Elon Musk reported to have fired Twitter curation team responsible for tackling misinformation – business live

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This tweet from fired employee Aakash Raina would appear to confirm Elon Musk has fired at least some members of Twitter’s content moderation team.

It also directly contradicts the billionaire Twitter owner’s assertion in his own tweet earlier Friday that “nothing has changed with content moderation”.

Elon Musk has been busy this morning at an investment conference in New York city, talking economics and finance as thousands of his Twitter employees were waiting to learn their fate.

The billionaire entrepreneur was at the 29th annual Baron investment conference in Manhattan, chatting with the company’s chairman and chief executive Ron Baron, a prominent shareholder of Musk’s electric car company Tesla.

We don’t yet know how their discussion went, but according to Baron in an appearance on CNBC Thursday he indicated they would talk about Tesla, SpaceX, and Musk’s provision of Starlink internet service to Ukraine as it fights the country’s invasion by Russia.

Baron said he supported Musk’s vision for Twitter, including today’s lay-off of thousands of workers.

Without any discernible hint of irony, Twitter has added “context” to Elon Musk’s earlier tweet accusing “activist groups” of pressuring advertisers to withdraw from his newly acquired social media platform, leading to a “massive drop in revenue”.

The note appended to Musk’s tweet adds links to three news articles referring to “advertisers suspending or canceling ad buys over concern with Twitter platform direction” rather than pressure from any outside entities seeking to exert influence.

Twitter’s own “watchdog”, @twittersafety, informs users that “context” is sometimes added to a post when “potentially misleading content” is present.

We wait to learn if Musk will react to being pulled up by the tech behemoth he now owns.

A former senior community manager at Twitter has told the Guardian how he learned of his dismissal, by data on his laptop suddenly being wiped, one hour after he finished what turned out to be his final shift.

Simon Balmain, who worked for the company for about a year, liaising primarily with clients on the US west coast, said he was “shocked, but not surprised” at the sudden job cuts:

I had finished work but still had my laptop open, and we all received an email from the company about a reduction in head count. An hour after that, my laptop flashed and was wiped, I no longer had access to my apps.

Balmain said that reports of the firing of Twitter’s anti-disinformation curation team “poses real risks going forward”. He added:

I’ve spoken to a few people in the same position as me and what is very apparent is we had a very good corporate culture and people have been really looking out for each other, including former employees who have reached out and offered support.

Balmain believes Twitter will focus on two strategies to make money: products that users pay for, such as Twitter Blue and the $8 monthly fee Musk has floated for user verification; and creative projects where users pay other users, such as celebrities or influencers.

Read more:

Here’s our latest report of Friday’s Twitter developments, including Elon Musk’s claim that “activist groups pressuring advertisers” are responsible for a “massive drop in revenue” since he bought the company.

Twitter employees have told us that they’ve been locked out of their work laptops and email accounts, and there are reports from inside the company that Musk has fired the platform’s entire curation team.

As my colleague Dan Milmo explains, the curation team “plays a key role in coverage of ‘civic integrity’ events such as elections, breaking news and sports, ensuring users have vetted information presented as moments, trends and topics products. It is viewed internally as a key filter against misleading posts”.

Read the full report here:

While we wait for news of the extent of today’s lay-offs, here’s an eye-opening employee’s account of life within the new-look Twitter bubble following its takeover by Elon Musk, as reported by Business Insider.

It tells of purges of staff that have already taken place; team leaders forming their own cliques; a menacing atmosphere from “prowling” managers; and individuals quickly sucking up to their new boss despite having never met him.

The insider says:

It’s been nuts to me to see this small faction of newly-minted Elon acolytes suddenly rise up and try to make their voices heard. The amount of ass-kissing and the amount of bizarre Reddit, 4-chan-style stuff like “oh Elon, I’ll be your right hand” on Blind, during those first days after the transaction closed — it was terrifying.

I thought, ‘I don’t want to work with these clowns’.

The employee adds that he’s heard stories of people being asked to work “literally around the clock”, and engineers asked to stay on call over the weekend and asked to do things immediately, “at three or four in the morning”.

