Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Elon Musk has given Twitter employees a deadline of 5pm to decide whether they want to continue working for him or leave the company

Elon Musk has given Twitter employees a deadline of 5pm to decide whether they want to continue working for him or leave the company

Mr. Musk said that workers would need to answer through an online form by late Thursday and that those who stayed would be “working long hours at high intensity.”
Elon Musk gave Twitter employees a deadline of 5 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday to decide if they wanted to work for him, and he asked those who did not share his vision to leave their jobs, in his latest shock treatment of the social media company.

Mr. Musk made the announcement in an early-morning email to employees on Wednesday; The message had the subject line “A Fork in the Road.”

In the note, Mr. Musk reiterated that Twitter faced a difficult road ahead and offered employees three months of severance if they did not want to continue working there “to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0.”

Giving remaining employees a deadline to leave has the dual effect of allowing Mr. Musk to further cut costs and purge the company of disgruntled workers. Mr. Musk has brought in a circle of confidants and employees from some of his other companies, such as the electric carmaker Tesla, to advise him at Twitter.

In his note to Twitter employees on Wednesday, Mr. Musk said they would need to work hard — very hard. “In an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hard core,” he wrote. “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

Engineering will be the primary focus, Mr. Musk added, with design and product management taking a back seat. He included a link to an online form asking employees to confirm their interest in working at Twitter.

Many Twitter employees have openly balked at Mr. Musk’s leadership, and the company’s work force could be further reduced if many workers accept the offer to leave. On Tuesday, Mr. Musk fired nearly two dozen workers who had been critical of his leadership in posts on Twitter or on the company’s internal messaging service, Slack.

Departing staff members have questioned whether Mr. Musk can keep Twitter operating effectively with a drastically reduced work force. During the mass layoffs this month, Mr. Musk’s team made deep cuts to the group that maintained Twitter’s core infrastructure. Top executives overseeing product, security and ad sales have resigned. And the reductions of the contract work force included the dismissals of people working on content moderation and child safety issues.

Twitter could face a test of how well it runs as soon as next week, when the World Cup is expected to bring a flood of visitors to its service. The additional strain on infrastructure could cause problems.

Features that are priorities to Mr. Musk have also been delayed. As advertisers have shied away from his leadership, he has focused on adding new revenue from subscriptions through products such as Twitter Blue, which would include selling verification check marks for $8 a month. The paid verification feature debuted this month, but was paused after impersonators used it to mimic major brands and spread misinformation.


Elon Musk surround himself with loyal and smart advisors. Maybe their advices are not the best for internet-based and media-leader company such as Twitter, but they have strategic view, experience and genuine loyalty to Musk and therefore to Twitter.

What Musk miss is an internet and mass online media expert that can add important and missing perspective to the good advices that his close circle gives.

Twitter is one of the most important and influential news platform nowadays. It had the potential to become the worlds most important and popular news source. Therefore, the traditional media will be happy to see Twitter and Musk fail, bankrupt, finished.

The public hope that Musk will win his bid to invest so much in order to democratize the internet and make news, honest news, great again.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
×