Elon Musk’s Twitter has cut its workforce to the lowest level in years with only around 1,000 full-time employees remaining, according to anonymous sources familiar with the company. This comes in the wake of Musk’s aggressive staff cuts and a wave of resignations since he officially acquired the social media platform six months ago.
Business Insider reports that according to unnamed sources familiar with the business, Twitter’s employee count has experienced a severe reduction, hitting its lowest level in years, with only about 1,000 full-time workers remaining. Elon Musk has aggressively reduced the number of employees, including through layoffs and firings, as well as through a wave of resignations, since he formally acquired the social media platform six months ago.
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and co-founder & CEO of Square, attends the crypto-currency conference Bitcoin 2021 Convention at the Mana Convention Center in Miami, Florida, on June 4, 2021. (Photo by Marco BELLO / AFP) (Photo by MARCO BELLO/AFP via Getty Images)
Elon Musk’s Halloween costume (Taylor Hill /Getty)
From its previous 7,500 employees, Twitter’s headcount has decreased by about 90 percent, according to insiders, as the surviving personnel deal with ongoing performance reviews and fluctuating project priorities. “Performance reviews are constant,” a former worker claimed, adding that internal project and task priority directions were frequently changed, making the workplace challenging for those still working there.
Twitter has gone through a difficult time while Musk has been in charge. Just over 250 million people use the network on a daily basis, up from 244 million six months ago. But in the last three months, app downloads have decreased by about 15 percent, raising questions about Musk’s plan to achieve 1 billion monthly active users by the end of the year. Downloads and usage spiked in the early weeks of Musk’s acquisition, but the recent fall has highlighted the difficulties the company is facing.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s decentralized platform, Bluesky, has been drawing a lot of attention as Twitter’s personnel and morale continue to suffer. The platform has built a waitlist of more than 1 million individuals and wants to provide a more transparent and open social media experience. With Bluesky’s rising popularity, Twitter may soon face new competition in the social media space.
Musk has recently been under fire from Dorsey on the Bluesky platform for running Twitter, saying that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has not “acted right” since taking over the organization. In comparison to his prior confidence in Musk and support for Musk’s purchase of Twitter, he has since voiced his disappointment in Musk’s leadership.
Musk has taken steps to ward off competitors by momentarily disabling links in Twitter user profiles and posts to other platforms, such as Instagram and Mastodon, in reaction to competitive threats. Later on, he made it impossible for Twitter users to access Substack links, further solidifying the platform’s control over shared material.
With a shrinking workforce and increasing competition from platforms like Bluesky, the future of Twitter under Musk’s leadership is still up in the air. It remains to be seen if Twitter can sustain its relevance and meet Musk’s ambitious goals as the social media landscape changes.
Read more at Business Insider here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan