Elon Musk has fired a group of Twitter engineers, some of whom posted critical comments either on the social network or on its internal Slack messaging system, according to two current Twitter employees and one former employee familiar with the situation.
NBC News could not confirm exactly how many employees had been let go in the latest firings, but one person familiar with the situation estimated it could be as high as 20. The people asked to withhold their names out of concern of professional consequences and fears of retaliation.
Some of the newly fired engineers spoke out on Twitter, others in a widely accessible internal Slack channel called “social watercooler.”
Musk had already tweeted Monday that he had fired at least one engineer who publicly criticized him on Twitter.
The latest terminations come in the wake of Musk’s decision to let go of about half of all Twitter employees in a bid to cut costs.
Some Twitter employees confirmed the firings on their verified accounts.
“Looks like I just got fired for s—posting too,” one wrote in response to another person who said they had been let go.
One ex-Twitter employee, who was laid off in the first major round of layoffs two weeks ago, said the latest firing emails were sent around 4:30 a.m. ET Tuesday to “anyone who snarkposted about [Musk] in one of the company Slack channels or on Twitter in the last 24 hours.”
Many ex-Twitter employees now regularly communicate with current employees through private chat groups outside of the company’s Slack, sharing screenshots of recent dictums and infighting from Musk’s teams, some of which have been shared with NYK News.
