Twitter closes all offices in wake of layoffs

 All employees are locked out of the media's buildings until Monday.

Employees at Twitter have had to put up with a little bit of everything after the wealthy Elon Musk has taken over control of the social media.

Twitter closes all offices in wake of layoffs

Musk has fired more than half of the permanent employees, scrapped the option to work from home and required the remaining employees to commit to a lot of overtime.

Now employees have suddenly been told that all of Twitter's office buildings will close with immediate effect. All access cards will therefore be blocked until Monday.

This appears from an email from the Twitter management to the employees, which the BBC has obtained.

The management does not mention anything about why they are closing the offices. But this happens after several employees have left the company because they do not want to settle for the new working conditions.

- A number of critical employees, who are necessary for Twitter to function at all, if something goes wrong, have chosen to leave. This has meant that Musk had to try to persuade some of them to stay, says DR's tech correspondent

- So my assessment is now that we are starting to be in a place where there is suddenly an imminent danger of Twitter going down. There is also a risk that Twitter will be hacked by state hackers such as the Russians or the Chinese, who have been waiting for this opportunity, Henrik Moltke continues.

He believes that Twitter is currently hanging on by a thin thread:

- I hate to sound dramatic, but it seems as if everything is falling apart. I have never seen anything like that.

Everything is thrown up in the air right now

Whether Elon Musk is digging Twitter's grave or, on the contrary, is on the way to improving the platform is very uncertain.

Right now everything is thrown up in the air, explains expert in social media Astrid Haug:

- No one apparently knows what Elon Musk's plans are. Neither the employees, the advertisers nor the users. After all, it may turn out that it all lands again, and Elon Musk once again proves to be brilliant. Or it may turn out that the users leave the medium, she says.

According to Henrik Moltke, Twitter's fate depends, among other things, on which CEO Elon Musk hires.

After buying Twitter, Elon Musk chose to fire the chief executive first and then take over the role himself. Now he has announced that he will reduce his time on Twitter and find a new person to lead the social media

- He will have to quickly appoint a very competent person whom the employees and the rest of us trust. Because it's hard to imagine he can handle the task himself when things are going like this for him right now. And then it is also crucial that he can somehow create reassurance that the product will continue to function, says Henrik Moltke.

Can lead to more fake news

Earlier this month, Elon Musk introduced a new initiative that made it possible to buy into verified profiles – an initiative he has now put on hold after criticism.

Verified profiles have a blue tick, which signals that it is the right person or company and not a scammer .

Now you could instead have your profile verified by paying eight dollars a month. This led to several p- In recent times, we have seen that many people have created fake profiles and spread misinformation to either make fun of Elon Musk or put him under massive pressure, says Astrid Haug.

She believes that there is a risk that Elon Musk's new direction for Twitter could lead to more spread of fake news.

- Both because Elon Musk has said that more must be allowed on the platform. But also because he has fired many of the people who are responsible for security and human rights. This must mean that more smoke is passing through the filter, says Astrid Haug.

US President Joe Biden has intervened in the debate about Twitter. Among other things, he has said that Elon Musk has bought a social media that spreads lies all over the world.eople creating fake profiles.