Musk and His Ego Continue Purge of Twitter Workforce

Following the mass layoffs that recently halved its workforce, a number of Twitter employees were fired after Elon Musk requested their tweets and work conversations to be scrutinized to detect criticism of him.  Musk unceremoniously fired one employee who contradicted him on the platform. As Twitter’s workforce has been slashed, its new owner is making personnel changes based on criticism directed at him, the New York Times reported.

According to the report, Musk asked confidantes to sift through the Twitter accounts and internal company messages of his employees to weed out those who do not share his vision for the company. Violators were terminated in the middle of the night:

Musk’s team was asked to comb through messages in Twitter’s internal chat platform and make a list of employees who were insubordinate, people briefed on the plan said. They also sorted through employees’ tweets, looking for criticism. Those deemed rule breakers received emails around 1:30 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday, notifying them that they were fired, according to emails viewed by the Times.

Some were reportedly fired simply for publicly discussing the termination of the workers Musk let go. Musk officially took over at Twitter on Oct. 28, and the platform has seen some significant changes in the weeks since. Thousands of employees and contractors have been let go – most with little to no warning.  Last week, the platform was inundated with parody accounts for people, corporations, and historical figures after users took advantage of a Twitter Blue feature that would verify literally anyone willing to pay $7.99.

And now Twitter might lose even more employees over Musk instituted a bizarre new "loyalty oath."   According to The Washington Post, Elon Musk gave remaining staff members an ultimatum and asked them to commit to an "extremely hardcore" Twitter going forward. "If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below," he reportedly wrote in an email that links to an online form.

So what does an "extremely hardcore" Twitter mean? The report didn't quite delve into the specifics of Musk's expectations, but the executive apparently said that it means "working long hours at high intensity." He added: "Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade." It's not quite clear if the move is legal for workers in countries that have rigorous labor laws. Regardless, the email said that those who don't sign the form by 5PM Eastern on Thursday, November 17th, would be let go and would receive three months of severance pay.