“I can’t keep doing this. I’ve started interviewing elsewhere,” the employee says.

Business Insider notes that Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

There’s as-yet unverified speculation that Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s curation team, which is responsible for countering misinformation posted to the social media network.

The claim comes (on Twitter, naturally) from Richie Assaly, a digital producer for the Toronto Star, who says he previously worked as a member of the curation team.

Assaly says team “leads, management and curators are all posting that they’ve been fired”.

The move, if true, “will make Twitter noisier, more dangerous & less interesting”, he asserts.

Musk, in his tweet blaming “activist groups” for pressuring advertisers to withdraw from Twitter, causing a “massive” drop in revenue, insisted: “nothing has changed with content moderation”.

Elon Musk has tweeted that Twitter has seen a slump in revenue due to “activist groups” putting pressure on advertisers.

He says:

“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,.”

It’s true that some major companies have put advertising on pause, such as General Mills and General Motors, and now Volkswagen.

But as my colleague Kari Paul writes, that reflects concerns about how Musk will run Twitter:

The growing exodus of advertisers comes amid concerns Musk will scale back misinformation and security protections on the platform. As civil rights groups call potential moderation issues into question, companies are considering whether staying on Twitter might tarnish their brands.

Shortly before taking over the San Francisco company last week, Musk issued a vow to advertisers that he would not allow Twitter to become a “free-for-all hellscape,” an indication there would still be consequences for violators of its rules against harassment, violence or election and Covid-related misinformation.

But since then some users have posted racial slurs and recirculated long-debunked conspiracy theories in an apparent attempt to see if the site’s policies were still being enforced. The NAACP said this week it has expressed to Musk its concerns about “the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated on Twitter” under his watch.

Twitter employees have been using the hashtag #OneTeam to announce they’ve lost their jobs, or to support each other. Some staff have reported losing access to internal systems, so couldn’t message goodbyes to colleagues.

Twitter users have been expressing support too:

Wall Street has opened higher, after the US jobs report bolstered hopes that interest rate rises could slow.

The Dow Jones industrial average has gained 1.3%, or 406 points, to 32,407, with the tech-focused Nasdaq up 1.1%.

The rise in the US unemployment rate, to 3.7%, and the slowdown in annual pay growth to 4.7% seems to be supporting hopes that the Federal Reserve could deliver smaller rate hikes in the future.

The dollar has dropped sharply, pushing the pound up by one and a half cents to $1.132, recovering most of yesterday’s losses.

Shares are roaring higher in London too, with the FTSE 100 up over 2%. Mining stocks are surging, as a weaker dollar pushes up commodity prices and could help global growth.

A member of security staff at Twitter’s Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dublin has told reporters that nobody was coming into the office on Friday and employees had been told to stay home, Reuters reports.

Another member of security staff locked the revolving doors at the front of the building where around 500 members of staff worked before the layoffs began.

The company’s office in Piccadilly Circus, London, appeared deserted on Friday, with no employees in sight.

US president Joe Biden says the US jobs recovery remains strong, following today’s better-than-expected employment report.

October’s Non-Farm Payrolls was the last healthcheck on America’s labor market before the mid-term elections next week. Biden has reminded voters that the economy has been adding jobs steadily on his watch.

Biden says:

Today’s jobs report – adding 261,000 jobs with the unemployment rate still at a historically low 3.7% — shows that our jobs recovery remains strong.

With jobs now added every single month of my presidency, a record setting 10 million job increase, a record 700,000 manufacturing jobs added which puts us at 137,000 more manufacturing jobs than we had before the pandemic, historically low Black and Hispanic unemployment rates, the gross domestic product increasing, and incomes on the way up, one thing is clear: while comments by Republican leadership sure seem to indicate they are rooting for a recession, the US economy continues to grow and add jobs even as gas prices continue to come down.

Biden also pledges to “do what it takes to bring inflation down”, but won’t accept that the problem is too many Americans are finding good jobs.

