Seven months after terminating the contracts of almost all its staff in Accra, Ghana, Twitter has yet to provide its African former employees with severance pay or benefits. What Happened? At the end of last year, Musk laid off employees of Twitter Africa as part of a global cost-cutting measure. The Twitter team in Ghana had just opened their first-ever physical office when the team woke up to find they had been locked out of their emails and work laptops. They were also told over email that their contracts were being
Spill, a new social platform, has recently launched in beta on iOS and has quickly gained popularity within the Black community. Its surge in users can be attributed in part to Elon Musk’s announcement to limit the number of daily tweets visible on Twitter as well as several technical mishaps in recent months. What is Spill? The platform is invite-only while in beta and has been described as a visual-first, multimedia microblogging app with an interface similar to Tumblr. The app has a live news feed and allows people to
According to a new Senate report, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are failing to moderate online extremists adequately. The report, released on Wednesday, called on federal law enforcement to reevaluate its response to the growing threat of terrorism and extremism. The Senate has called out social media platforms for failing to stop the spread of violent and anti-government propaganda online, which has increased over recent years. Harmful extremism circulating online Recent incidents have led many to question the violent consequences of social media, which has seen more
Twitter recently terminated the contracts of almost all its staff based in Ghana, but the former employees are fighting back. The team has accused the social media giant of “deliberately and recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana” and, with legal assistance, are demanding national labor laws are followed. Violation of Labor Laws Three days after opening a physical office in Accra, Ghana—the first in Africa—Twitter locked staff out of their emails and work laptops. Since then, the African employees have not been offered any concrete information about compensation or the
Mass tech layoffs are shaking up the industry and dominating weekly news headlines. From Twitter’s mass layoffs to Meta announcing that they will cut 13% of its workforce, the industry is facing a ‘stormy winter.’ The H-1B Visa Program Mass tech layoffs have left thousands of employees worldwide in a challenging situation. Many will move on to get other jobs in the industry, whereas workers on temporary visas will not be able to do that. Workers with temporary visas have been left with little to no time to find another
Since Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, many users have been searching for a new social networking platform they can call home. Mastodon, a social network built on open-source software, seems to be their best bet, with just over a million active users already signed up. But is it worth the hype? What is Mastodon? The events which have transpired since Elon’s takeover has sent Twitter on a tumultuous downward spiral. From the exodus (or ousting) of thousands of staff to the new Twitter Blue feature being pulled from the site in
Twitter has terminated the contracts of almost all its staff based in Accra, Ghana. The news comes after Elon Musk’s recent acquisition of the app, which has seen thousands of employees worldwide laid off work. Twitter’s presence in Africa In April 2021, Twitter announced its plans to build a team in Ghana as a part of its broader mission to expand its services across the region. After almost a year of working remotely, Twitter’s African staff finally opened a physical office in the continent. But celebrations were short-lived. A mere
Over the last 48 hours, dozens of Twitter employees took to the platform to announce that they had lost their jobs following Elon Musk’s recent acquisition. Employees have flooded the app using the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked with an emoji to signify that their time at the social media giant has ended. After ousting CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett and chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde last week, Elon Musk has made it clear that things at Twitter will never be the same again. Impact on Black & Latinx
According to Twitter trolls, the old rules against bigotry and hate speech no longer apply now that Musk has officially taken over the popular social media app. The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) shared that the number of tweets using the N-word had increased by 500% more in 12 hours following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s Head of Safety and Integrity, also reported a huge increase in tweets with bigoted content, racial slurs and hate speech. He tweeted that a short-term trolling campaign was largely to blame, with
Dealing with constant harassment online can be incredibly distressing. Not only does it make you feel helpless, but it can also make you hyper-exposed when your social media account is under attack. Block Party gives users more control when dealing with online harassment. The app uses protections to filter out abuse from troll accounts, which tend to be new accounts without a profile photo or a page with less than 100 followers. The latest update allows users to record their reasons for blocking an account, so they don’t have to
