Twitter Inc., under new owner Elon Musk, has made deeper cuts to a radically reduced trust and security team that handles global content moderation, as well as to a unit dealing with hate speech and harassment, according to people familiar with the matter. that matter.
At least more than a dozen layoffs on Friday night affected employees in the company’s Dublin and Singapore offices, according to the people, who asked not to be identified to discuss the non-public changes. They include Nur Azhar Bin Ayob, head of site integrity for Twitter’s Asia-Pacific region, a relatively new hire; and Analuisa Dominguez, Twitter’s senior director of revenue policy.
Employees in the team handling the social network’s misinformation policy, global appeals and state media on the platform were also eliminated.
Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and security, confirmed that some members of the team were cut but denied that they were targeting some of the areas mentioned by Bloomberg.
“It makes more sense to integrate the team under one leader (instead of two) for example,” Irwin said in an email response to a request for comment.
He said Twitter is eliminating roles in areas of the company that aren’t getting enough “volume” to justify continued support. But he said Twitter has increased staff in its appeals department, and will continue to have a head of revenue policy and the platform’s Asia-Pacific head of trust and security.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, partially financing the deal with nearly $13 billion in debt that requires about $1.5 billion in annual interest payments. He has since embarked on a frantic mission to fix the social media platform, which he says is at risk of bankruptcy and has been losing $4 million a day since early November.
Speaking at the Spaces Twitter event last month, the mercurial businessman described the company as “a plane headed for the ground at high speed with the engine on fire and the controls not working.”
Since taking over the company, Musk has overseen the firing or departure of approximately 5,000 of Twitter’s 7,500 employees and created a “hardcore” work environment for those who remain.
Twitter faces multiple claims over unpaid bills, including for private plane flights, software services and rent at one of its San Francisco offices.
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