Twitter lays off third of recruiting team

The social media company faces increasing business pressures as it grapples with a potential takeover from Elon Musk.

Twitter has doubled down on defending the accuracy of their calculation of spam on the platform. Picture: Chris Delmas/ AFP.

Twitter has laid off 30 per cent of its talent acquisition team, as the company deals with increasing business pressures and a potential takeover from Elon Musk.

The lay-offs, which the company announced on Thursday night, come after it said in May that it would be pausing hiring and looking to cut costs. As a result of the revised business needs, the company is restructuring and reducing its talent acquisition team. The lay-offs are expected to affect fewer than 100 people and are limited to the talent acquisition team, the company said.

A Twitter spokesman confirmed the lay-offs but declined further comment.

In light of the hiring pause Twitter is reprioritizing the talent acquisition team, which includes recruiters, to ensure that it operates efficiently and responsibly, the spokesman said.

The lay-offs come as Twitter awaits completion of Mr Musk’s $US44bn ($64bn) deal to buy the company. In May, Mr Musk said his deal was “on hold,” as he questioned the way Twitter calculates spam and fake accounts.

On Thursday night, Twitter officials in a briefing doubled down on defending the accuracy of their calculation of spam on the platform. They reiterated on a call with reporters that spam accounts make up less than 5 per cent of the company’s daily monetisable users, which Twitter defines as daily users who are logged in and authenticated.

Mr Musk has suggested that he thinks the number could be closer to 20 per cent, without providing evidence that the company’s disclosures were unreliable.

Twitter is the latest tech company to announce lay-offs amid falling stock prices and fears of recession. Last month, Coinbase Global said it would cut 1,100 employees, or 18 per cent of its staff, while Unity Software last week announced that it would lay off 4 per cent of its workforce.

Others, including Microsoft, Snap and Facebook parent Meta Platforms, have announced reductions in hiring or hiring freezes.

Numerous Twitter employees took to LinkedIn to post about the lay-offs.

“I am overwhelmed; nervous and anxious but trying to stay optimistic of the future,” a recruiter who was laid off from Twitter wrote on LinkedIn.

Wall Street Journal