US billionaire Elon Musk is doing everything he can to cut costs on Twitter. The company has reportedly stopped paying rent for weeks.

To cut costs, Twitter hasn’t paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters and offices around the world for weeks. The New York Times reports, citing three anonymous people close to the company. In addition, there were internal discussions about the consequences if the thousands of employees who were laid off were not paid the severance payments due. In addition, the auction of furniture, electronics, and kitchen appliances from the Twitter headquarters is scheduled for mid-January. At the end of November, the US newspaper reported that the new Twitter boss Elon Musk was refusing to pay for business trips that were approved before his takeover.

Cutting costs on Twitter by any means necessary

The report suggests that the chaos at Twitter continues as Musk seeks various avenues to cut costs and increase revenue. The reintroduced subscription service Twitter Blue should also help. For eight or eleven US dollars a month there is, among other things, the blue tick next to the profile name. But Musk has also promised that you will see 50 percent less advertising and that is becoming a problem, writes the online portal Platformer. Because Twitter would cost six US dollars per account, they are said to be planning that all users must agree to the display of personalized advertising in order to remain on the platform. This should not only lead to a new conflict with Apple.

The New York Times, meanwhile, continues to write that Musk is still laying off staff, including high-level managers. Only at the weekend did the new company management give the remaining employees another ultimatum, this time it was about the confidentiality obligation, Platformer had made public. Anyone who did not confirm by Saturday that he or she understood the obligations involved was locked out of the internal systems. That hit over 100 employees who didn’t check their email inboxes over the weekend. In addition, Twitter allegedly currently has no administrator access to its own GitHub account, but dismissed employees do.

NEW: Twitter currently does not have admin access to some of its GitHub repos. These repos contain Twitter source code (much of it is open source; some is not). This includes code for companies Twitter acquired, like Smyte. 1/

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) December 13, 2022

The New York Times goes on to say that Musk, along with several lawyers, brought additional SpaceX staff to Twitter. Just on Monday, Twitter previously dissolved the Trust & Safety Council, which was supposed to provide an external perspective on dealing with hate, child abuse, and self-harm, among other things. The resolution came via email shortly before a meeting of the panel scheduled for Monday. Elon Musk also defamed Twitter’s former Trust and Safety executive. He then apparently feared for his safety and fled his apartment. Musk then also shared a slogan from the conspiracy theory and terrorist movement QAnon.