Twitter fires more than 90% of India staff, leaving just a dozen

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
7 Nov 2022 18:30

According to one of the sources, almost 70% of the employees lost in India were from the product and engineering team, which worked on a worldwide mandate.

Twitter headquarters (Getty Images)

Twitter Inc. let off more than 90% of its employees in India over the weekend, as part of Elon Musk's global layoffs, significantly depleting its engineering and product personnel in a prospective growth region.

The company employed slightly over 200 workers in India, and the cuts reduced it to about a dozen employees, according to persons familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the situation.

India is an important growth engine for global internet companies like Twitter, Meta Platforms Inc., and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, which rely on its vast potential pool of new online users. However, the companies are also subject to more stringent content laws aimed at limiting the country's large digital firms.

According to one source, over 70% of the employees cut in India were from the product and engineering team, which worked on a worldwide mandate. Positions were also reduced in functions, such as marketing, public policy, and corporate communications, according to the sources. Twitter, situated in San Francisco, California, decreased its global workforce by almost half, or approximately 3,700 employees.

Twitter didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comments.

India has one of the most heated political debates on Twitter, with rival parties frequently hurling accusations at each other and blaming each other for spreading misinformation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has over 84 million followers on Twitter. It's unclear how Twitter plans to manage that debate with its newly decreased employees in the country, which speaks more than 100 languages.

Twitter’s India offices are located in New Delhi, Mumbai, and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru.

According to Bloomberg News, the company has about 3,700 employees remaining globally. Musk is pushing those who remain to move quickly in shipping new features, and in some cases, employees have even slept at the office to meet new deadlines.