Twitter has begun making layoffs, which are set to impact half of its staff globally, with all offices temporarily closed and emails sent to personal addresses of those who are to leave the company.

Since Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the micro-messaging platform was confirmed last week, there have been questions about what policy changes would come, his strategy for the business and what those would mean for advertisers, several of who are already reducing or halting their ad spend on the platform due to uncertainty and a rise in hate speech. Musk’s first major change, however, is to cut the platform’s headcount, currently more than 7,000 staffers, by half.

That process began on the morning of Friday, November 4, through a memo sent to all staff explaining the process of reducing its global headcount.

“This action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward,” the memo signed “Twitter” explained.

The memo explained that by 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time Zone all staff members will have received notification through their Twitter email if they still have a job.

In the early hours of Friday morning, staff members from around the world were using the platform to share the news that they were one of those chosen to depart through the hashtag #lovehwhereyouworked.

Included among the thousands to reveal their enforced departures using the hashtag #lovewhereyouworked were Jonathan Taylor, head of global strategy and innovation and James Glynn, senior curation lead on News, both based in London. Others include Yash Agarwal, a public policy association and Helen Zhang, communications manager, both based in Singapore.

One of the early executives to leave following Musk’s takeover was concluded was its chief customer officer Sarah Personette, who resigned last Friday and was the platform’s key liaison with advertisers.

Global social media business We Are Social’s U.K. chief executive Jim Coleman described the timing of the cuts as “awful” but suggested it might be what Twitter needs in the long-term.

“The timing, in terms of the World Cup, the U.S. midterms, Cop27 and Christmas, it’s really bizarre that he would do it now, and it feels like the wrong time to do it,” Coleman said. “From an advertiser’s perspective, it’s all about waiting and seeing. There has been no policy change yet, there is just the hint of policy change coming.”

Coleman highlighted the increase in “horrible content” and racist language use that had been reported since Musk’s takeover, an environment advertisers would not want to be associated with. Twitter’s head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth shared that there had been a “surge of hateful content” and that 1,500 accounts had been removed in recent days.

As a result of the rise in hate speech, recorded brands such as General Mills, L’Oreal, Pfizer and General Motors have paused their spend on the platform.

“If you’re in a situation where your ads are turning up next to some of this hateful content you have no choice but to remove them,” Coleman said, adding that advertisers and media buyers were waiting to see what happens with new policies being introduced and a potential subscription strategy on the way which would “make it a better business.”  Coleman added that if Twitter were to introduce a subscription model it would likely become a more brand safe and appealing place for advertisers in the long run.

In July, Twitter reported a decline in its revenue of $1.18 billion for its second quarter, down from $1.19 billion in 2021 earnings, which it blamed on its legal wrangling with Musk during the protracted takeover, which he attempted to pull out of. Macroeconmic headwinds have weighted heavily on tech ad revenues. And while Twitter relies on the vast majority of its revenues from advertisers, the platform is only anticipated to make up 4% of U.S. ad spend this year, per Insider Intelligence. The platform has fallen in its significance to advertisers.

Jake Dubbins, Co-chair of the Conscious Advertising Network and managing director of Media Bounty was damning of the situation and questioned how the platform could retain its membership within the Global Alliance for Responsible Media following recent developments.

“The way people have been treated at Twitter is appalling. Notified on email if you still have a job? A fitting testament to modern day predatory capitalism,” stated Dubbins, questioning the integrity of the platform under its new owner. “Even though content moderation policies have not changed yet, how can Twitter hope to enforce them with such devastating cuts in staff?”