FOLLOW US

Elon Musk was forced to slash Twitter’s headcount to half in his first comments on the mass layoffs after taking over the social platform.

He tweeted on Friday: "Regarding Twitter's reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day."

Musk added: "Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required."

Nonetheless, workers have told Business Insider in an interview that they have been offered payments of between one and three months, depending on the region's legal requirements. 

Musk's Twitter team sent a company-wide memo earlier this week to US-based informing them of a Friday email that would tell them whether they were being laid off or kept on. 

Some employees told Insider's Kali Hays they lost access to work systems soon after receiving the warning email, while hundreds of workers have tweeted about losing their jobs. 

Five former employees, including an engineer who also draws satirical cartoons, filed a lawsuit on Thursday saying Twitter failed to give enough notice about the job cuts. 

Celebrities have also expressed their opposition to Musk's plan to charge $8 a month for blue ticks. Author Stephen King compared the billionaire to a fictional character who asks friends to do chores and then charges them. 

Musk also hit out at companies for pulling their advertising from the platform. He tweeted: "Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists."

Companies including General Motors, Volkswagen, Audi, and Pfizer have paused their advertising.

Responding to a comment on Twitter about the ad boycott, he said: "A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues."