Elon Musk fires 50% of Twitter workforce including 'Curation' team: Reports

Britta Pedersen/Pool via AP, File

Elon Musk, Twitter’s new CEO, informed employees Thursday evening not to come into the office on Friday as the company is cutting at least half its workforce, including its “Curation” team. The company temporarily closed its offices over the layoffs.

News of the substantial cuts to the social media platform’s sizeable 7,500-strong workforce comes following a report earlier this week that Musk intended to trim the fat of the social media platform.

According to Reuters' Twitter page, "Twitter's 'Curation' team, which is responsible for 'highlighting and contextualizing the best events and stories that unfold on Twitter,' has been axed, employees said on the platform."

⚡️ Twitter's 'Curation' team, which is responsible for 'highlighting and contextualizing the best events and stories that unfold on Twitter,' has been axed, employees said on the platform https://t.co/AeZ0cq7br3

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2022

Many of Twitter’s employees have been working from home despite the lifting of pandemic-era restrictions, rejecting demands from Twitter's previous administration to show up at the office. 

Musk is reportedly canceling the company’s work-from-home policy in its entirety, with few exceptions.

"Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists," said Elon Musk on Twitter.

"Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America."

Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.

Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

"In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday," said the email from Twitter to all its employees. "We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward."

The message continued:

Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email.

To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended.

If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home. We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted.

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. We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process.

In an email sent company wide, Twitter confirms there will be layoffs tomorrow.

Everyone in the company will receive an email about their role by 9am Pacific.

The email says all offices will be temporarily closed and employees who are currently in the office should go home. pic.twitter.com/c3O0eYszZc

— Yashar Ali 🐘 یاشار (@yashar) November 4, 2022