly suspended. Fired US employees of the company have since filed a class action lawsuit against Twitter. A Twitter spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. “Unfortunately, when it comes to downsizing at Twitter, if the company is losing more than $4 million a day, there’s no other choice,” Musk tweeted on Friday.
Paid verification ticks only after the midterm elections
In the midst of the staff chaos comes the news that Twitter is planning to postpone the introduction of checkmarks for verification as part of a new $8 subscription. As the New York Times (NYT) reported on Sunday that the US short message service plans to delay the checkmark changes until after the US midterm elections on Tuesday, November 8, after users and staff raised concerns that the change could be used to promote disinformation to sprinkle. Twitter has not yet responded to this either.
Twitter only updated its app on Saturday, introducing the new Twitter Blue subscription, which offers every user the verification mark for a monthly fee. Up to now, the symbols with the tick, which guarantee the authenticity of the Twitter profile, were assigned free of charge after verification. It’s the first major overhaul of the social media platform by new owner Elon Musk, who paid $44 billion to acquire the short messaging service.
imitations prohibited
Musk himself tweeted another change: After a weekend in which several prominent users changed their names and pictures to Musk’s, the new owner announces that the social media platform will take action against the practice. “Going forward, any Twitter account impersonating Elon Musk without clearly stating that it is a spoof will be permanently banned without warning,” Musk wrote. “Previously we issued a warning before lockdown, but now that we are rolling out full verification there will be no warning,” he said. He added that any name change will result in the temporary loss of the verification mark.
Several users who impersonated Musk, including comedian Kathy Griffin and former NFL player Chris Kluwe, have since had their accounts suspended.