Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has led to a drastic decrease in the company’s workforce. Current headcount stands at 1,000 full-time employees according to reports, down close to 90% from the 7,500 previously employed by the platform prior to Musk’s takeover. Musk has overseen a series of layoffs and firings, with contracts for thousands of contract workers being terminated as well.
Twitter is now the smallest it’s been since 2011, when, according to a blog post, it had 400 employees and around 100 million active monthly users. Despite Musk’s drastic measures, monthly active users are now up to roughly 250 million, while downloads of the app have decreased 15% in the past three months. Musk has stated an ambitious goal to bring the platform up to one billion monthly active users by 2021.
Recent weeks have seen a boost in user interest in Bluesky, an open-source decentralized platform created by former Twitter CEO and investor Jack Dorsey. Bluesky’s app was officially released at the end of April and the signup waitlist currently stands at over one million people. Dorsey criticized Musk in an open brief over the weekend, citing his time at the company’s helm as a lack of proper action.
Reports from former employees state that the performance review process is constant and directives for priority projects are ever-changing, with remaining staff scrambling to meet Musk’s demands in addition to dealing promptly with any existing problems on the platform. Necessary new hires still occur, such as an AI project leader recently hired by the company, but not many succeed in it.
Those who provide weekly reports are left subject to “interrogations” about possible media leaks by members of Musk’s security team. Such investigations occur randomly, and many fired workers report that no explanation is given other than unsatisfactory performance or leaks. Many other people have quit or taken new jobs as soon as they are available, as the platform’s scene has become increasingly contentious and hostile.
Twitter is one of the world’s largest and most influential social media networks based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and had its initial public offering in 2013. It is currently owned by Elon Musk, who gained full control of the platform in October 2020.
