Elon Musk Paints Bleak Picture in Email to Twitter Employees

SAN FRANCISCO — Two weeks after closing a $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter, Elon Musk despatched emails to the workers of the social media firm late on Wednesday, his first communications with them after mass layoffs and high-pressure drives to create new merchandise.

In two emails seen by The New York Instances, Mr. Musk painted a bleak monetary image for Twitter and outlined adjustments on the firm, together with an finish to its distant work coverage and a renewed deal with producing income and preventing spam.

“Sorry that that is my first electronic mail to the corporate, however there is no such thing as a approach to sugarcoat the message,” Mr. Musk, 51, wrote in a single electronic mail. “The financial image forward is dire.” Twitter was too closely depending on promoting and susceptible to pullbacks in model spending, he added, and would wish to bolster the income it will get from subscriptions.

In one other word to staff, he wrote that “absolutely the prime precedence is discovering and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam.”

Mr. Musk’s emails got here as Twitter continues to be roiled by his adjustments. Final week, he lower about 50 p.c of the corporate’s 7,500 staff. On the similar time, Mr. Musk has been pushing for product adjustments that may assist Twitter make more cash, together with selling a subscription product. He beforehand stated the corporate was dropping $4 million a day.

Twitter, whose communication division has been nearly completely laid off, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Bloomberg earlier reported Mr. Musk’s emails.

On Wednesday, three prime Twitter executives liable for safety, privateness and compliance additionally resigned, in response to two folks acquainted with the matter and inner paperwork seen by The Instances.

The departing executives embrace Lea Kissner, Twitter’s chief data safety officer; Damien Kieran, its chief privateness officer; and Marianne Fogarty, its chief compliance officer. Their resignations got here a day forward of a deadline for Twitter to submit a compliance report back to the Federal Commerce Fee, which is overseeing privateness practices on the firm as a part of a 2011 settlement.

Twitter has usually reviewed its merchandise for privateness issues earlier than rolling them out to customers, to keep away from extra fines from the F.T.C. and stay in compliance with the settlement. However due to a speedy tempo of product growth below Mr. Musk, engineers might be pressured to “self-certify” in order that their tasks meet privateness necessities, one worker wrote in an inner message seen by The Instances.

“Elon has proven that he cares solely about recouping the losses he’s incurring because of failing to get out of his binding obligation to purchase Twitter,” the worker wrote. The adjustments to Twitter’s F.T.C. opinions may lead to heavy fines and put folks working for the corporate in danger, the particular person warned.

“It will put big quantity of private, skilled and authorized danger onto engineers: I anticipate that each one of you’ll de pressured by administration into pushing out adjustments that can probably result in main incidents,” they wrote.

In certainly one of his emails to workers on Wednesday, Mr. Musk instructed staff that they have to return to the workplace on Thursday and work from there for at least 40 hours every week. Twitter’s work pressure has been distant since early within the pandemic, and in recent times, its staff have been allowed to decide on the place they need to reside somewhat than remaining in cities the place Twitter has workplaces.

At a few of Mr. Musk’s different corporations, together with the electrical carmaker Tesla and the rocket maker SpaceX, he has additionally stated staff should come into the workplace to work 40 hours every week.