HOME / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

THE CULL BEGINS: Liberals erupt after Elon Musk fires Twitter staff by 'locking them out of their laptops'

Twitter faces a class-action lawsuit filed by former workers in a federal court in San Franciso over Elon Musk's proposal to fire almost half of its staff

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Many Twitter employees claimed they were logged out of their company email and Slack accounts amid reports of mass layoff plans by new owner Elon Musk. On Friday, November 4, many employees encountered a message, "something went wrong, try again later", when they tried logging in, only to realize that they had been fired from the company.

Former employees and other users took to Twitter to share their frustration over the development which comes as Twitter faces a class-action lawsuit filed by former workers in a federal court in San Franciso over Musk's proposal to fire almost half of its staff. 

READ MORE

‘Feedback appreciated, now pay $8’: AOC gets schooled by Elon Musk after he reveals her shirts cost $58

'He owns Twitter': Internet in splits as Elon Musk pokes fun at 'autogenerated' welcome e-mail

Twitter began its mass layoffs from Friday. According to an unsigned internal document obtained by The Verge, Twitter employees received an email informing them that layoffs would soon start. The internal document also claimed that employee badge access to Twitter's offices would be "temporarily" turned off. According to the internal memo, employees would get an email on November 4 confirming whether or not they have been laid off.

"We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted," the memo reads. "Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere."

It's anticipated that Musk would lay off about half of Twitter's around 7,500 employees. Musk has already said he would eliminate roles at Twitter, telling workers there needs to be "a rationalization of headcount" at the social network during a town-hall meeting this summer. 

Many employees and users of the micro-blogging site were furious over the firings, and took to social media to express their frustrations with the way the billionaire is handling things. One user tweeted, "Twitter letting people know they're fired by locking them out of their laptops. That's so messed up. Thoughts with all the #LoveWhereYouWorked crew today. Better times will come." They continued, "Things will need to change post acquisition. Positions will need to go. People's lives will be affected. But come on, there's a right way to do these things. These are real people. Even as the richest person in the world, there's a way to behave as this is happening."

Another person tweeted, "Twitter has removed Mail/Slack access of almost all India based employees. 80-90% employees are supposed to be fired."

Writer Chloe Sargeant also expressed her displeasure regarding the matter. "Awful watching twitter staff learning they’ve been mass-fired by suddenly no longer being able to access their work accounts/email/slack. and fascinating watching their tweets about it disappearing one by one. is this the free speech you were talking about @elonmusk?" she tweeted.

Former employee Chris Younie was among the unfortunate ones to be fired. "Well this isn’t looking promising. Can’t log into emails. Mac wont turn on. But so grateful this is happening at 3am. Really appreciate the thoughtfulness on the timing front guys. Meanwhile to everyone else at Twitter, you’re the best #OneTeam," he tweeted.

Musk has also fired the CEO, CFO, and the Head of Legal and General Counsel, after acquiring the popular social media platform at a whopping $44 billion. As per a report, in the first round of layoffs, the new head issued an ultimatum to the platform’s engineers to restructure Twitter’s verification system. The team was given less than a fortnight to work on the system or get fired. After firing the microblogging platform's board of directors, Musk has given himself unrestricted control over the social networking app.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.