Twitter layoffs: anger and confusion as multiple teams reportedly decimated - as it happened

05/11/2022

That’s all for our live coverage today, but we’ll continue to cover developments in the coming days. For now, here’s where things stand:

  • Twitter has laid off roughly half of its workforce, with an estimated 3,700 cuts across the company.

  • Audi, General Motors, General Mills and Pfizer were among those who halted advertisements, amid concerns Elon Musk will scale back misinformation and security protections on the platform.

  • The mass layoffs have reportedly gutted teams that cover human rights, machine learning ethics, curation, communications and accessibility.

  • Musk said there has been a mass drop in revenue due to advertisers leaving Twitter, which he claimed was an attack on free speech.

  • Twitter is facing a class-action lawsuit from former employees who say they were not given enough notice under US federal law that they had lost their jobs.

  • Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president, who met with Elon Musk on Tuesday, issued a statement urging all companies to pause ads on the platform.

  • With possible cuts to spending on critical resources such as cloud storage and servers, experts are particularly concerned about the impact on US midterm elections.