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The crisis at Twitter reached new heights after hundreds of employees were reported to have rejected Elon Musk’s ultimatum to keep working for the business, threatening its ability to keep operating. As the company temporarily closed its offices, Twitter users began saying their goodbyes and linking to accounts on other platforms.
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The decision has led to a wave of departures among policy and safety-issue staffers around the globe. Staff departures in recent days include dozens of people spread across units such as government policy, legal affairs, and Twitter’s “trust and safety” division, which is responsible for functions like drafting content-moderation rules, according to current and former employees, postings on social media and emails sent to work addresses of people who had worked at Twitter that recently bounced back.
Why it matters
The staff departures come as Twitter holds talks with the EU about the bloc’s new social-media law, dubbed the Digital Services Act, which will apply tougher rules on bigger platforms like Twitter by the middle of next year. Didier Reynders the EU’s justice commissioner is slated to attend a previously scheduled meeting with Twitter officials in Ireland on Thursday. He plans to ask about the company’s ability to comply with the law and to meet its commitments on data protection and tackling online hate speech, according to an EU official familiar with the trip.
