Accept a new employment agreement with longer working days and higher work effort or quit the company in return for three months’ salary. This is the ultimatum the new Twitter owner gave to his 7,500 employees. After first getting rid of half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees, the new Twitter boss issued an ultimatum to those who remained last Wednesday: “To build a cutting-edge Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we must be extremely hardcore. This will mean working for many hours at a high intensity. Only exceptional performance will result in a passing grade”. In the letter, which has been quoted by the Washington Post and CNBC, among others, the remaining employees were given until 5pm the following day to accept this, or resign. It must have made a number of employees want to say thank you. NBC News and the news agency Reuters have gained access to messages in internal chat groups. Many people must have posted their farewell greetings and memes there. After Elon Musk became the new owner of Twitter, several such images (memes) have spread on the platform. Photo: Screenshot from Twitter According to Reuters, over 110 employees on four continents announced that they are leaving the company. When the deadline expired, security guards should have started carrying out employees’ belongings on Thursday evening, writes the news agency. Internal app started to fail Among those who will have said electronic goodbye to colleagues, there will be a number of engineers and others who work with operational stability, error correction and other critical infrastructure. An engineer who has also left Twitter tells NBC News. Reuters reports that the Twitter app used internally by employees has experienced problems. A source inside Twitter is said to have said that there is a danger that the same could happen to the public Twitter platform, and that within a short time. – If things break down or are affected by errors, there is no one left to fix it, says a source to The Guardian. Want threat explanation in the Senate In the US, more people are starting to worry about data security at Twitter. Prominent Republican Senator Chuck Grassley has asked Elon Musk to conduct a threat analysis to ensure that user data does not go astray. He referred to concerns from a former employee, reports Reuters. Peiter Mudge Zatko, who was head of security at Twitter until he was fired in January, testified in September that several Twitter employees were worried that Chinese authorities might be able to collect data from the company’s users. Among other things, Zatko warned of the danger that foreign hackers could use malicious software to steal sensitive user information. In a letter to Musk that was made public on Wednesday, Grassley asks that Musk present the threat assessment to the Senate Judiciary Committee. – Twitter collects huge amounts of data about American citizens. They must be able to feel confident that private data is safe, and that trusted companies have not been infiltrated by foreign agents, writes Grassley. According to Reuters, Twitter has not commented or responded to the letter. The EU fears more propaganda In the EU, concerns about what is happening on Twitter are also increasing, reports AFP. On Thursday, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders will travel to Ireland to meet European leaders in Twitter and Meta (Facebook) to remind the companies of the responsibility they have under EU legislation. According to sources in Reynder’s office, EU leaders are worried that the wave of resignations will weaken control over content and data security. They point out that many of those who have lost their jobs worked precisely to combat disinformation. AFP writes that there is a growing fear in Brussels that Musk’s release will lead to weaker efforts against propaganda, hate speech and cyberneticism. New poll from Musk In addition to allowing former President Donald Trump to return to Twitter (which Trump himself has denied that he wants), Musk has opened the door for more banned people to be allowed on the platform again. This applies, among others, to author Jordan Peterson and comedian Kathie Griffin. On Wednesday, Musk posted a new “poll” on Twitter. He asks if there should be a general amnesty for banned users. The Yes side leads by far. – A wild chaos, and an abandoned arena Founder of the ICT consulting service Otta, Torgeir Waterhouse says Twitter looks like a wild chaos after Musk took over. – It is worrying from a long-term technological and security perspective. According to Waterhouse, Twitter is, after all, a service that is woven into the social debate internationally. So the fact that so much uncertainty is created around the service is problematic. – It is a platform that is used to convey public information. But also from politicians, the media, other social actors and ordinary people. The way Musk runs the platform appears irresponsible and troubled, Waterhouse believes. Founder of the ICT consulting service Otta, Torgeir Waterhouse, says that Twitter is characterized by chaos after Elon Musk took over. Photo: Hans Kristian Thorbjoernsen – I think Twitter can become more unstable, and that more chaos can be created. He believes that someone will step in and save Twitter before the platform eventually collapses. But according to him, the future does not look so bright after all. – I think that in serious democracies, Twitter will soon be an abandoned debate arena. The advertisers escape Several European car manufacturers have announced that they are leaving Twitter. On Wednesday, Audi, which has 800,000 followers, announced that they are dropping Twitter for the time being, writes WirtschaftsWoche. Volkswagen has also turned its back on Twitter. General Motors and Pfizer have also cut out Twitter as an advertising arena and customer contact. Several have reported that they want to try out Mastodon as an alternative. The Norwegian police have also begun to consider solutions other than Twitter to reach out with information to the media and the public. Starting to prepare for the fall Also users, including several famous politicians, have already started using the hashtags #RIPTwitter, and #TwitterDown. Others link to other social media such as Instagram and Mastodon or provide their email addresses. Twitter from the French Embassy in Fiji. Photo: Clipping from Twitter The French government is among those who are now taking their precautions and stating where French people can seek information. The federal supervisory authority, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has notified that they are concerned about developments in the company. On November 11, the FTC issued an announcement stating that “no boss or company is above the law.” Unrest from doctors and researchers In the US, doctors and health personnel have sounded the alarm in recent days, and have spent their efforts telling their followers where they can find information if Twitter disappears as a platform. Several refer to how important Twitter has been as an information channel during the pandemic for spreading information and research news, both to the public, but not least to other researchers. Follow the development in news’s News Centre: Illustration: DADO RUVIC / Reuters
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Growing uneasiness about security on Twitter – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
