International
pti-PTI
New
York,
Nov
16:
Elon
Musk
says
Twitter
is
a
software
and
servers
company
at
its
heart
and
has
asked
employees
to
decide
by
Thursday
evening
if
they
want
to
remain
a
part
of
the
business,
according
to
an
email
sent
by
the
company’s
new
owner
to
its
remaining
staff.
Musk
wrote
that
employees
“will
need
to
be
extremely
hardcore”
to
build
“a
breakthrough
Twitter
2.0″
and
that
long
hours
at
high
intensity
will
be
needed
for
success.
Musk,
who
also
heads
Tesla
and
SpaceX,
said
Twitter
will
be
much
more
engineering-driven,
with
employees
who
write
“great
code”
comprising
the
majority
of
the
team.
The
billionaire,
who
completed
the
USD
44
billion
takeover
of
the
San
Francisco
company
in
late
October,
fired
much
of
its
full-time
workforce
by
email
early
this
month
and
is
expected
to
eliminate
an
untold
number
of
contract
jobs
for
those
responsible
for
fighting
misinformation
and
other
harmful
content.
Musk
has
vowed
to
ease
restrictions
on
what
users
can
say
on
the
platform.
While
he
has
been
criticised
from
almost
all
sides
for
potentially
opening
the
gates
at
Twitter
to
hate
and
other
harmful
speech,
he
has
tried
to
reassure
advertisers,
which
drive
most
of
the
social
platform’s
revenue,
that
any
rule
changes
will
not
damage
their
brands
by
associating
them
with
harmful
content.
Musk
has
also
indicated
that
he
plans
to
resume
Twitter’s
premium
service
—
which
grants
blue-check
“verification”
labels
to
anyone
willing
to
pay
USD
8
a
month
–
on
November
29.
The
billionaire
said
in
a
tweet
that
the
relaunch
would
take
place
later
this
month
in
an
effort
to
make
sure
the
service
is
“rock
solid”.
Musk
asked
workers
to
click
yes
on
a
link
provided
in
the
email
if
they
want
to
be
part
of
the
“new
Twitter.”
He
said
that
employees
had
until
5
pm
Eastern
on
Thursday
to
reply
to
the
link.
Employees
who
don’t
reply
by
that
time
will
receive
three
months
of
severance,
according
to
the
email.
“Whatever
decision
you
make,
thank
you
for
your
efforts
to
make
Twitter
successful,”
Musk
wrote.