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Former Twitter employee said they tried to warn ‘people were going to die’ on Jan. 6th

Twitter’s role in the January 6th insurrection is once again in the spotlight. During a hearing on Tuesday, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack played testimony from a former Twitter employee who said they tried to warn others at the company that there would be violence on January 6th.

The committee pointed to a December 19th tweet from former President Donald Trump in which he promised a “wild” protest in Washington D.C. on January 6th. The tweet, they said, “served as a call to action, and in some cases as a call to arms” to his supporters.

By January 5th, the former Twitter employee said that it was clear the protest would turn violent, but that “no intervention was coming.” The committee didn’t identify the former employee, whose voice was obscured in the recorded testimony. Representative Jamie Raskin said the former employee “was on the team responsible for platform and content moderation policies” and worked at the company throughout 2020 and 2021.

“I had been begging and anticipating and attempting to raise the reality that if we made no intervention into what I saw, people were going to die,” the employee said. “And on January 5th, I realized no intervention was coming.”

The employee also stated that Twitter had considered changing its rules earlier in 2020 following Trump’s comments telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a presidential debate, but that the company ultimately declined to do so.

When asked if another Twitter user would have been able to take the same actions as Trump without being suspended, the employee replied “no.” They stated that Twitter enjoyed the notoriety that came with being Trump’s preferred social media platform. “I believe Twitter relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former president, and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem.”

In a statement, Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, VP of Public Policy at Twitter, said the company is “clear-eyed” about its role in the events leading up to January 6th. 

“We are clear-eyed about our role in the broader information ecosystem in regards to the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, and while we continue to examine how we can improve moving forward, the fact remains that we took unprecedented steps and invested significant resources to prepare for and respond to the threats that emerged during the 2020 US election,” Herrera-Flanigan said. “On January 6th, we leveraged the systems we had built leading up to the election to respond to the unprecedented attack in real-time and are committed to iterating on this work in order to address violent extremism in the US and globally.”

Twitter sues Elon Musk for attempting to back out of $44 billion buyout deal

Twitter is suing Elon Musk to force the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company. The New York Times reports Twitter filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Chancery Court in Delaware alleging the billionaire wrongfully broke his agreement to purchase the platform. In April, Musk announced he was willing to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, a proposal Twitter accepted less than two weeks later. Since then, the two have gone back and forth in a highly public spat over the number of fake accounts on Twitter. 

It all started in May when Musk said the deal was “temporarily on hold” while his team worked to confirm bots represented less than five percent of Twitter’s total userbase as the company has consistently claimed. Less than a month later, Musk threatened to back out of the agreement, accusing Twitter of committing a “material breach” of their agreement by refusing to disclose enough information about the problem. 

Twitter responded by giving Musk full access to its “firehose” of internal data, a move that apparently did little to appease the billionaire since on July 8th he told the Securities and Exchange Commission he wanted to terminate the takeover over “false and misleading representations” made by Twitter. All of that brings us to today. 

“Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play, and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk way,” Twitter said in its filing. 

Pointing to the issue of fake accounts, Twitter alleges Musk didn’t ask the company to share any estimates before he announced his bid. “Musk made his offer without seeking any representation from Twitter regarding its estimates of spam or false accounts,” the company says in its legal briefing. “He even sweetened his offer to the Twitter board by expressly withdrawing his prior diligence condition.” 

“Musk propounded these unreasonable requests and touted his contrived narrative about Twitter’s methodologies, all without ever identifying a basis for questioning the veracity of Twitter’s methodologies or the accuracy of its SEC disclosures,” the company later adds. Elsewhere, Twitter points to Musk’s multiple attempts to disparage the company, including his now-infamous poop emoji response to a thread where CEO Parag Agrawal said he was “prepared for all scenarios.” 

Another significant part of the lawsuit details Musk’s alleged attempts to derail Twitter’s efforts to retain its best employees amid declining morale at the company. Twitter claims Musk has prevented it from implementing employee retention programs and said that departures have “been on the upswing since the signing of the merger agreement.” 

