Elon Musk Cuts Twitter Content Moderation Team; Former Twitter Employees Say Severance Package 'Much Less' Than Anticipated

By Mary Webber Jan 08 2023, 21:49 PM EST

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has reportedly made more cuts in the social media company, with the employee cuts done in the content moderation team, including the unit that manages hate speech and harassment on the social media platform.

Sources noted that the latest cuts in the company are at Twitter's Dublin and Singapore offices.

Among the laid-offs were Analuisa Dominguez, Twitter's senior director of revenue policy, as well as the recently hired head of site integrity, Nur Azhar Bin Ayob.

Musk also fired employees managing Twitter's misinformation policy, global appeals, and state media.

Twitter's Head of Trust and Safety, Ella Irwin, confirmed the layoffs. However, Irwin denied the reduction in other areas.

Irwin noted that it made more sense to combine teams under one leader instead of two.

The Twitter official said there would still be a head of revenue policy and a leading figure for the Asia-Pacific region for the trust and safety team. She added that Twitter would be increasing its staff in its appeals department.

Musk procured the social media company in October after completing the $44 billion buyout deal.

Twitter Severance Package Lawsuit

Hundreds of Twitter employees had been laid off in November. They had also received severance agreements on Sunday, with some saying they only received an additional month's severance.

It would equate to around three months of salary as compared to six months of severance package to laid-off employees from Facebook and four months to Snap.

Musk has also promised three months of severance packages for laid-off employees in November.

One former Twitter employee said they declined the severance package and chose to be part of a class action lawsuit filed by former employees accusing Twitter of failing to provide the laid-off employees enough notice as required by law.

Musk earlier tweeted that those laid off would receive three months of severance compensation, with him previously offering at least two months' worth of severance pay as well as prorated performance bonuses, extended visa support, and money for health care, among others.

Meanwhile, Twitter employees will also not be receiving their prorated performance bonuses based on the released Twitter severance material.

In addition, sources have noted that those who received their severance package agreements were given a unique login detail and were directed to visit a domain.

However, the said domain was created five hours before the severance agreements went out and did not have Twitter's name in it.

Many were led to believe that it was a phishing attempt.

Elon Musk Twitter Takeover

Since Musk got the reigns at Twitter, he has been trying to reduce expenses. It led to rent payments at the company's offices falling behind.

Currently, Twitter owes $136,260 in overdue rent on its offices on the 30th floor of a building in downtown San Francisco, according to a recent lawsuit from the building's landlord.

Most of Musk's wealth is connected to his ownership of Tesla shares, which have lost more than half of their value under Musk's leadership.

Musk has also announced the auction of high-end office furniture and kitchen equipment, including the Twitter bird figure.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Former Twitter employees sue platform over severance packages - from Yahoo Finance