Twitter Inc is facing an increase in employee departures, company management informed staff on Wednesday, as they worked to handle numerous concerns, including whistleblower allegations and a court dispute with billionaire Elon Musk.
Prior to Musk's $44 billion offer to acquire the company, attrition was between 14 and 16 percent, which was consistent with competitors, according to executives.
During a company-wide meeting, Twitter officials informed colleagues that current employee turnover is 18.3 percent, as noted by Reuters.
According to current employees who spoke with Reuters, the months-long instability surrounding the Musk takeover has prompted some employees to leave the company.
After suing Musk for attempting to renege on the buyout agreement, the San Francisco-based company is also set to go to trial in October.
The employee meeting was held one day after former Twitter security chief Peiter "Mudge" Zatko alleged in a whistleblower lawsuit that the social media corporation deceived federal regulators over its defenses against hackers and spam accounts.
On Wednesday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal reassured employees that Zatko's allegations were "fundamentally, technically, and historically wrong."
Before the story surfaced, Twitter contacted "several agencies" around the world, according to General Counsel Sean Edgett.
In the discussion, Twitter employees posed queries to business officials including whether Twitter will hire or promote more junior employees, as well as how Twitter could be expected to achieve its growth goals in light of the employee exodus.
Agrawal said, "The only way we can deliver is by focusing on fewer topics in relation to the number of individuals in the room."
Twitter's general manager for consumer and revenue product, Jay Sullivan, provided preliminary information about a new initiative to explore methods to give users greater control over the content they view on Twitter.
Twitter's work on content moderation is influenced by the notion of giving users greater power, but the new project will include this mindset into product road maps, according to Sullivan.
Twitter did not reply to further comment requests.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee announced that it will conduct a hearing with Zatko on September 13, the same day Twitter shareholders will vote on whether to accept the deal with Musk.
On the same day, attorneys for Twitter and Musk participated in a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, to determine if Twitter was required to furnish Musk with the documents and data he requested in order to contest the company's estimates of spam accounts on its site. Musk's attorneys briefly cited Zatko's accusations.