Now that Twitter has sued, it sets the stage for Musk to respond with a countersuit. When that might happen is unclear. It’s also difficult to predict how a case between the two parties could unfold. If the suit moves to a trial, a judge will need to decide if Twitter did not disclose enough information to Musk. As The New York Times points out, the Delaware Chancery Court has forced companies in the past to complete deals. Either way, the lawsuit could take months to resolve.   

Rivian CEO tells staff the company is carrying out a ‘major’ cost-cutting effort

Electric vehicle maker Rivian is planning a “major” cost-cutting drive and will be “as thoughtful as possible as we consider any reductions,” CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in a memo to employees. Scaringe sent the note in response to reports that Rivian is planning up to 700 or so layoffs, primarily among non-engineering teams.

“This is not how we intended for you to hear about this,” he wrote. “We had hoped these very sensitive and complex conversations would have stayed within Rivian until we could address them more comprehensively.” Scaringe will share more information during an all-hands meeting scheduled for this Friday.

Rivian is pausing certain non-manufacturing hires, Scaringe wrote, while the company is “adopting major cost down efforts” to reduce its outlay on materials and operating expenses. “We will always be focused on growth, however, Rivian is not immune to the current economic circumstances and we need to make sure we can grow sustainably,” Scaringe told employees in the memo, which was first reported by Bloomberg. He added that the company is “financially well positioned and our outlook remains strong”

Scaringe added that Rivian will prioritize some programs and halt some others as it restructures certain aspects of the business. Earlier this year, Rivian said it would focus on a few areas for the time being. For one thing, the company is focused on increasing production of its R1T, R1S and electric delivery van, as TechCrunch notes. Other priorities include building out EV charging and service infrastructure, speeding up development of the next-generation R2 platform and finding more efficiencies for costs and operating expenses.

The company has nearly doubled its headcount over the last year to more than 14,000 employees, but it has been beset by problems, such as the supply chain crisis and the state of the economy. It has also delayed deliveries of the R1S SUV several times.

While Rivian expects to eventually build around 600,000 vehicles a year between its existing factory in Normal, Illinois and a plant that’s expected to open in Georgia in 2024, the company forecasts that it will build 25,000 EVs this year. As of earlier this month, Rivian had a backlog of 71,000 EV orders. It also has a contract to build 100,000 delivery vehicles for Amazon by the end of the decade. Right now, though, the company seemingly isn’t able to keep up with demand.

A Rivian spokesperson shared the full memo with Engadget:

Hi Team,

I’d like to address the news reports that are circulating about restructuring at Rivian. The reports speculate broadly on many intricate internal discussions about our business so I wanted to offer more clarity.

As discussed in recent all hands meetings, we’ve been working to focus our business in order to stay ahead of the changing economic landscape. We are financially well positioned and our outlook remains strong, but to fully realize our objectives it is critical that our strategy supports our sustainable growth as we ramp towards profitability. Earlier this year, we outlined our core strategic priorities for the next 18 months:

1) Ramping and enhancing R1 and EDV

2) Accelerating R2 development

3) Continuing to ramp our go-to-market capabilities, including our charging and service infrastructure

4) Optimizing costs and operating expenses across the business

As a result, we’ve implemented changes across Rivian, including prioritizing certain programs (and stopping some), halting certain non-manufacturing hiring and adopting major cost down efforts to reduce material spend and operating expenses. We also began the process of aligning the organization as a whole to ensure we are as focused, nimble and efficient as possible to achieve our priorities and objectives.

The hardest part of this process has been working through our organization to assess the size and structure of our teams and how well this aligns with our strategic plan. Our team is the core of Rivian and we are working to be as thoughtful as possible as we consider any reductions. We will always be focused on growth, however, Rivian is not immune to the current economic circumstances and we need to make sure we can grow sustainably. Every decision about our team is being assessed through the lens of our strategic priorities, not as a mechanism to simply reduce costs. Our team will continue to grow in support of our production ramp and product roadmap.

This is not how we intended for you to hear about this. We had hoped these very sensitive and complex conversations would have stayed within Rivian until we could address them more comprehensively. However, because information is coming out unofficially, I wanted to personally address it. I’ll be sharing more this Friday at our scheduled All-Hands meeting.

Thank you everyone.

RJ