Elon Musk tells Twitter staff to expect job cuts in first direct address Business

Among Twitter’s top political users is former US President Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from the platform in January 2021 after he used Twitter to incite a riot at the US Capitol that left four people dead.

Mr Musk has previously said he would reinstate Mr Trump’s account, describing the site as “the place in the digital city where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated”.

The Tesla boss described himself as having a “moderate politics” and said he had always voted for the Democratic Party until very recently. This week, he raised the possibility of launching a “super moderate super PAC” that would raise funds for centrist candidates in the United States.

Other questions from Twitter staff related to the ongoing fight between Mr Musk and Twitter management over the number of fake accounts on the site.

Twitter has publicly admitted that 5% of its 229 million active accounts are bots that are not operated by humans. Mr Musk disputed that number, prompting Chief Executive Parag Agrawal to offer the billionaire access to the ‘firehose’ of every tweet as it is posted so he can review it. solve by itself.

Mr Musk told staff on Thursday: ‘It must cost a lot more to have an army of trolls.’

Critics have suggested the row of fake accounts is an attempt by Mr Musk to drive down the acquisition price. Mr. Musk has so far secured around $30 billion in equity commitments for the $44 billion acquisition.

Described as “rambling” by a Twitter staff source who spoke to Reuters, Mr Musk ended the hour-long call by saying he had seen “no real evidence” of extraterrestrial life forms.

Although Twitter’s board recommended that shareholders accept the deal, Mr. Musk said he was “on hold” in mid-May, thinking he had said later that he “remained attached” to it.

Twitter’s share price was virtually unchanged on Thursday’s call, rising 1pc after Mr Musk was asked about his political views.

Tesla’s share price fell 7.5%, reflecting investor fears that Mr Musk could liquidate more of his 17% stake in the electric carmaker to raise money to finalize takeover of Twitter.