- Twitter staff are removing Slack messages they fear Elon Musk won't like, Platformer reported.
- This comes after the tech mogul fired some Twitter staff for criticizing him online.
After Elon Musk fired some Twitter staff for criticizing him and his leadership, remaining employees are rushing to remove Slack messages and emoji reactions that they fear the tech mogul won't like, sources told Platformer.
Shortly after after Musk fired three workers for criticizing him on Twitter, the social-media company terminated around two dozen further employees in a late-night email on Monday.
Engineers Eric Frohnhoefer, Sasha Solomon, and Ben Leib all appeared to be fired on Sunday and Monday for criticizing Musk. Frohnhoefer had tweeted that Musk's assessment of problems with the app's performance on Android was "wrong," while Leib said that Musk "has no idea wtf he's talking about." Solomon had tweeted: "You don't get to shit on our infra if you don't know what the fuck it does while you're also scrambling to rehire folks you laid off."
Around two dozen employees appear to have been fired since. "Your recent behavior has violated company policy," the email they received from Twitter read.
Some workers said they thought they'd been let go for posting tweets critical of Musk or his decisions. Others said they weren't sure why they were fired.
Current and former workers told Platformer that Musk was obsessed with the idea that Twitter could be sabotaged by its staff, leading to him firing workers who were outspoken critics of his leadership.
One current employee previously told Insider the firings seemed to target many people in an internal Slack channel called Social Watercooler, which has around 2,000 members and has long been used by staff to chatter and criticize the company. One employee said in a message seen by Insider that it looked like Musk has read the messages in the channel "and demanded anyone even mildly critical of him be fired."
Daniel Fletcher, who appeared to be a software engineer at Twitter, tweeted on Tuesday: "I've been fired for unspecified recent behavior in violation of unnamed company policy i.e. hanging out in the #social-watercooler." He had also retweeted some posts that were critical of Musk's leadership.
"I'm gonna miss #social-watercooler," tweeted Yao Yue, a Twitter engineer who said on Tuesday that she'd been fired. "Always can deliver a laugh in the grimmest situation."
Nick Morgan, who had worked as a software engineer at Twitter, tweeted that his Twitter account had been set to private at the time when he was fired, "so I can only assume this was for not showing 100% loyalty in slack."
"I've heard the same thing has happened to many others now," Morgan added.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Musk had ordered his team to scan Twitter's internal chat platforms and employees' tweets for criticism and make a list of insubordinate employees to be fired.
Platformer also reported that some of the fired employees had simply expressed sympathy with Frohnhoefer, Solomon, and Leib. Sources told The Times that some fired staff had shared news of Frohnhoefer's termination in internal chats.
Musk has been making his decisions about Twitter surrounded by his inner circle of advisors, including his personal lawyer Alex Spiro, the tech investor Jason Calacanis, and the venture capitalist David Sacks. Venture capitalist Chris Sacca has said that Musk has surrounded himself by supporters who won't disagree with him.
"We all need people around us to push back," Sacca tweeted. "To say no. To call bullshit."
Do you work for Twitter? Or have you been affected by the layoffs? Contact this reporter at gdean@insider.com using a non-work email.