Elon Musk clarifies that Twitter’s trust and safety team, which makes policy recommendations, design, and product changes, has hundreds of full-time workers.

By Abhik Sengupta: Elon Musk denied claims that Twitter, which he acquired in October 2022, has only 1,300 active employees. In a tweet, he stated that the company actually has approximately 2,300 active employees and “several thousand contractors.” This refutes a recent report by CNBC, which stated that Twitter only has 1,300 active employees, including “fewer than 550 full-time engineers by title.” The report, citing an internal document, said that 75 of Twitter’s 1,300 employees are currently on leave, including 40 engineers.

In the tweet, Musk also clarifies that Twitter’s trust and safety team, which makes policy recommendations, design, and product changes, has hundreds of full-time workers. He said, “There are still hundreds of employees working on trust and safety… Less than 10 people from my other companies are working at Twitter.” The report, on the other hand, claims that there are fewer than 20 full-time employees on the trust and safety team.

Musk did not offer clarity on non-working employees who are still on Twitter’s payroll. The internal document reportedly indicates that Twitter has approximately 1,400 non-working employees who are “still being paid, but are no longer expected to fulfil their old responsibilities.”

Following his takeover in late October 2022, Twitter fired 50 per cent of the 7500 workforce, while some even voluntarily resigned to reject Musk’s “hardcore” work style. A separate report recently stated that Twitter might fire more employees soon. The social media company may reduce layoff staff from the product division. However, some other departments could be impacted as well.

Twitter has also taken other strict measures to limit costs amid growing fears of a recession. The company has cut employee benefits and some offices have been shut. Twitter also auctioned surplus office items such as PCs, furniture, and even bird memorabilia to raise money. A Twitter bird statue was sold for roughly Rs 81 lakh.

Not just Twitter, other big tech companies have fired thousands of employees in the last three months to cut costs. Amazon has fired roughly 18000 workers, and Microsoft has laid off 10,000 staff. Meta, formerly Facebook, sacked roughly 11,000 workers in November 2022, which is roughly 13 per cent of its workforce. Last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai also announced that it laid off around 12,000 as the company overhired during the two years of the peak COVID-19 pandemic.

So far, Apple is the only major tech company to not mass lay off employees. However, we will get more clarity during its earnings call on February 2.