BBC Elon fires Tweeters Task Jo Parsnip © 2024
Before you listen, make sure you understand the following words / phrases:
Listen and choose the BEST answer a, b or c:
1. At first, the people at Tweeter were ...
a. Surprised by the speed of developments.
b. Unhappy with communication with managers.
c. worried about the future of the platform.
2. According to the interviewee, Tweeter's employees can see ...
a. the negative financial impact of their lay-offs.
b. the negative impact on content moderation.
c. the political motives behind their dismissal.
3. The interviewee ...
a. agrees with Musk about the amount of hate speech on Twitter.
b. points out that disinformation will now become more difficult.
c. Is concerned that the changes are linked to political events.
4. The interviewed woman doubts that ...
a. new verification will be introduced.
b. Musk will be able to get his changes through.
c. The new video product will be a success.
5. The interviewee implies that...
a. Musk himself has contributed to the platform's debt.
b. the current cuts at Twitter are financially justified.
c. the platform is indeed heavily in debt.
Answer Key:
1A 2C 3C 4B 5A
Speaker 1: Elon Musk has defended his decision to sack thousands of staff at Twitter without warning. The
world's richest man bought the social media platform last week. He tweeted to say that he was forced to
make the cuts because Twitter was losing nearly $4 million a day. Mr. Musk also attempted to allay
concerns about the spread of hate speech, saying Twitter's commitment to content moderation remained
unchanged. But President Biden has said the tycoon has bought an outfit that spews lies across the world.
Many big firms have paused their advertising on Twitter while uncertainty about its content controls remain.
Well, earlier, I asked Erin Wu from the information about how Twitter employees, past and present are
feeling about the situation.
Speaker 2: People are shocked at the speed that this is happening at, and they're also they're angry that
there hasn't been more communication from Elon Musk and his team. They're also worried about what's
going to happen to the future of the platform.
Speaker 1: Well, what specifically are their concerns? Which direction do they see the platform heading in?
Speaker 2: So what's important to remember is that this is all happening just days ahead of the midterm
elections in the United States, and so days ahead of the midterms. Half of the staff has been fired and said
they're worried that there won't be enough content moderation staff. And they're also concerned about what
could happen if Elon Musk goes ahead with his plan to start charging for verification on Monday, just one
day before the midterm elections.
Speaker 1: Elon Musk tweeted earlier he said that Twitter's strong commitment to content moderation
remains absolutely unchanged. And he says, in fact, we've actually seen hateful speech decline below our
prior norms. Contrary to what you may read in the press, does that tally with what you're seeing?
Speaker 2: Sure. I can't confirm or deny what he's saying about the amount of hateful speech on the
platform changing, but what I can say is that, for example, the curation team, which was responsible for
essentially helping determine what people saw through trending topics, that team has just been absolutely
decimated by these cuts. And so people are concerned that those changes and others may lead to more
misinformation on the platform ahead of Tuesday's elections.
Speaker 1: Thinking longer term about the platform, how does Twitter look to you? Kind of short, medium
and long term under Elon Musk?
Speaker 2: I think all we can say at this point is it's going to be incredibly difficult. It's going to be incredibly
different. Like we've seen a few of the changes already. He's planning on changing verification. There's
talks of bringing back vine, the short form video product product. There's also been some indication of what
he's planning on shuttering. And so that's reviewed and notes the longer form content. So there's definitely
a lot of product changes coming up. And what's I guess left to be seen is how well he's able to execute.
Speaker 1: He says this was necessary to make these cuts because the platform was losing $4 million a
day. It's now his company. It's his right to do with it as he pleases, really, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Sure. I mean, that's yes, that is definitely one way to look at it. I think it's also important to add
that the amount of financial pressure that Twitter is under has been increased, by the way, that he financed
his bid to buy the platform. And so he's added around $1 billion of debt that needs to be repaid every year.
And so that obviously ups the financial pressure quite a bit.
