Twitter already being sued as Elon Musk layoffs begin

Five former Twitter employees who were fired on Thursday have already filed a lawsuit against the social media company for failing to comply with California’s WARN Act, a law that requires large employers to provide employees with 60 days’ notice before layoffs. massive. And the lawsuit even names another company run by Elon Musk for doing the exact same thing.

Twitter employees began receiving layoff notices late Thursday, and while it’s unclear how many people will eventually be laid off, about half of the company’s 7,500 employees are expected to lose their jobs. The layoffs are part of a plan initiated by Musk, according to multiple reports, although he didn’t even have the decency to sign his name on a notice that was sent to all employees on Thursday.

“In an effort to put Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce,” said the unsigned email from a generic email address, according to sources. screenshots posted on Twitter.

“We recognize that this is an incredibly difficult experience to have, whether you are affected or not. We appreciate your contributions to Twitter and your patience as we move through this process,” the statement continued. ‘E-mail.

The trial, which is available in its entirety online thanks to the journalist Chris Geidner, names five Twitter employees who either received a formal notice that they had been fired or had access to their work accounts locked on Thursday, likely because they were about to be fired. The lawsuit even calls out another Musk company, electric car maker Tesla, for previously carrying out mass layoffs without proper notice to employees.

“This company attempted to obtain releases from terminated employees without informing them of their rights under Federal or California WARN laws. A federal court subsequently ordered the company to notify the employees of the claims that had been filed on their behalf,” the lawsuit said. bed.

The attorneys behind the new lawsuit are trying to get the court to recognize it as a class action, and it’s hard to see why that wouldn’t happen. After all, there are probably around 3,700 people getting pink slips right now as Musk tries to drastically cut costs and generate new revenue from the social media site. Twitter’s San Francisco office will be closed on Friday as layoffs continue.

Musk has only been at the helm for a week and the chaos he’s unleashed on Twitter includes too many dramatic stories to count – from losing fights with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to find out if users who have been permanently banned will be allowed to return to the site. Musk initially said he didn’t believe anyone should be permanently banned from the platform, but then said there would be a lengthy review process before anyone was actually allowed back on the platform. site.

All eyes are on former President Donald Trump, of course, as he is the most high-profile person to be banned from Twitter after his 2021 coup attempt. But other neo-fascists, Assorted racists and assholes are lining up waiting to return to Twitter, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, anti-Muslim zealot Laura Loomer, former KKK grand magician David Duke and former Trump adviser Roger Stone.

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion with the help of numerous investors, wants to start charging $8 a month for verification on the platform, which could start as soon as Monday. But it doesn’t look like there will actually be any identity enforcement for Twitter’s new verification process, according to the New York Times. This means anyone could start impersonating a famous person for $8, a particularly bad idea on the eve of Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Musk isn’t just thinking about new features and cutting staff to squeeze more money from the company. According to a new report from Reuters. But that same report notes that there is genuine concern within Twitter that such drastic changes to the site’s infrastructure could lead to significant downtime during peak periods – something that users who were there during the early years of Twitter have become very familiar, with a notification known as the Whale Fail.

Twitter has reportedly started hemorrhaging users, with more than 875,000 people deactivating their accounts since Musk took over the website, according to MIT Technology Review. And many more threatened to leave the site after the new verification process was implemented, which would likely attract a large number of impersonation accounts without the right safeguards.

What’s next for Musk and Twitter? Your guess is as good as ours. Musk definitely seems to be making it up as he goes rather than executing some grand, well thought out plan, as becomes evident every time he pitches an idea on the site becomes defensive when people criticize it. Musk was even haggling with horror author Stephen King over the proposed new payment system for Twitter verification.

King, who is believed to be worth at least $400 million, tweeted earlier this week that he would not pay $20 to be verified, it was rumored at the time.

“We have to pay the bills one way or another! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8? Musk replied.

And this exchange pretty much says it all. King did not object to the specific dollar amount. He objected to the idea of ​​paying for verification in the first place, a dumb idea, especially if you’re not actually verifying a user’s identity. But Musk doesn’t understand that and he really doesn’t understand Twitter and what makes people want to spend their time on the site.