How Elon Musk changed Twitter’s Dublin operation: ‘He broke the culture in a week’

From 1 Cumberland Place, on Fenian Street in Dublin city centre, Twitter’s EMEA headquarters wielded global influence.

Staff at the Dublin office, ostensibly the social media firm’s head of operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, worked on international operations across a number of teams.

Safety and customer service functions served all international users from Dublin, and a large sales team worked right across Europe. Many employees based in Dublin held global roles, heading up teams of Twitter employees from across the world. Staff in Dublin also worked on content moderation.

“In essence, it was an international headquarters,” says one former senior staff member, who does not want to be identified. “In terms of the overall infrastructure, and operation of the company, the Dublin site was really significant.”

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In October 2022 the acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, by billionaire Elon Musk brought sweeping and severe changes to Cumberland Place, with significant job cuts announced to the 500-strong Dublin workforce.

“[We were] waiting for the soldiers to come over the hill,” says another former staffer. “Everybody had a very clear sense that things were going to change, or potentially change, quite rapidly.”

The key to understanding the impact of the billionaire’s acquisition on staff at the Dublin office is the work culture that previously existed at Twitter, according to former Dublin employees.

“It was a really strong employee brand,” says the former staffer. “There was a lot of people who were dying to work with that company for a long time.”

At Twitter, employees felt like they were respected, treated like individuals. There was an emphasis on wellbeing and inclusion, and high levels of psychological safety.

“The culture was incredible, both globally and locally,” says another former staffer. “It’s a bit cheesy, but the team and the people that I worked with weren’t just colleagues at that point ... They’d become good friends of mine.”

In addition, employees believed in what the platform stood for: “Openness, transparency, freedom of expression, giving voice to people in oppressed jurisdictions, giving voice to whistleblowers, to journalists ... effectively being the fastest conversational tool created in history.”

For these reasons, people cared about their job and felt pride in it, says the staffer. “There was a real sense of pride and resilience around the office, that people were dealing with sometimes really tough workstreams and really difficult content that people were being exposed to, but they really were aligned with the values.”

We were watching the takeover play out on our own platform ... our professional reality was tied up in that. And yet, we had absolutely no insight or certainty

—  A former Dublin staffer

In Dublin the uncertainty began to creep in around April last year, when Musk moved to acquire the company. By the end of that month, Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter for an eye-watering $44 billion (€43 billion).

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” he said in a statement at the time.

Months of little to no communication from Twitter headquarters in San Francisco followed. For many employees, the only insight into the acquisition process was Musk’s Twitter account.

“We were watching the takeover play out on our own platform ... our professional reality was tied up in that. And yet, we had absolutely no insight or certainty,” says the former staffer.

Many employees in the Dublin office had young families, mortgages, and had arranged their affairs based on a certain financial reality. The uncertainty brought heavy stresses.

“There was a lot of uncertainty, anxiety, and worried faces on calls.”

After several hitches across the summer months, Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter on October 27th, 2022. “The bird is freed,” he tweeted.

“I would say he broke the culture within a week,” the former senior staff member said. “You were just a cog in the wheel.”

If some in Dublin were excited by Musk’s takeover, it was matched – if not outweighed – by a sense of fear.

Values that previously defined work culture within Twitter – the employee as a valued individual, for example – were quickly eroded, as entire teams, including the communications and public policy teams, were done away with. Fears were realised.

[ Elon Musk takeover costs Twitter €12.7m in Irish redundancy costs ]

On November 4th some employees in Dublin learned that they had been laid off by the company only when they could not access staff email accounts, and were locked out of work laptops. Some waited hours for email confirmation of their dismissals.

“It was brutal,” says one staffer who was laid off that day.

On November 16th, Musk sent an email to remaining Twitter employees, titled “A Fork in the Road”. In it, Musk stated that to build “Twitter 2.0″, employees would “need to be extremely hardcore”, working long hours at high intensity.

Those who were willing to commit were asked to click a link within the email. The alternative was to take three months’ severance pay and leave the company.

This email was the surest sign that Twitter – the platform, the company and the values that previously underpinned it – had changed, says the former staffer. “It was a real change of tone. I think a lot of people at that point were like: ‘No – this isn’t the kind of place we want to work’.”

In the months that followed the takeover, other staff that were kept on in Dublin left for other opportunities, often of their own volition.

“A lot of the people that I would have worked with no longer work at X now,” says another former staffer. “I would guess a lot of people would have [left] because [Musk] is unpredictable, and because of how the culture had changed.”

The workforce size in Dublin, incrementally, fell to about 100 employees. Last month it was reported that TikTok would take more than four of the five floors at Cumberland House in a subletting arrangement.

Changes within the company have been mirrored by a changing product. X.com, as it is now known, has come under criticism in recent months, specifically regarding the proliferation of disinformation.

In September the European Union issued a warning to Musk to comply with laws on fake news, after X was found to have the highest rate of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms.

Previously, in May, X withdrew from the bloc’s voluntary code of practice on disinformation.

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Algorithmic changes, alongside the site’s X Premium service – developed after the removal of the “blue tick” verification feature – is being harnessed by some for commercial and political gain, says Jane Suiter, a professor at Dublin City University with a research focus on disinformation.

X, under Musk, has shown a resistance towards tackling disinformation, says Prof Suiter. “It’s not even an apathy – it’s a downright hostility towards it.”

One former staffer described the current state of the site as “a little heartbreaking”. In their opinion, the culling of trust and safety teams was one of the most damaging decisions by the new ownership.

Twitter always faced criticisms regarding abuse on the platform. “But what kept you going was that you knew that you were trying to improve it, and that there were teams working around the clock to make it better. And you believed in the mission of the company to bring conversation to the world,” says the staffer.

We were like collateral. [Musk] was attacking Twitter in the US, and we were collateral damage

The company did not respond to queries from The Irish Times, including whether new measures introduced by X since Musk’s takeover had led to a proliferation in disinformation.

The social media giant also did not respond to claims that Musk was opposed to tackling disinformation.

For some who have left, a sense of loss surrounds Twitter Dublin, and what it once was.

“I think ultimately, X.com, and the X app, probably in the two or three years, will be something completely different,” the former senior staffer said.

“And then [Musk] will say to everybody that his takeover was a success, but it won’t be Twitter.”

Musk had little interest in Twitter’s operations outside the US, thus diminishing Dublin’s impact within the global operation, says the staffer.

“We were, in many ways, an afterthought ... the decisions he made and how he made them, were made as if they were only impacting America,” says the source.

“I think one of the toughest things for a lot of the Dublin people was [that] we were spectators at our own demise.

“We were like collateral. [Musk] was attacking Twitter in the US, and we were collateral damage – which was a strange feeling for a place that had been so integral to the global footprint of the company.”