Elon Musk's Twitter entered its third week, and the situation does not look promising at all: The platform is facing mass layoffs, the resignation of important figures and concerns about privacy and security.
Yoel Roth, the head of security and integrity who was appointed to publicly address concerns advertisers and users had about the platform, is said to be the latest to leave the company. Chief information security officer Lea Kissner, chief privacy officer Damien Kieran and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty have also left.
The layoffs began the same day Elon Musk addressed employees for the first time, saying "bankruptcy is not out of the question," according to multiple reports.
In an email to employees and a subsequent staff meeting, Elon Musk lacked confidence in the company's future. In the email, Musk described the difficult economic circumstances the company was in and how important, according to him, the subscription service, Twitter Blue, was to the future of the company.
Twitter Blue allows users to purchase the blue token that indicates an account is verified for $8. But it has already resulted in many accounts being verified, despite imitating well-known figures or brands. Some civil rights groups worry that the lack of content control policies and the ability to purchase a blue tick that verifies diversity could lead to an increase in misinformation and hate speech. They have called on brands to ban their ads on Twitter.
"I've never seen a billionaire beg so much for your $8," said Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "It's clear that our efforts - calling on companies to ban all advertising on Twitter - are working. Corporations must be held accountable, and Twitter is no exception. Hate speech and misinformation have no place."
