Former employees of Twitter’s only office in Africa have reportedly been “ghosted” by the company and have still not received severance pay months after being laid off, CNN reported on Monday, adding to the platform’s growing personnel problem following Elon Musk’s takeover as competition with Meta’s Threads heats up.
Terminated workers from #Twitter ’s office in Accra, Ghana, have still not received severance pay despite being fired as part of Musk’s severe staff cull more than seven months ago, according to CNN, citing several unnamed sources.Former employees, who spoke anonymously due to having signed non-disclosure agreements, told CNN they had accepted Twitter’s offer to pay three months of severance, as well as legal costs incurred during negotiations and repatriation costs for foreign staff.
The former employees—who have since been settled at other locations after agreeing the terms—noted this was less than what workers elsewhere were offered but said the company wore them down by being “non-responsive” and “ghosted” them until they’d agreed to its terms
Musk set about drastically reducing Twitter’s headcount almost immediately after he controversially acquired the platform for $44 billion in 2022. The cuts were deep—from 8,000 staff to around 1,500, a reduction of around 80%—and Musk said he had no choice given the need to cut costs. It was one of a number of unpopular changes Musk made to the platform, including changes to its verification scheme, introducing a paid version of the platform and overhauling content moderation policies, and left regulators and users worried Twitter would not have sufficient numbers to keep the platform running or meet its legal obligations. Advertisers have reportedly fled the platform in droves since Musk took over, ad revenue has plummeted and users are flocking to competitors, notably neophyte rival Threads. Tightly linked to Meta’s Instagram, Threads has managed to notch up more than 100 million users in less than a week and is shaping up to be one of Twitter’s biggest threats.#africa #Binance $BNB
