Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has defended firing half the company’s workforce, saying he had “no choice” as Twitter loses more than $US4 million ($3.5 million) a day. .
A tweet from Yul Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, cited a “nearly 50 percent reduction across the company.”
But Mr Musk said the social media company’s commitment to content moderation “has not changed at all”.
Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, took over Twitter in a $44bn (£38.7bn) deal.
The billionaire insisted in his tweet that all those who lost their jobs had been offered three months’ severance pay, 50 percent more than legally required.
As reports emerged on Friday that thousands of Twitter staff around the world were losing their jobs, questions were raised about the future of employees responsible for removing harmful content.
Online safety groups and campaigners have suggested Mr Musk could relax moderation policies and reverse Twitter’s permanent ban on controversial figures, including former President Donald Trump.
Those concerns were bolstered by comments from Mr Musk on Friday, which blamed Twitter’s “massive drop in revenue” on “activist groups” who were “trying to destroy free speech in America”. .
But Mr. Roth’s tweet thread, posted later in the day, confirmed that most of the more than 2,000 content moderators working on “Frontline Review” were not affected.
He said the “power reduction” affected about 15 percent of those working in Twitter’s trust and safety organization — compared to what he said was a 50 percent layoff at the company.
Mr. Roth added that combating disinformation remained a “top priority” during the US midterm elections. Most Americans will vote Tuesday in a key test for Joe Biden’s presidency.
The president expressed his concern about the seizure on Friday, saying, “Elon Musk goes out and buys a dress that sends — that lies all over the world… How can we expect kids to do that? Are they going to understand what the danger is?”
As the scale of the job cuts became clear, notices provided by Twitter to officials in California showed that some 983 staff were being laid off in that US state alone.
It covers 784 employees in San Francisco, 106 in San Jose, and 93 in Los Angeles, according to filings seen by JEE News.
