According to The Washington Post, redundancies of this scale would have a huge impact on Twitter's ability "to control harmful content and prevent data security crises."
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Twitter has been rocked by a new report that suggests Elon Musk is planning to lay off 75% of its workforce.
The billionaire's move would see the social network's headcount dwindle from 7,500 to 2,000.
According to The Washington Post, redundancies of this scale would have a huge impact on Twitter's ability "to control harmful content and prevent data security crises."
But the newspaper says that big cuts were on the horizon anyway, even if Musk's $44 billion takeover fell through.
Executives were already planning to slash 25% of the workforce in a bid to save $800 million — with the report suggesting this was why Twitter was so keen for the deal to go ahead.
Edwin Chen, one data scientist who used to be in charge of Twitter's spam metrics, admitted that the tech giant may be overstaffed, but Musk's cuts were "unimaginable."
Warning that there would be a greater risk of hacks — with users potentially exposed to highly offensive material such as child pornography — he said:
"It would be a cascading effect where you'd have services going down and the people remaining not having the institutional knowledge to get them back up, and being completely demoralized and wanting to leave themselves."
Morale among Twitter staff was already low — even before this report emerged. In internal conversations, one worker had said:
"Learnt a lot, met some awesome folks, enjoyed the ride, now time to exit the theme park and let the new owner raze it to the ground."
Talks Continue
Meanwhile, Twitter and Elon Musk are continuing their negotiations in an attempt to get the deal completed before Oct. 28 — a deadline that was set by the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Executives at the social network have sought to reassure employees following reports of mass redundancies on an unprecedented scale.
General counsel Sean Edgett stressed there would be "tons of public rumors and speculation" in the days and weeks ahead, adding:
"We do not have any confirmation of the buyer's plans following close and recommend not following rumors or leaked documents but rather wait for facts from us and the buyer directly."
