Elon Musk will buy Twitter for $44 billion. This is, except for another surprise, the most important headline on the internet in 2022. Prior to the announcement, there were already reports about the concern of Twitter employees. Not only because of the lack of official information from his superiors, but also because of how the new owner would harm his employment. The company is aware that the acquisition could provoke an act of rebellionbut they have protected themselves from it.
According Bloomberg, Twitter blocked any modification on its platform, a measure that will remain in force until next Friday, April 29. What does it mean? No employee can make changes to the operation of the social network, no matter how minor.. The only exception is that such changes are related to a critical business decision. On the other hand, alterations must be approved by an area vice president. Otherwise, you will not have the green light to start your deployment.
Of course, the people who revealed this information to the aforementioned media —surely employees— preferred to remain anonymous.
These actions will prevent, for example, a worker from trying to rebel by spoiling some feature to express dissatisfaction with the purchase. “Twitter imposed the temporary ban for prevent employees from ‘going dishonest‘ for being upset about the deal,” says Bloomberg.
Uncertainty surrounds Twitter employees
And it is that, currently, within the company there is an atmosphere of uncertainty because no one knows what exactly Elon Musk is planning to do. Only the transition from a public company to a private company entails significant changes in the administration and way of working. Without forgetting, of course, that Musk’s commitment to “freedom of expression” may mean that some jobs are no longer necessary.
It should be noted that this This is not the first time that Twitter has taken such precautions. to avoid a serious inconvenience with their workers. In the past they have done the same during other events of local or global relevance, such as the Super Bowl – imagine that the platform stops working in the middle of the transmission of the most watched sporting event in the United States.
While Twitter’s stockings are understandable, so are the concerns of its employees. Since the purchase offer became a real option – over the weekend – some workers began to ask their superiors for explanations, but doubts were not resolved. Some took to the social network to ask Parag Agrawal, current CEO of Twitter, directly, while others asked questions of Elon Musk. However, were ignored by both sides.
So far, Twitter workers aren’t entirely sure they can keep their jobs. In addition, it is unknown if Elon Musk will throw away the efforts made in recent years; especially in the development of policies and sanctions to prevent inappropriate speech. One of his biggest fears is that Twitter will become a platform where misinformation and toxicity prevail.