Saturday 5 November 2022 03:13 PM Elon's Twitter cull compared to Game Of Thrones' Red Wedding - but he says ... trends now
Elon Musk's cut-throat cull of around half of Twitter's staff on Friday has been likened to Game Of Thrones' Red Wedding massacre - while he tweeted 'power to the people' hours after the firings.
Around 3,700 of Twitter's 7,500 employees were laid off by email - a decision Musk defended by saying he had 'no choice' because the company was losing $4 million a day.
The Tesla CEO has long said Twitter's workforce was inflated and ordered managers to ask workers where the company could cut $500 million annually.
He paid $44 billion for the company which lost $221 million over the last fiscal year.
He then tweeted 'Trash me all day, but it’ll cost $8,' referencing his controversial plan to have Twitter users pay $8 a month to be verified.
He has fired a number of executives and reports suggest the firings targeted teams in the sales, trust and safety, marketing, product, engineering and legal divisions.
Entire sections of the company have also been cut, including Twitter's human rights team and 'ethical AI' team.
Musk laughed and was in good spirits ahead of the termination emails being sent out, while chatting on stage to Baron Capital Group Chairman and CEO Ron Baron
Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021, and Musk (pictured on Halloween) reportedly laid off around half of them
The sackings have been branded Musk's 'Red Wedding' moment, a reference to the The Rains of Castamere episode in season three the hit fantasy series Game of Thrones (pictured). The episode showcased what was supposed to be the happy marriage of Robb Stark (Richard Madden) and his pregnant wife Talisa (Oona Chaplin). The wedding, hosted by Walder Frey (David Bradley), turned out to be a double-cross and a bloody massacre resulting in the deaths of Robb, Talisa, her unborn child and the House Stark matriarch Catelyn (Michelle Fairley), to name just a few
The human rights team monitored conflicts across the globe and attempted to protect individuals from them with lawyers and activists.
A pregnant Twitter employee discovered that she was out of a job after being cut off from her Twitter issued laptop.
Product marketing employee Rachel Bonn posted a picture of her last day in the San Francisco office with her toddler.
The heartbroken mother-of-two was unaware that her last day in the office would be her final day working for the social media giant.
She is one of 3,700 people who have been culled buy billionaire Elon Musk in his plan to save more than $400billion next year.
Posting a picture of her last day in the office with her son, she said: 'Last Thursday in the SF office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter.
'8 months pregnant and have a 9-month-old. Just got cut off from laptop access.'
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The move alarmed advocacy group Human Rights Watch, which tweeted 'companies have a responsibility to employ people who are essential to the protection of people's rights.'
Other civil rights groups have called on advertisers to abandon the company due to concerns over content moderation and user safety.
The company has reportedly fired 85 per cent of their employees in India and 90 per cent of those in Asia, with public relations and communications teams down to two people.
Workers also said the company eliminating employees without enough notice is in violation of federal and California law citing a class-action lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court.
A class action lawsuit filed on Thursday alleged that Twitter is in violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act after some employees were already laid off.
It requires and employer with more than 100 employees to provide 60 days' advance written notice prior to a mass layoff 'affecting 50 or more employees at a single site of employment'.
But Musk has seemingly got around the issue, by allowing workers to remain on the books until February 2 - which is in 91 days time.
He also confirmed that the company would be in contact with those who have been sacked to discuss their severance pay.
They will also have access to their Twitter systems deactivated - though some employees reported being kicked out of their accounts almost 12 hours before.
The class-action lawsuit was filed by Shannon Liss-Riordan, who sued Musk's electric car company Tesla Inc over similar claims in June, when it laid off around 10 percent of its workforce.
She said: 'It looks like employees are getting their notices and at least some will be paid until January 4.
'I am pleased that Elon Musk learned something from the lawsuit we brought against him at Tesla and is making an effort to comply with the WARN Act.
'We filed this case preemptively to
