CNN —
More Twitter employees were laid off Thursday as part of the ongoing, rolling layoffs under new owner Elon Musk, including from the public policy and media and entertainment teams, according to tweets from affected employees.
As part of Thursday’s layoffs, Twitter’s public policy team members who remained after last month’s mass layoffs were again cut by about half to about 15 employees, a former Twitter employee with knowledge of the layoffs told CNN .
The public policy team’s responsibilities include working with outside advisory groups like the Twitter Trust and Safety Council, which the company disbanded earlier this month. It also manages human rights programs to protect vulnerable users like activists, advocates for transparency, works with government agencies, and helps comply with global regulations. The public policy team had more than 60 employees prior to Musk’s acquisition, the former employee said.
Thursday’s departures come after Musk fired about half of Twitter’s workforce shortly after his acquisition last month and later fired more employees, including through an ultimatum that required them to work “hardcore” or leave the company . Musk’s team — which is trying to cut costs at the struggling company the billionaire bought for $44 billion — has since fired hundreds of additional Twitter employees, including top engineers and lawyers, according to the former employee and several current ones reports.
More than 100 former Twitter employees have filed requests for arbitration or are participating in proposed class action lawsuits related to the layoffs.
The latest round of layoffs could further hurt Twitter’s ability to protect key users and comply with regulations as the company comes under increased scrutiny following Musk’s acquisition.
Thierry Breton, a senior EU official, warned Musk at a meeting last month that the social media platform must take significant steps to comply with EU content moderation laws and that European officials will closely monitor compliance . Musk has agreed to have the social media platform “stress tested” by EU officials early next year for compliance with the Digital Services Act, Europe’s new platform regulation.
Twitter also continues to struggle with the exit of many of its advertisers, who generate the bulk of the company’s revenue. As of Dec. 17, 72 of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers had suspended ad campaigns on the platform, according to a review by digital marketing intelligence firm Pathmatics, which provided it to CNN.
Meanwhile, Musk may be considering finding someone else to run the social platform after Twitter users voted to step down as CEO over the weekend. Musk tweeted this week that he will give up the top position “as soon as I find someone stupid enough to do the job!”