“On November 12, I was looking at my phone when I got a notification that I no longer had access to my account for ‘Slack,’ ‘Gmail,’ and other apps we use in the company, and I immediately realized I had been fired. I was working as an engineer on a team of about 30 people, and because my team leader was laid off at the same time as I was, everyone in that department lost their jobs and suddenly became dysfunctional.
Melissa Ingle, 48, a contract employee at Twitter’s U.S. headquarters, was abruptly fired. She was one of the victims of the global workforce reductions being promoted by the new CEO, Elon Musk (51). As a contract employee, she will receive no benefits until she finds a new job.
In the month or so since Musk took “control” of Twitter, the effects have been felt everywhere. Racially and sexually discriminatory posts increased and new tweets were not being updated. Mask also took a survey on the reopening of former President Trump’s account, which had been frozen, and reinstated it after more than a dozen respondents said they were in favor of the reopening.
Our team was able to stop the reinstatement of Trump’s account,” said Mask. “Our team stopped Trump from reinstating his account because the misinformation he was putting out was threatening to cause riots and overthrow the government. Twitter is a space for global discourse, but if the ethos that anything is OK goes unchallenged, we will see an increase in spoof accounts and defamatory tweets. Before I came to Twitter, I respected Mr. Mask, but now he seems like a dictator,” Melissa said.
Many employees have been fired without knowing what went wrong with their performance, as one Japanese employee-engineer at the U.S. headquarters who was abruptly dismissed by e-mail on the evening of November 26th put it.
I had a remote meeting with a colleague, but he didn’t show up on time. When I searched for his account in the company system, I found that it had been disabled, so I guessed that he had been fired. The email that was then sent to me as the reason for my termination just said, ‘Your work (as an engineer) is not satisfactory. ‘ I was told that other engineers received the same message, but there was no basis for any assessment, and no one took it seriously.”
The masked reform is to hire only the best and most hard-core employees, but there is no clear standard for this, according to the former employees, and on the other hand, like Melissa’s team, it is clear that the company wants to focus on destroying the departments that control Twitter content.
Some of the fired employees are preparing to file a class action lawsuit against the U.S. headquarters, claiming that they were unfairly dismissed. The movement of those who are dissatisfied with their treatment will only become apparent in the future.
In addition, Japan has the second largest number of Twitter users after the United States. Mr. Mask mentioned that “Japan is the center of users,” and revealed his vision to establish a team in charge of technology in Japan. If he cannot find hard workers in Japan that meet his expectations, he will send his “elite” from the headquarters. Perhaps he wants to keep a close eye on the overseas branches as well.
On the other hand, the most pressing issue facing Twitter under its new management is “advertisers’ separation from the company. Since Mr. Mask took over as CEO, major companies such as Pfizer and Volkswagen have temporarily suspended their advertisements. The company generates 90% of its revenue from advertisements. The company is now offering a new revenue model in which it will grant a “certification mark” for $8/month, but it will need 64 million paying users to cover the current advertising revenue. The company is now looking for a new revenue model that will grant the “certification mark” to $8/month, but it will need 64 million paying users to cover the current advertising revenue.
IT journalist Munechika Nishida asks.
As the number of people controlling Twitter’s functions decreases, the possibility of problems, large and small, will increase. As user dissatisfaction increases and the number of members decreases due to these factors, the amount of advertising will also decrease. In the long run, the “worst-case scenario” for the company is that it will not be able to maintain the service itself. In any case, the direction of the company will depend on what Mr. Mask wants to do with Twitter.
Mr. Mask’s major reforms, which are beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, are a matter of great concern not only for the survival of the company, but also for global trends.
