The former Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey has gone on the platform recently acquired by the billionaire Elon Musk to apologize for the state of the site, which has laid off thousands of workers.
On Saturday Dorsey published a series of tweets in response to the layoffs across Twitter’s workforce, which began on Friday. As many as half of the company’s 7,500 staffers could be axed since Musk acquired the company for $44bn last week.
“Folks at Twitter, past and present, are strong and resilient,” Dorsey wrote. “They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me.
“I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.”
Dorsey added: “I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment … or ever … and I understand,” along with a heart emoji.
Response to Dorsey’s comments have been mixed. Many users have blamed Dorsey for issues at Twitter after being bought by Musk.
“Oof. Too little. Too late,” wrote one user.
Another user wrote: “Dude, you suck.”
A number of divisions at Twitter suffered deep cuts or were eliminated altogether, including the company’s human rights and algorithm ethics teams.
At least one class-action lawsuit has been filed against Twitter on behalf of former employees who say they were not given adequate notice of their termination.
“Elon Musk has a history of violating California’s labor laws, as Tesla has been hit with a shocking number of sexual and racial harassment lawsuits,” said prominent lawyer Lisa Bloom, who confirmed to the Guardian that she has been in contact with several Twitter employees.
“His workers are human beings who are all entitled to respectful treatment. This time a hard-hitting class-action lawsuit will finally educate him that even the world’s richest man is not above the law.”
UK-based Twitter workers who face losing their jobs have been given three days to nominate a representative for a formal consultation about their employment.
Musk has defended the layoffs, tweeting that fired employees are receiving three months of severance as the company reportedly loses over $4m a day.
But several companies have announced that they will no longer be advertising on Twitter amid fears that misinformation and hate speech will proliferate on the app as protections against each are scaled back.
Audi, General Motors, General Mills and other advertisers have halted ads on the site.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other groups have also pushed for advertisers to pause their spending on the site in the face of the hate speech concerns.
Meanwhile, the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, issued a statement urging Musk to “ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter”.
