The Australian Online Safety Authority said this on Thursday, citing figures from the online platform formerly known as Twitter.
Accordingly, 1,213 employees in the “Trust and Security” area have left the online company since it was bought by high-tech billionaire Musk in October 2022. These included 80 percent of the software engineers in this area. At the same time, thousands of previously blocked user accounts were reactivated. The authority explained that all the conditions for the spread of harmful content had been created.
Agency director Julie Inman Grant said this was the first time such specific figures regarding job cuts at X had been published. Your authority had requested the numbers from the short message service on the basis of a law on online security.
Thousands of employees laid off
Musk took over Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion (around 40 billion euros today). As part of a chaotic restructuring of the platform, Musk laid off Twitter’s top management and thousands of employees. In addition, the head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla drastically reduced the moderation of content and allowed users blocked for rule violations – the most famous of them, ex-US President Donald Trump – back onto the platform.
Observers denounce a significant increase in hate messages and misinformation on X. Musk himself has caused outrage by spreading conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic content.
