Source: Twitter abruptly fired around 50 engineers and warned dozens more on the evening before Thanksgiving; some were told their “code is not satisfactory”
Hearing that roughly 50 Twitter engineers were abruptly fired last night and dozens more received warnings: https://twitter.com/... Tweets: @alexeheath , @gergelyorosz , @gergelyorosz , @film_girl , @dreamweasel , @fawfulfan , @akivamcohen , @caseynewton , @photomatt , @carnage4life , @nberlat , @carnage4life , @gergelyorosz , @gailalfaratx , @db , @lolgop , @iamkierrad , @treblaw , @jilliancyork , @brianmfloyd , @justinbaragona , @benjamingjw , @thocpodcast , @th3j35t3r , @gergelyorosz , @gergelyorosz , and @alexeheath Tweets: Alex Heath / @alexeheath : On the evening before Thanksgiving, some Twitter engineers received an email saying they were fired because their “code is not satisfactory.” Others received “performance warning” emails asking them to “restore our confidence and demonstrate your contributions to the team” Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : Just in: the night before Thanksgiving, Twitter fired more software engineers effective immediately because their “code is not satisfactory” following the recent code review. Dozens of other devs got performance warnings in their inboxes. How much do Twitter devs have to take? Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : As per @ZoeSchiffer, the number of fired software engineers could be around 50. These are 50 engineers who would have gotten an additional 2 months' severance had they refused to commit to the “hardcore” Twitter. Why give worse packages to those believing in “Twitter 2.0”? https://twitter.com/... @film_girl : As @gruber and I discussed on The Talk Show this week: the cruelty is the point. What an absolutely sad, pathetic, and small little man. My heart goes out to anyone still stuck at Twitter. https://twitter.com/... @dreamweasel : Which means that Musk is merely pretending to review their code, and either: - evaluating the code based on appallingly superficial criteria, or - simply ignoring the code outright and going with the employees he likes most https://twitter.com/... Matthew Chapman / @fawfulfan : This is absolutely insane. Who decided their code was “not satisfactory”? Was this just a result of Musk reading the “code snippets” he demanded everyone give him? He doesn't even know any of the languages or APIs they're using, let alone best practices. https://twitter.com/... Akiva Cohen / @akivamcohen : We are already representing some of the fired Twitter employees (from this and other waves) Musk is trying to stiff out of their severance. So are a number of other excellent firms/attorneys. These people have options and should talk to MULTIPLE attorneys before signing anything https://twitter.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : One of the people fired Musk's latest purge was Ikuhiro Ihara, a highly respected senior software engineer who helped lead the push to expand tweets to 280 characters. https://twitter.com/... Matt Mullenweg / @photomatt : @Carnage4Life I disagree with the first. We haven't done layoffs and have worked really hard in the business to not need to. We've been able to tap the brakes and find cost savings in other ways. @carnage4life : I now advise mentees to add the following to their job screening criteria • Avoid companies that haven't yet done layoffs yet. You could join only to be laid off in a few weeks. • Prefer working on profit centers over cost centers or speculative projects until interest rates⬆️ Noah Berlatsky / @nberlat : translation; Musk fired people who sent him code he didn't understand. https://twitter.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : A side effect of “The beatings will continue until morale improves” culture at Twitter is that it makes no sense for H-1Bs to join the company when they can be laid off on a whim then have 2 months to find another job or be deported. https://twitter.com/... Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : One of the impacted software engineers. No reasoning. No warning. Just firing. Connect with Yiwei here if you can help him find a software engineering position: https://www.linkedin.com/... https://twitter.com/... Gail Alfar / @gailalfaratx : @Techmeme @ZoeSchiffer Totally expected! I feel this is necessary for Twitter to rapidly evolve into what it needs to be. I like watching this fast change, and I'm happy to also see reports of people receiving a generous severance package. @db : I mean, the colonizers DID... you know what let me stop https://twitter.com/... @lolgop : It's basically just guys who have work visas or desperately need this job at this point. And Elon just loves to torture them as he spends his days driving away any decent advertiser. https://twitter.com/... @iamkierrad : This is extremely nasty. People cannot even enjoy the holidays in peace. https://twitter.com/... Treb / @treblaw : I dunno I just think that this is such a Genius Boss Lord Dank Memer move and I love it https://twitter.com/... @jilliancyork : Cruelty is the point. https://twitter.com/... Brian Floyd / @brianmfloyd : don't know why anyone would want to work for or with this guy he sucks https://twitter.com/... Justin Baragona / @justinbaragona : Remember, these are the folks that opted into Musk's “extremely hardcore” Twitter 2.0 and passed on 3 months' severance. Now they get rewarded with termination on Thanksgiving eve and only 4 weeks severance. Many of those who were fired this week are here on H1B visas. https://twitter.com/... @benjamingjw : Wild that those who left voluntarily got 3 months of severance. But those who stayed & “believed” only get 1 month Always look out for yourself. Maximise what is beneficial for you Don't believe in the “we are a family” or “working for X company is working for your career” BS https://twitter.com/... @thocpodcast : How dumb must they feel for having clicked “Yes” to Lord Elon's “hardcore mode,” when they would've gotten an easy 3mo severance for just clicking “No” instead https://twitter.com/... @th3j35t3r : Happy Thanksgiving! Lots of Love, Elon. https://twitter.com/... Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : I confirmed the above details with current Twitter software engineers and managers. Line managers were unaware of the performance warnings sent out. This “performance warning” is a PIP that can result in firing. As a reminder, devs went through all this before in 3 weeks: Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : Update: Twitter's management STILL trying to recruit back experienced software engineers who left Twitter last week, opting in to not be part of the “hardcore” Twitter 2.0. Wonder how many of them return, knowing they also can be fired at any time based on a single code review. https://twitter.com/... Alex Heath / @alexeheath : These are employees who survived the 50% layoffs and opted into Musk's “extremely hardcore” Twitter 2.0 reset, which saw about 1k employees resign. Musk told employees this week that he wants to hire more people “who are great at writing software” https://www.theverge.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The reported firings follow an earlier review of engineers’ recent code and broader layoffs that had already reached communications, curation, ethical AI, data science, research, machine learning, and core engineering teams. The new action extends that personnel reset from organizational cuts to individual engineering performance judgments.
Later coverage of a trust-and-safety leadership resignation places the staffing changes within a longer period of turnover in functions central to Twitter’s operations and governance.
First-order effects
- Around 50 Twitter engineers lose their jobs immediately, while dozens more are put on notice that their code is judged inadequate.
- Twitter’s remaining engineering staff must operate under a more direct performance-review regime following the earlier code review.
Second-order effects
- Teams already reduced across research, machine learning, ethical AI, curation, and core engineering face further pressure to maintain product and operational work with less institutional capacity.
- Trust-and-safety and other governance functions become harder to stabilize as staffing reductions coincide with later leadership turnover.
Third-order effects
- If code-level reviews and abrupt terminations become the operating model, Twitter’s workforce structure shifts toward a smaller organization with authority concentrated around direct technical evaluation rather than established team processes.
- The pattern points to a platform-governance trade-off: cutting technical and policy capacity can make rapid restructuring easier while leaving fewer buffers for moderation, reliability, and institutional continuity.
The trend: Twitter’s post-acquisition restructuring is moving from broad layoffs toward centralized, individual-level scrutiny of technical work.