Elon Musk’s broad-based cuts at Twitter are leading current and former employees to question whether the social network will have the resources to keep crucial systems like content moderation running effectively, including during the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday.
Musk on Thursday and Friday slashed over half the staff, affecting almost every team at the company. Product and engineering teams were gutted by well over 50%, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, and other groups — like communications, marketing, human rights and diversity — were almost completely eliminated. Those who were suddenly restricted from email and Slack were left frantically messaging in outside Signal and chat groups to understand who was still employed, said the people, who requested anonymity discussing nonpublic information.
"It’s like a fire,” said one former worker. "People are looking for survivors.” This person asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.