Twitter users and watchdog groups are reacting to a report that Elon Musk plans to lay off most of the social media company’s workforce if and when he becomes owner.
At Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, the talk of layoffs has caused a chill for the social media company.
The Washington Post first reported Thursday that Musk wrote a letter to investors in his effort to buy the platform. In that letter, he said he's looking to slash jobs across the board to the tune of about 75% of the staff.
One of the most immediate concerns from watchdog groups is the possible cutting of content moderators, which are employees who police the site for dangerous or abusive tweets.
“I’m assuming that Elon Musk is assuming that Twitter can fire some employees and replace them with robots,” said Corynne McSherry of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “But our experience is that robots are not good at content moderation.”
For some Twitter users, the idea of cutting staff is also a concern.
“Bad idea. I mean that's why I’m interested to see what will happen,” said San Francisco Resident Adam Markosian.
“I would like Twitter to be a place where people feel like they're taking less psychic damage on a daily basis,” said East Bay resident Andre Pegeron.
The word of potential job cuts with or without the purchase by Musk has no doubt caused concerns amongst current employees of Twitter.
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In an email to employees obtained by NBC News, Twitter's general counsel tried to calm those concerns, as they wrote in part: 'We do not have any confirmation of the buyers' plans following close and recommend not following rumors or leaked documents, but rather wait for facts from us and the buyer directly."
The content of the email was confirmed to NBC News by a Twitter spokesperson.
The general counsel also acknowledged plans to cut jobs before the deal with Musk was made, that plan has been frozen ever since Twitter is a much smaller platform than Facebook, and it's never made a profit.
The loudest concerns about the social media platform’s future often come from a small but influential group of people.
“Twitter gets a lot of attention. Frankly, because politicians use it,” McSherry said.
The U.S. Government is the latest to raise concerns about Musk's purchase, said it will review the details of the deal.
A Delaware judge has given the parties involved until next Friday to work out any differences or go to trial in November.
