SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter has reportedly laid off more than a dozen foreign employees from its Trust and Safety team that oversees global content moderation and the unit linked to hate speech and harassment.
The latest round of cuts affected staff in Twitter’s misinformation, global appeals and state media departments at its Dublin, Ireland, and Singapore offices, Bloomberg reported citing anonymous sources. It comes two months after new CEO Elon Musk sacked members of content moderation in charge of tackling misinformation on the platform, amid a series of massive cuts that impacted around half of the company’s workforce.
Layoffs heighten concerns over Musk’s handling of content regulation
The latest layoffs have also added to longstanding concerns that Musk is dismantling the social media firm’s regulation of hateful content and misinformation.
Musk had been pursuing overhauling Twitter since he bought the company for $44 billion in October 2022. The new billionaire owner has outlined his vision for a “digital town square” based on free speech and healthy debate. He has also claimed of a decline in harmful material on Twitter since he took over the platform.
