Musk seems to be trying some horrifying things, as, over the weekend, Twitter Inc. laid off more than 90% of its employees in India as part of a global restructuring led by new owner Elon Musk. This drastically reduced the company’s engineering and product staff in a market with the potential to grow.
According to people familiar with the situation who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation, the company employed just over 200 people in India before the cuts, and it now only has about a dozen employees, Bloomberg reported.
For international internet companies like Twitter, Meta Platforms Inc., and Google, which are depending on its sizable potential pool of new online users, India is a key growth engine. However, the businesses must also adhere to increasingly strict content laws that are intended to control the nation’s major tech companies.
One of the people stated that the product and engineering team, which worked on a global mandate, accounted for about 70% of the jobs cut in India. According to the people, positions were also eliminated in departments such as corporate communications, public policy, and marketing. The San Francisco, California-based Twitter cut about 3,700 jobs from its workforce globally.
An email requesting comment was not immediately answered by Twitter. With rival political parties routinely tossing accusations back and forth and accusing one another of disseminating false information, India has one of the tensest political conversations on Twitter.
More than 84 million people follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the platform. With a newly reduced staff in the nation, which speaks more than 100 languages, it is unclear how Twitter intends to control that debate.
New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai’s financial district, and Mumbai’s southern tech hub are all home to Twitter’s offices in India.
According to Bloomberg News, the company still has about 3,700 employees worldwide. Musk is pressuring those who are still working to deliver new features as quickly as possible; in some cases, workers have even stayed up late to meet deadlines.
Mitzi Francis is a content editor at The Landscape Insight. With a background in journalism and a passion for storytelling, Mitzi brings a unique perspective to his role at the publication. He is committed to delivering high-quality, informative content to his readers. You can reach Mitzi at [email protected] or on our website contact us page.
