Elon Musk Reportedly Plans To Gut Twitter Staff By 75%

Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans to cut Twitter’s staff by a draconian 75% once he buys the company, The Washington Post reported  Thursday, citing documents and interviews.

The cuts would almost certainly boost controversial content including porn, lies and hate-filled attacks, as vast numbers of posts would slip by largely unsupervised, the newspaper said. Far fewer staffers would also likely increase the number of security breaches.

Musk already told prospective investors in his deal to buy the company that he planned to get rid of nearly 75% of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, “whittling the company down to a skeleton staff” of just over 2,000, the newspaper reported.

But major cuts might have come whether Musk bought the company or not. Twitter was already planning to make major cuts by slashing payroll some $800 million by the end of next year — resulting in a reduction of about 25% of the workforce, according to the Post.

Musk’s cuts would have an “unimaginable” impact on content, data scientist Edwin Chen told the paper.

While Chen, who was formerly in charge of Twitter’s spam and health metrics, believes Twitter is overstaffed, such cuts would put Twitter’s millions of users at risk of hacks and exposure to offensive material, he said.

“It would be a cascading effect, where you’d have services going down and the people remaining [with the company] not having the institutional knowledge to get them back up — and being completely demoralized and wanting to leave themselves,” Chen explained.

The planned cuts reveal why investors of the struggling operation have been eager for a $44 billion sale to Musk. If the sale goes through, as predicted, it’s Musk who’ll have to take the responsibility for upending the operation, the Post noted.

Musk eagerly made a $44 billion bid for Twitter in April , which was accepted. But he almost immediately got cold feet, complaining that Twitter wasn’t being transparent about its actual numbers of verified users. When stock values decreased in the wake of his complaints , he argued to lower his offer.

Twitter sued Musk in July to force him to complete the original deal. Musk finally agreed early this month to go through with the purchase to end the legal battle.

On Thursday, Twitter’s top lawyer Sean Edgett sent  a note to employees saying the company did not have any confirmation from Musk about his plans.

Twitter’s own “cost savings discussions” were put on hold once the agreement with Musk was signed, Edgett said.

Read the full story at The Washington Post.