Twitter Reportedly Lays Off 200 Staffers Including Head Of Blue Subscription Service

Topline

Twitter has laid off more than 200 staffers including some top executives who had risen up the ranks after Elon Musk’s takeover of the company, various news outlets reported, a move that comes weeks after the social media company’s billionaire owner and CEO said he was working to “stabilize the organization.”

Key Facts

According to the New York Times, the layoffs have impacted 10% of Twitter’s remaining workforce of 2,000 people, with many learning that they had been laid off after losing access to their company email accounts and laptops.

The layoffs reportedly began on Saturday night with many learning about their fate on Sunday.

Twitter Blue head Esther Crawford—who had previously defended the company’s new work culture under Musk and vowed to go “all-in”—also faced the axe, the Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer reported.

Crawford the founder of the screen-sharing app Squad joined Twitter after her company was acquired by the social media giant in late 2020.

Newsletter platform Revue founder, Martin de Kujiper, and design firm Ueno’s founder Haraldur Thorleifsson—both of whose companies were acquired by Twitter in 2021—were also among those laid off on Sunday.

Crucial Quote

Crawford tweeted about her exit on Sunday evening saying: “The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake…I’m deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos.”

What To Watch For

The reason behind the most recent layoffs is unclear as after the last major purge Musk had told employees there would be no more layoffs and the company was now looking to hire. Despite that promise, intermittent layoffs have continued at Twitter. The Verge’s Alex Heath, citing ex-Twitter employees, reported that Sunday’s cuts may be a prelude to Musk installing a “whole new regime” at Twitter. He added that Twitter has less than a dozen people “left working on the consumer product and design.”