Twitter cuts 200 more jobs: New York Times

Twitter has laid off at least 200 employees, or 10 percent of its workforce, according to The New York Times, as job cuts continue at US tech behemoths.

The fresh layoffs include product managers, big data experts and engineers working on machine learning and platform reliability, the US daily reported on Sunday.

Twitter did not immediately confirm the reports when contacted by AFP.

Esther Crawford, in charge of the social network’s product development, was one of the employees let go, according to the Times.

Crawford was among the few remaining Twitter executives from before its October acquisition by Elon Musk who had not resigned or been fired.

Head of the new Twitter Blue verification program, she had been a staunch supporter of Musk and the company, going so far as to retweet a photo of herself sleeping in a sleeping bag at her workplace.

“The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake,” she wrote on Twitter.

“Those who jeer & mock are necessarily on the sidelines and not in the arena. I’m deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos.”

Other giants in the once-unassailable tech sector—including Amazon, Alphabet and Meta—have announced thousands of layoffs in the past year.

The firings come after a major hiring spree in the tech industry when the companies scrambled to meet skyrocketing demand for their products as people went online for work, shopping and entertainment during the coronavirus pandemic.

© 2023 AFP