Elon Musk has denied a New York Times report that he plans to lay off Twitter workers before the start of next month to avoid payments.
In response to a Twitter user asking about the report, he said: “This is false.”
Last week, Mr Musk completed his $44bn (£37.9bn) takeover of the social media platform after months of legal wrangling.
The buyout saw the exit of the firm’s top bosses – including its chief executive, chairman and finance chief.
Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that Mr. Musk had ordered major job cuts to Twitter’s workforce.
The newspaper said the layoffs would take place before Nov. 1, when workers were due to receive a grant of shares in the company as part of their pay deals.
The takeover has sparked debate among Twitter users about what the platform will look like under Mr. Musk’s ownership.
Some have expressed concerns that more lenient free speech policies would mean that people banned from hate speech or misinformation could be allowed back on the platform.
Last week Mr Musk said he did not want the platform to become an echo chamber of hatred and division. “Obviously Twitter can’t be all kinds of hellscapes, where anything can be said without consequence!” he tweeted.
However after denying the New York Times report of job cuts, Mr Musk tweeted a screenshot of a New York Times headline in which he posted a link to a “fake news site”.
The New York Times headline cited Mr Musk’s response to a tweet by former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that was posted over the weekend and then deleted.
His response included a link to a conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
This is fake – I did *not* tweet out a link to The New York Times! pic.twitter.com/d6V6m5ATW2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
