Unit On Hate Speech, Harassment Among Fresh Twitter Layoffs In Global Content Moderation Team: Report

Twitter has fired more employees from the trust and safety team handling global content moderation including the unit related to hate speech and harassment

Since Musk took control of the platform, Twitter has seen roughly 5,000 of its 7,500 employees either fired or leave the company.

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New Delhi: In its effort to trim the workforce, Twitter has fired more employees from the trust and safety team handling global content moderation including the unit related to hate speech and harassment.

The company sacked at least a dozen employees on Friday night in the company’s Dublin and Singapore offices, according to the sources in Bloomberg.

Those who were asked to leave included Nur Azhar Bin Ayob, the head of site integrity for Twitter’s Asia-Pacific region, a relatively recent hire; and Analuisa Dominguez, Twitter’s senior director of revenue policy.

Workers on teams handling the social network’s misinformation policy, global appeals, and state media on the platform were also eliminated, the agency reported.

Twitter cuts workforce to consolidate teams

Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety confirmed the cut in the team but denied targeting some of the areas mentioned in the report. “It made more sense to consolidate teams under one leader (instead of two) for example,” Irwin responded to the agency in an email.

She elaborated that the company Twitter did eliminate roles in areas that didn’t get enough 'volume' to justify continued support. However, the company had increased staffing in its appeals department, and it would continue to have a head of revenue policy and a head for the platform’s Asia-Pacific region for trust and safety.

The company also faced a lawsuit last month that claimed the social media company disproportionately targeted female employees in layoffs.

Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October after partly financing the deal with almost $13 billion of debt that entailed interest repayments of around $1.5 billion a year. Since then, Musk is trying to revamp the social-media platform, which he has said is at risk of going bankrupt and was losing $4 million a day as of early November.

Since Musk took control of the platform, Twitter has seen roughly 5,000 of its 7,500 employees either fired or leave the company. The new chief instituted a 'hardcore' work environment for the remaining workforce.