Twitter layoffs Public Policy team members

Elon Musk's Twitter has laid off more employees. This time, the policy team is affected. The company cut half of its workforce following the formal acquisition of Musk in late October. During the initial round of layoffs, Twitter's policy team was hit hard, with half of the remaining members fired sometime in the past week, according to a tweet. The team was responsible for engaging with lawmakers and civil society on issues including freedom of expression, privacy, and online security. It also handles requests from authorities or civil rights groups to remove content that may be provocative to the public. The new layoffs arrive just before Christmas.

Twitter currently employs about 2,000 employees, up from 7,500 at the end of September.

According to Theodora Skeadas, who was part of Twitter's public policy team, half of the remaining public policy team was removed from the company. In a tweet, she wrote: "And now it is my turn to say goodbye... This was, indeed, a dream job. I am unbelievably proud of the work we did to protect people in global conflicts, including Iran, Ukraine, and Libya. I am especially proud of my work in Managing our Trust and Safety Council until it was dissolved last week."

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Twitter's head of public policy, Sinead McSweeney, has left the company. The report adds that Nick Pickles, senior director of global public policy strategy, has taken over from McSweeney.

Twitter may consider restructuring or reshuffling the policy team, as the company has to deal with multiple governments each week. For example, the Indian division of the company needs to have a compliance officer. Last month, European Union commissioner Thierry Breton told Musk that the company faces "a big job ahead" of complying with the union's content moderation rule. The Reuters report notes that the EU "will conduct a stress test at Twitter headquarters early next year to assess compliance."

Things for Musk on Twitter also look more challenging than ever. He recently conducted a poll asking users if he should step down as CEO of Twitter. After most users selected 'Yes,' Musk is looking for a new boss, though he says he will continue to work closely with the software and service team and that the new CEO has to be "dumb" to accept the job.