Twitter sued as mass layoffs begin

A class-action lawsuit was filed by now-former Twitter employees today, alleging that the social media company is eliminating workers without enough notice.

The lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court and argues Twitter has breached the US Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

New owner Elon Musk today began the process of laying off what reportedly could amount to half of Twitter’s 7,500+ workforce. A letter circulated to staff described that employees would find out whether their job had been spared depending on if they received an email to their personal or work email.

Here’s the first official communication from Twitter’s new leadership to its staff, a week after Musk took over: a fun game where you get to find out if you’re laid off or not based by 9am tomorrow, based on whether the email pops up in your Twitter account or personal account. pic.twitter.com/tpJsAkiaHp

— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) November 4, 2022

Mass layoffs are likely to trigger increased concern about content moderation on the platform. Companies such as Mondelez, Pfizer, and General Mills have reportedly paused their advertising campaigns on Twitter, following reports of media buyers IPG and Havas’ directing their media agencies to do the same.

Musk has taken to Tweeting memes in an ongoing spat against US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who accused Musk of sabotaging her Twitter account after she criticised the world’s richest man’s proposed changes to the platform. Musk also posted a poll asking his followers whether advertisers should support “freedom of speech” or “political ‘correctness'”.

Advertisers should support:

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022

According to Bloomberg, Musk is planning to restore Twitter’s content moderation tools to staff following widespread concern over the spread of hateful speech on the platform.

It is unclear, however, whether enough staff in charge of content moderation will remain at the company to sufficiently police such content.