Elon Musk would like to fire 75% of Twitter employees after acquisition

Elon Musk has said in the past that he has big plans for Twitter after he buys the company, but we wouldn’t expect that to include firing most of the employees. According to the Washington Post, Musk reportedly has a plan ready to let go of 75% of Twitter’s workforce, or about 5,600 employees. It’s unclear whether this is actually possible, as there’s a possibility that the network will no longer be able to operate in normal parameters without people “at the controls.”

The news doesn’t look good for those currently working at Twitter

Elon Musk’s $40 billion-plus investment appears to be in the network itself rather than the people who created and maintain it. So Musk may only plan to keep staff critical to keeping Twitter online, while letting go of what he would consider not helping the platform grow.

Already Twitter, like other tech companies, was planning to lay off about 25% of its employees in an attempt to keep the company afloat in a time of crisis and inflation, but Musk’s plan appears to be the complete opposite of that.

Most likely, Musk hopes to be able to fire content moderation teams and replace them with automated solutions. This strategy might be economical in the short term, but it could ruin the platform’s usefulness and credibility in the long run. Other networks, such as Parler, have been removed from the App Store and Play Store for their lack of effective moderation measures for problematic content. Most likely, Musk wants to keep Twitter on these platforms even after he spends $40 billion to buy it.

The Twitter acquisition is expected to close next week, on October 28. It remains to be seen if Musk will actually implement this strategy, or if it was just a figure he threw into a conversation to get some media appearances. The billionaire is known for making such statements or promises, then shortly thereafter changing his mind and doing the complete opposite. Including the Twitter acquisition, he changed his mind a few times before making the final decision to buy the network.