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Adrien Fillon/PA

Reports that Twitter Dublin staff can no longer work from home are 'false', says Musk

The Twitter CEO said remote working is ‘fine’ if staff members cannot be in the Dublin office.

LAST UPDATE | 13 Nov 2022

TWITTER BOSS ELON Musk has refuted reports that staff in the company’s Dublin office are no longer allowed to work from home.

It was reported this week that staff at Twitter Dublin were told that remote working was no longer possible, and they are now required to be in the office at least 40 hours a week.

Responding to a tweet which included a screenshot of an email about the new policy, Musk said: “This is false.”

“Anyone who can be in office, should be. However, if not logistically possible or they have essential personal matters, then staying home is fine,” he said.

“Working remotely is also ok if their manager vouches for excellence.”

Musk said this policy was also in place in his other businesses, Tesla and SpaceX.

He also replied “yes” to a Twitter using asking: “If manager vouches for excellence and they don’t deliver excellence does the manager get fired?”

Bloomberg reported this week that Musk was planning to slash 3,700 jobs in Twitter, and remaining employees would be asked to return to the office.

His apparent U-turn on remote working is the latest of a string of chaotic developments at the social network since the billionaire took over as CEO two weeks ago.

Fake accounts

Twitter has scrambled to tackle a surge in fake accounts that have proliferated since Musk’s takeover, suspending sign-ups for a new paid checkmark system and reinstating a grey “official” badge on some accounts.

The @TwitterSupport account tweeted early Friday that a grey checkmark indicating an “official” account was coming back, only days after it was introduced – then almost immediately scrapped.

The rollout of the label appeared inconsistent: it appeared briefly then disappeared from the network’s own account, @Twitter.

By Friday morning, the firm had also disabled sign-ups for Twitter Blue, the feature touted by free-speech proponent Musk as bringing “power to the people” by offering ordinary users a verified blue tick – until then reserved for prominent accounts – for $8 per month.

An internal memo for Twitter staff, obtained by US media including The Washington Post, confirmed the feature had been temporarily disabled to “help address impersonation issues.”

In introducing the paid blue-check verification system, Musk had warned that Twitter would suspend fake accounts not clearly marked as parody.

US drugmaker Eli Lilly was forced to issue an apology Thursday after a fake account – stamped with a purchased blue tick – tweeted that insulin was to be made available for free.

The fake account was removed, and the company put out a statement of apology.

The turmoil at Twitter has raised concerns about the potential for serious damage, should nefarious actors successfully pose as official representatives of powerful companies or government entities.

Additional reporting from AFP

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Nov 13th 2022, 10:07 AM

    I wonder if Elon can bankrupt Twitter as fast as Truss tanked the UK economy…

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    Mute Mel Fitzpatrick
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    Nov 13th 2022, 10:14 AM

    @Rui Firmino: He’s giving it a good shot to be fair…he’s completely out of his depth.

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    Mute Celtic Eagle
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    Nov 13th 2022, 10:28 AM

    @Rui Firmino: I think you got it backwards. When it took it over it was losing millions a day, $4 million a day at the moment. He is trying to reverse that.

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    Mute Celtic Eagle
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    Nov 13th 2022, 10:29 AM

    @Celtic Eagle: *When he took it over..

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    Mute MrHammey12
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    Nov 13th 2022, 10:37 AM

    @Celtic Eagle: bet it’s losing more than €4m a day now ….

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    Mute Celtic Eagle
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    Nov 13th 2022, 10:45 AM

    @MrHammey12: who knows, but if a business genius takes over a failing company then it’s strange to say ‘he will bankrupt the company’. I’ve a funny feeling they are political comments by woke liberals.

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    Mute OnlyHereForTheComments
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    Nov 13th 2022, 10:51 AM

    @Celtic Eagle: He’s not gonna ride ya

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Nov 13th 2022, 11:04 AM

    @OnlyHereForTheComments: It’s almost embarassing to see these Elon fanboys.

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    Mute Celtic Eagle
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    Nov 13th 2022, 11:13 AM

    @Rui Firmino: I’m not a fanboy. I’m just stating facts. It seems to me your very emotional on the subject

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Nov 13th 2022, 11:34 AM

    @Celtic Eagle: Don’t be daft. The only thing I feel seeing this mess is contempt.

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    Mute
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    Nov 13th 2022, 11:49 AM

    @Celtic Eagle: maybe if you say “woke liberals” a few more times Elon will invite you over to his gaff for a few drinks?

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Nov 13th 2022, 2:04 PM

    @Celtic Eagle:

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Nov 13th 2022, 2:06 PM

    @Celtic Eagle: Twitter made $1.3 billon profit in the last 4 years, in 2018-2021. It’s profits were knocked in 2020 and 2021 by a drop in advertising due to the pandemic.

    Last year Twitter reduced its losses to $221 millon (on $5 billon revenue) was likely, contrary to what Elon claimed, set to become profitable this year. He’s messed that up.

    Year Net Profit ($)
    2018 1206
    2019 1466
    2020 -1136
    2021 -221

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    Mute JustBEERbarry
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    Nov 13th 2022, 5:47 PM

    And who knows where invites to gaffs and drinks can potentially lead!

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    Mute David Mc Cabe
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    Nov 14th 2022, 5:24 AM

    @Mel Fitzpatrick: yep, his blue checkmark changes enabled 1 troll for 8 dollars to wipe 4.37% value off of the stock price of a 336 billion dollar pharma company with 1 tweet. Over 14.5 billion just went poof!

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    Mute Robert Woodward
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    Nov 13th 2022, 11:44 AM

    So thrashing it out with randomers on Twitter is the how Twitter is developing it’s HR policies now .If it wasn’t so serious for Twitter staff it would be funny .

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    Mute Steve O'Hara-Smith
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    Nov 13th 2022, 11:19 AM

    Wow just as the UK government starts to make sensible sounding noises and threatens to end the ongoing comedy soap Elon comes to the rescue and brings us hilarious antics as he trys to make twitter pay off. Instead of millions of people getting messed about it’s only a few thousand most of whom are probably already planning moves and toughing it out for redundancy pay.

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    Mute Mick Hyland
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    Nov 13th 2022, 11:38 PM

    He told the Tesla managers that if they didn’t want to come to the office for at least 40 hours per week they could pretend to work at home for someone else.

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    Mute Elvis
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    Nov 14th 2022, 5:01 PM

    Can someone explain why you would pay an absolute fortune for a company that’s losing $4 million a day, surely you’d buy it for way less then try and turn it around to make a profit???

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