Twitter begins laying off a large number of employees

The Twitter platform, which is now owned by billionaire Elon Musk and a number of major shareholders, will begin notifying employees of whether they will be laid off, by 9 a.m. Pacific Time, according to an email sent internally late Thursday.

“In an effort to put Twitter on a healthy track, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” said the text of the letter, seen by Reuters.

The letter said its offices would be temporarily closed and all accesses suspended in order to “help ensure the safety of every employee as well as Twitter’s systems and customer data.”

It has been speculated that 30% to 50% of the social media platform’s 7,000 workforce will be abandoned.