Twitter, which was acquired last week by billionaire Elon Musk, plans to lay off a quarter of its workers in what is likely to be the first round of layoffs, according to the Washington Post.

Elon Musk intends to begin laying off employees at Twitter just days after completing the $44 billion acquisition of the social media business.

According to a regulatory filing, Twitter had over 7,000 workers at the end of 2021, with roughly 2,000 employees accounting for a quarter of the total.

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Musk rejected a New York Times allegation that he planned to lay off Twitter employees before November 1 to dodge stock rewards that were due that day.

“Musk, who completed a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Thursday, has ordered the cuts across the company, with some teams to be trimmed more than others,” the New York Times reported, adding that the “scale of the layoffs at the company, which has around 7,500 employees, “could not be determined.”

The layoffs at Twitter “would take place before” the November 1 deadline for “workers to receive stock awards as part of their remuneration.”

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Musk has warned investors that he “would take Twitter private, decrease its labour force, roll back its content moderation standards, and discover new revenue streams” if he laid off people before that date.

“Fresh baked bread and pastries are some of life’s great delights; finally, the fact that carbs are amazing may be spoken on this platform!” he tweeted on Saturday, along with the hashtags “so brave” and “free speech.”

Musk has stated that the social media platform will develop a “content moderation council,” and that any big content determinations or account reinstatements will take place after the formation of such a body.

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“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” Musk tweeted on Friday, a day after completing the $44 billion acquisition of the microblogging platform.

The billionaire has promised to change Twitter by relaxing content moderation rules, making its algorithm more transparent, cultivating subscription companies, and laying off people.

Musk sacked Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Finance Chief Ned Segal, and Legal Affairs and Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde on Thursday, following the culmination of the social media platform’s six-month $44 billion takeover drama.