Musk says activists are destroying free speech
Twitter boss blames activists as Volkswagen becomes latest to withdraw its advertising from site
Elon Musk has accused “activist groups” of “trying to destroy free speech in America” by pressuring advertisers to boycott Twitter, amid swingeing job cuts at the tech company. The billionaire, who bought the social media website just over a week ago, said it had suffered a “massive” drop in advertising revenues. Mr Musk blamed the fall on “activist groups pressuring advertisers even though nothing has changed with content moderation”.
ELON MUSK has accused “activist groups” of “trying to destroy free speech in America” by pressuring advertisers to boycott Twitter, amid swingeing job cuts at the tech company.
The billionaire, who took control of the social media website just over a week ago, said Twitter had suffered a “massive” drop in advertising revenues.
Mr Musk blamed the fall on “activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists”.
He added: “They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
Yesterday, the pressure group Stop Hate For Profit, which led an advertising boycott of Facebook in 2020 that cost the social network tens of millions of dollars, urged companies to stop dealing with Twitter. The group, which is organised by the US Anti-defamation League, said: “We are calling on advertisers to pause their spend globally.”
It came as Volkswagen told its brands, which include Bentley, Porsche and Lamborghini, to halt marketing on the social media site until further notice.
It is the latest company to sever ties with Twitter following Mr Musk’s tumultuous $44bn (£38bn) takeover.
Audi, one of VW’S brands, had already suspended advertising, while Carlsberg, Cadbury’s owner Mondelez and Pfizer have also distanced themselves.
The unofficial boycott gathered pace as Mr Musk began a programme of mass sackings at Twitter with 3,700 staff members – roughly half the workforce – set to lose their jobs.
In an email to staff, which was not signed by any executive or Mr Musk, employees were told they would find out their fate by 4pm UK time yesterday.
An internal memo said: “In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce. We recognise 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 going forward.”
‘Nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists’
Some UK employees woke up yesterday to find they had been logged out of their Twitter email accounts and workplace messaging app Slack, having been made redundant.
One Twitter executive said the job cuts were akin to the “Red Wedding” from the television series Game of Thrones, where a clutch of popular characters were brutally killed.
Twitter staff posted tributes to colleagues on the platform as they found out that whole teams were being let go. The company sacked its entire “curation” team, which promoted news stories, sports coverage and debunked misinformation, employees said.
Staff in the US sued the company yesterday over a lack of notice. Workers filed a class-action lawsuit in San Francisco saying the lay-offs were in violation of federal and Californian law, which requires up to 60 days of notice for mass job cuts.
The takeover has left the social media company owing up to $1bn per year in interest on the debt raised to buy it.
In California, companies are required to give the state advanced notice about mass lay-offs. The New York Times reported that California’s employment department had received no advanced warning.
In the UK, companies are supposed to give at least 30 days’ notice for a consultation if they plan to cut more than 20 employees. Under rules that govern employment changes as a result of a takeover, British staff are required to be informed and consulted about the process.
Failure to do so can result in fines.
The Prospect Union, which represents tech workers including Twitter staff in Britain, has written to Grant Shapps, the Business Secretary, condemning how the sackings have been dealt with. Mike Clancy, its general secretary, accused Mr Musk of trying to “ride roughshod over our existing employment procedures and protections for redundancies”.
Most Twitter staff outside of America have been left in the dark about Mr Musk’s plans. Some offices received almost no communication from senior executives until Thursday’s email.