More than 90% of Twitter Inc.’s employees in India were laid off over the weekend as part of Elon Musk’s global hiring freeze, drastically reducing the company’s engineering and product personnel in a region with the potential to develop.
Due to the sensitive nature of the situation, persons familiar with the situation who asked to remain anonymous stated that the firm had just over 200 employees in India before the cutbacks.
Facts
Global internet businesses like Twitter, Meta Platforms Inc., and Google, a division of Alphabet Inc., depend on India’s sizable potential pool of new online users as a vital growth engine. However, the businesses must also comply with ever-stricter content laws designed to restrain the nation’s major digital corporations.
According to one of the persons, the product and engineering team in India, which operated on a worldwide mandate, accounted for almost 70% of the jobs that were eliminated. According to the persons, positions were also eliminated in departments including marketing, public policy, and corporate communications. Twitter, situated in San Francisco, California, cut the number of employees it had worldwide by nearly 3,700, or about half.
Impact
India has one of the most heated political discussions on Twitter, with opposing parties frequently tossing accusations at one another and charging one another with disinformation campaigns. On the platform, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has more than 84 million fans. With its recently downsized employees in the nation, which has more than 100 different official languages, it is unclear how Twitter hopes to control that dialogue.
Twitter’s offices in India are in New Delhi, Bengaluru in the south, and Mumbai’s financial district.
Statements
Globally, the corporation still employs roughly 3,700 employees, according to Bloomberg News. Musk is pressuring the remaining team members to produce new features rapidly, and in some cases, workers have stayed late at work to fulfil deadlines.
Positions were also eliminated in departments including marketing, public policy, and corporate communications, according to the sources. Globally, Twitter, located in San Francisco, California, cut its workforce by around half, or approximately 3,700 people, according to Bloomberg, who also noted that Twitter didn’t immediately reply to an email requesting comment.
On Twitter, several contending parties in India have some of the most “febrile political debates,” with accusations and denials sweeping around the social media site like wildfire.
Conclusion
Over 84 million people follow Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the platform.
With its newly decreased headcount in the nation, which includes more than 100 languages, “it is unclear how Twitter plans to manage that dialogue,” the article added, noting that there are still roughly 3,700 workers employed by the firm worldwide.
Musk is pressuring the remaining team members to produce new features rapidly, and in some cases, workers have stayed late at work to fulfil deadlines.
