Twitter Inc temporarily closed its offices and cut workers’ access to internal systems on Friday after telling employees they would be informed by email about whether they were being laid off.
The move follows a week of chaos and uncertainty about the company’s future under new owner Elon Musk.
The social media company said in an email to staff it would tell them by 9 a.m. Pacific time on Friday (12 p.m. EDT/1600 GMT) about staff cuts.
“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” said the email sent on Thursday, seen by Reuters.
Musk, the world’s richest person, is looking to cut around 3,700 Twitter staff, or about half the workforce, as he seeks to slash costs and impose a demanding new work ethic, according to internal plans reviewed by Reuters this week.
Staff who worked in engineering, communications, product and content curation were among those impacted by the layoffs, according to tweets from Twitter staff.
Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a “hellscape.” However, his reassurances have failed to prevent major advertisers from threatening to withdraw from the platform.
Volkswagen has recommended its brands to pause paid advertising on Twitter until further notice in the wake of Musk’s takeover, it said on Friday. Its comments echoed similar remarks from other firms, including General Motors and General Mills.
Musk blamed civil rights activists’ pressure on advertisers for a “massive drop in revenue” in a tweet on Friday morning. “Extremely messed up! They’re (civil right groups) trying to destroy free speech in America.”
Speaking at an investors conference in New York on Friday, Musk called the activist pressure “an attack on the First Amendment.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
