The social network is about to be sold to Elon Musk, who multiplies the contradictory announcements on his project: hire more developers, or fire three quarters of the employees? In any case, the social network project dubbed X, with even less moderation than on Twitter, worries.
The little blue bird social network is in crisis, and it shows. Beyond the impending takeover of Twitter by erratic billionaire Elon Musk, budget cuts are to be expected. This was discovered by the Washington Post on October 20, 2022, according to sources and internal documents.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss, who finally decided to acquire Twitter after several bouts of hesitation, is said to have planned a huge purge of 75% of the social network’s payroll, which would drop the number of employees by 7,500 at 2000.
Those who follow Musk’s news know it: his promises only bind those who believe in them. The New York Times had also raised that Musk had announced last May that he would rather increase the number of employees of the company by hiring many developers.
A risk of “cascading effect” among Twitter employees
Nevertheless, whatever happens, the documents obtained by the Washington Post show that the social network has structural problems that only lower costs can stem. The American media speaks of $ 800 million in savings planned by Twitter, which would correspond to the dismissal of approximately 25% of employees.
The financial difficulties of the platform are not new. They can, however, explain why Twitter did not hesitate long to accept Elon Musk’s takeover proposal: at the announced price of $54.20 per share, this corresponds to more than $40 billion. The colossal sum should make it possible to pay off certain debts and get our heads above water.
However, this is without taking into account Project X, a multitasking network that the billionaire hopes to create from the ashes of Twitter, like WeChat in China (a platform that serves as a messaging service, social network, payment interface, etc.). Is it reasonable to imagine such an interface with only 2,000 employees, even though Twitter is already struggling to moderate its platform with 7,500 employees?
Certainly, many analysts agree that Twitter has too large a payroll in relation to its income, and that the firm should fear the arrival of Musk and his excessive productivity model. Nevertheless, the future of the most influential social network in the political and media world seems very bleak if it is still cut off from its means of action. And, replacing humans with even more algorithmic moderation doesn’t seem like the ideal solution to creating a healthier platform either.
Edwin Chen, an analyst interviewed by the Washington Post, also expressed fears of an increase in the risk of hacking or the spread of child pornography images. This could lead to even more resignations: There would be a cascading effect (…) where you would have services down and the people who stayed would not have the institutional knowledge to get them back up and running. They would be completely demoralized and would like to leave on their own. »