Twitter says 50% of staff laid off, moves to reassure on content moderation

Twitter sacked half of its 7,500-strong staff on Friday as new owner Elon Musk launched his major overhaul of the troubled company just a week after his blockbuster takeover. Workers around the world were shown the door and took to Twitter to vent their frustration or disbelief and say goodbye to one of Silicon Valley's most iconic companies.

Twitter has laid off 50% of its employees, the company's head of safety and integrity said on Friday in a tweet, while saying that the social media platform's content moderation capabilities remained in place.

The tweet by safety and integrity head Yoel Roth moved to reassure users and advertisers following the company's takeover by billionaire Elon Musk.

Roth said 15% of Twitter's employees on the trust and safety team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and harmful content, were laid off. Company-wide, the layoffs affected 50% of employees, he added, which was the first confirmation from Twitter about the size of the layoffs.

With the U.S. midterm election just days away, Roth said combating harmful misinformation remained a top priority.

"Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter's strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged," Musk tweeted shortly after Roth's own tweet.

Earlier on Friday, Musk said Twitter had experienced "a massive drop in revenue," due to civil rights groups who raised concerns about how the layoffs would affect moderation, and pressured top advertisers to pull their ad spending.

Major brands like General Mills and General Motors have said they have stopped advertising on Twitter.

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