Twitter announced yesterday in an email that employees will find out later today if they are being laid off. The company temporarily closed its offices this morning and cut workers’ access to internal systems.

“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” the email, as seen by Reuters, said.

According to internal plans, reviewed by Reuters, Elon Musk is looking to lay off 3,700 employees, or about half the workforce, as part of his cost-cutting plans.

So far, Musk has dissolved Twitter’s board of directors and has brought his high-profile allies into the company.

Since his acquisition of the social media platform, Musk has promised numerous reforms, including “restoring free speech”, reviewing how Twitter verifies accounts, establishing an internal fact-checking medium, stripping away moderation tools from the platform, and charging US$8 monthly for the “verified” blue tick on users’ profiles.

The content moderation team in particular dreads being targeted in today’s round of job cuts, according to tweets by Twitter staff.

Despite Musk’s promises to prevent Twitter from descending in a ‘hellscape’, chaos and confusion at the company persists, as advertisers threaten to withdraw from the platform and celebrities speak out against the $8 charge for the blue tick.

More updates on today’s layoffs will come later.

The post Twitter begins layoffs first appeared on IT World Canada.