Elon Musk’s ultimatum for Twitter workers: go or be hardcore

Elon Musk says Twitter is at its core a software and server company and wants employees to decide by Thursday night if they want to remain part of the company, according to an email the new owner sent to Twitter employees.

Musk wrote that building “a breakthrough Twitter 2.0” will require employees “to be extremely persistent” and will require long, high-intensity hours to do so success.

Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, said Twitter will be much more engineering-centric, with people who write “great code” making up the majority of the team.

The billionaire, who completed the $44 billion acquisition of the San Francisco company in late October, laid off most of its full-time employees via email earlier this month and is expected to eliminate an untold number of contract jobs for those responsible for combating misinformation and other harmful content.

Musk has promised to relax restrictions on what users can say on the platform. While he has been criticized from almost all quarters for opening the floodgates to hate and other harmful language on Twitter, he has sought to reassure advertisers, who generate the majority of the social platform’s revenue, that rule changes will not be passed through to their brands Association will harm them with harmful content.

Musk has also indicated that he plans to resume Twitter premium service — which grants “verification” Blue Check labels to anyone willing to pay $8 a month on November 29. The billionaire said in a tweet that the relaunch would take place later this month to ensure the service is “rock solid”.

Musk urged employees to click a “yes” link provided in the email if they wish to be part of the “new Twitter,” which time will receive three months’ severance pay, according to the email.

“Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful,” Musk wrote.

Last week, Musk warned Twitter employees to prepare for “tough times” that could end with the collapse of the social media platform if they don’t find new ways to make money.

Workers who have survived the initial mass layoffs are facing tougher working conditions and growing uncertainty about their ability to keep Twitter running safely as it continues to lose senior executives responsible for privacy, cybersecurity and compliance.