Musk is keen to prevent an exodus of advertisers as he shakes up Twitter, my colleague Dan Milmo explains:

Given that ads account for 90% of the company’s revenue, the Tesla CEO needs to keep them onside while he tries to boost income via other initiatives. To that end, he sent a message to advertisers as the takeover was being finalised, saying he would not let the site become a hotbed of hate speech.

“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences,” he said. Advertisers have, nonetheless, gone on pause.

General Mills, the company behind the Cheerios and Lucky Charms cereals, said it would suspend advertising on Twitter, joining the car firms General Motors and Audi in monitoring changes at the company before deciding whether to resume. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has reportedly paused its advertising, too.

Here’s a full breakdown of what’s happening at the social media site:

German carmaker Volkswagen has joined the ranks of companies deciding to pause paid advertising on Twitter, following Elon Musk’s takeover.

Volkswagen said today it had recommended to its brands to pause paid advertising, explaining:

“We are closely monitoring the situation and will decide about next steps depending on its evolvement”

Volkswagen’s brands include VW, Seat, Cupra, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Ducati and Porsche.

Fellow car maker General Motors and Cheerios-maker General Mills have also said they are pausing advertising on Twitter while they evaluated the situation.

Musk has promised advertisers he would keep Twitter from turning into a ‘free-for-all hellscape’, but there are concerns that misinformation on the platform could increase, especially if banned accounts are reinstated.

In more retail news – UK department store chain John Lewis has announced that it’s launched its Black Friday deals today, over a fortnight earlier than last year, in a bid to help its customers “spread the cost of Christmas” amid the cost of living crisis.

However, the first promotions are only valid for some technology products and some fragrances, while discounts on fashion, beauty and homeware will be unveiled in the coming days.

Kathleen Mitchell, John Lewis’s commercial director, said:

“We know that, despite the rising cost of living, our customers still want to celebrate Christmas, so our teams and suppliers have worked incredibly hard to make sure we can offer our customers great value deals on the products they love.”

The retailer said it’s also hiring an additional 6,000 temporary workers – 2,000 of whom will work in its shops over the busy festive period and 4,000 in its distribution network.

Black Friday promotions once traditionally took place on the final Friday in November, the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday. But it has spread, and John Lewis’s are set to last for the best part of a month this year, with many running until 1st December, as it looks to get shoppers to spend.

Other retailers are already looking towards Christmas, with the first festive ads hitting TV sets:

Back in Europe, Mike Ashley’s shopping spree continues unabated.

The billionaire retailer’s sportswear and fashion business Frasers Group has just informed the stock market that it has further increased its stake in the German fashion house Hugo Boss, taking its maximum exposure to the company to appoximately EUR1bn (?874m).

Frasers now has a 4.3% direct holding of Hugo Boss shares, combined with an additional 30% through the sale of financial instruments known as put options.

It comes less than a fortnight since Frasers last told investors it had increased its stake in Hugo Boss, at that time increasing its exposure to EUR960m.

In recent weeks, Frasers has also increased its stake in the online fashion retailer Asos to reach 5%, making it the company’s fourth-largest investor.

Ashley stepped down last month from the board of Frasers Group, after 40 years at the helm, and a few months after installing his son-in-law Michael Murray as the company’s chief executive.

However, Ashley remains the company’s controlling shareholder, with a near-70% stake, and he continues to act as an adviser to the board and senior management.

Richard Flynn, managing director at Charles Schwab UK, fears US unemployment will continue to rise as the Fed fight inflation:

“Today’s strong jobs figures indicate that the US economy is still running faster than the Fed might hope, increasing the likelihood that the central bank will continue to raise interest rates through into 2023.

Officials have been quite vocal about their intention to loosen the labour market to tame inflation. Their goal is to decrease the number of job openings without increasing unemployment. However, the margin for success continues to fade as interest rates climb.

“Even though many may be hoping for weaker jobs reports in the near term, there will come a point at which weaker reports won’t be celebrated. The employment market is a lagging economic indicator, meaning recent interest rate hikes will take months to feed into future jobs reports. There is a risk that increasing unemployment becomes the price for a return to lower inflation.”