Having laid off more than half of Twitter’s workforce, Elon Musk has set his sights on a new batch of employees to dispatch: people offering constructive criticism and staff who have questioned his decisions, even in private.
Since Monday, nearly two dozen workers, some of them highly respected and arguably integral to the company’s operations, have been fired from the platform for sharing honest feedback either internally or externally, The New York Times reported, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
Employees say they were fired with little notice via an email with the subject line, “Your Role at Twitter.”
“Hi,” the late-night email from “Twitter HR” read, according to a screenshot posted by fired engineer Nick Morgan. “We regret to inform you that your employment is terminated effective immediately. Your recent behavior has violated company policy.”
It’s unclear what specific policy the company is referring to. HuffPost has reached out to Twitter for comment.
“I can only assume this was for not showing 100% loyalty in slack,” Morgan added in a follow-up tweet, referring to the company’s internal messaging platform. “I’ve heard the same thing has happened to many others now.”
Twitter has long urged employees to “communicate fearlessly to build trust” as one of its core business values. Yet Musk seems to disagree with the tenet; ironic, considering he fancies himself a “free speech absolutist.”
On Monday, Eric Frohnhoefer, a software engineer who helped optimize Twitter for Android, was among the first to be let go.
His offense: responding to Musk via a detailed Twitter thread on why Twitter can be slow on Android at times ― and offering potential solutions.
In what turned into a lengthy back-and-forth with both Musk and Musk’s legion of online supporters, Frohnhoefer explained why Musk seemed to be misinformed, at one point appearing baffled the CEO would even bring such a conversation to a public forum.
“Maybe he should ask questions privately,” he told one person in the thread along with a “shrugging” emoji. “Maybe using Slack or email.”
In a tweet he has since deleted, Musk replied, “He’s fired.” Frohnhoefer later shared a photo of his locked-out computer screen. “Guess it’s official now,” he said.
Other Twitter employees who vouched for Frohnhoefer and the validity of his analysis also found themselves fired, including Yao Yue, a senior engineer who had been with the company for more than 12 years.
“I would like to apologize for firing these geniuses,” Elon later tweeted sarcastically, appearing to confirm the firings. “Their immense talent will no doubt be of great use elsewhere.”
On Wednesday, Twitter employees woke up to an ultimatum from Musk in their inboxes, asking them to commit to “Twitter 2.0,” where “we will need to be extremely hardcore” and “only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”
Those unwilling to commit to the new effort in writing by Thursday at 5 p.m. ET, Musk said, would be given three months of severance.
