Billionaire Elon Musk’s global axe, slicing Twitter's 7,500 staff numbers by half, has reached Australia.
Insiders say there is a sense of limbo, waiting on official confirmation and details on severance packages, but clearly locked out of internal systems before receiving a form letter by email.
eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant told the SMH: “The approach of culling employees who have particular expertise in trust and safety functions, with intimate knowledge of how the platform’s policies and tools work, potentially undermines the company’s ability to combat abuse, misinformation and harms in the future.”
The local cuts appear widespread.
The ten-person Asia-Pacific curation team, said to be disbanded globally, is reported gone.
Katherine Gallo, deputy curation lead, who joined Twitter from SBS in June last year: “If you are recruiting multilingual curators, social media producers, writers, digital producers or journalists in Australia please get in touch, I have more than ten extremely smart folks that will be an asset to your team!”
She manages the APAC Global News team. She wrote on LinkedIn: “Today, my entire team was laid off from Twitter. I’m heartbroken because when I left my previous job at SBS I thought I wasn’t going to find another place I loved so much so quickly. But I did. It’s the people that made Twitter so special. What’s next for me? I’m not sure.
“My brilliant curation colleagues tackled misinformation, contextualised topics of interest, including breaking news, politics, health, social justice, sports, and entertainment, summarising complex conversations unfolding in real-time on Twitter.”
Jono Munschi, the head of sales at Twitter Australia: “I am hère to help you and everyone on the team. Anything I can do just ask.”
Dylan Lockhart, client account manager at Twitter Australia: “Unfortunately I’m one of the many who’s been impacted by the layoffs at Twitter.
“It’s been an amazing 3 and a half years and I’m sorry to see some brilliant and talented people I’ve worked with in the same boat.
“If anyone knows of any marketing, account manager or brand roles opening in Melbourne please let me know!”
Abdallah Kamal and D'arcy McGregor from Australia also appear on a global list of ex-Twitter staff also seeking new roles.
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