A week after billionaire Elon Musk officially took over Twitter, the social media company made mass layoffs by contacting employees via email. The move reportedly affects half of Twitter’s 7,500 global workforce, and its Canadian operations weren’t spared. Here’s what you need to know:

Canadian cuts: At least two of the company’s top staff in the country lost their jobs, including Twitter Canada’s managing director Paul Burns and its Ottawa-based director of public policy for the U.S. and Canada, Michele Austin. “It’s been a wild last 4.5 years,” Burns tweeted. 

“I am heartbroken to announce that I’ve been laid off by Twitter Inc. It’s been the best, craziest, most rewarding 5 year ride of my career. I loved every single minute of it,” Austin wrote on LinkedIn.

Austin was a federal political staffer on and off for nearly a decade before becoming Twitter’s lobbyist on Parliament Hill. She has previously testified on online hate and violent extremism, and likely would have been Twitter’s representative on Canadian bills for online news, consumer privacy protection and amending the Broadcasting Act.

The Logic reached out to Twitter Canada’s head of communications for comment and received an email saying the email account no longer exists.

South of the border: Twitter’s Washington D.C.-based global head of policy communications Anna Hughes posted a LinkedIn note saying she was laid off Thursday night along with “thousands” of other Tweeps. New York-based senior director of product Tony Haile, who was previously CEO of online news bundle subscription service Scroll before Twitter bought it in 2021, was also let go. A team of artificial intelligence researchers focused on making the platform’s algorithms more ethical were also fired. 

Meanwhile, Twitter already faces a legal fight to ensure employees receive adequate notice and compensation.

The backdrop: The official cuts cap a months-long ordeal for employees since the Tesla and SpaceX CEO first announced his US$44-billion bid to take over Twitter. Musk had concerns about Twitter’s expenses ahead of the buyout, and if the number of roles are cut to about 3,000 as expected, it will be its lowest headcount since it went public in 2013.

What Musk wants: The layoffs are just some of the big changes Musk may be eyeing. He wants to charge users US$8 for the blue verification symbol, is mulling a revival of the short-form video product Vine, and reportedly seeking revenue from things like allowing users to pay for sending direct messages to high-profile users.