Twitter Inc.’s communications department in Germany no longer exists after the social media giant’s takeover by Elon Musk, according to the former head of the unit who’s suing for unfair dismissal.
(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc.’s communications department in Germany no longer exists after the social media giant’s takeover by Elon Musk, according to the former head of the unit who’s suing for unfair dismissal.
The local communications chief told a tribunal in Hamburg that the closing of the team, which echoes the shuttering of the firm’s entire Brussels office, hampers Twitter’s operations in the European Union’s most-spoken language.
It’s now “very difficult” for the company to do external communications in German and the company’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin will, in his view, find it impossible to fill the gap, he said.
The former manager said the department had facilitated communications to business interests, as well as illustrating to current and potential users the benefits of using the platform.
Read More: Twitter Loses Entire Brussels Office With Regulators Looming
Twitter’s lawyer said his client and team were casualties of the broader restructuring at the company following Tesla CEO Musk’s purchase of the platform.
Regulators across Europe have been quick to demand Twitter keeps up with its regulatory demands.
Hours after billionaire Musk closed his $44 billion deal for the company, European Commissioner Thierry Breton sent a warning to the new owner, calling on the company to “fly by our rules.”
The German government views recent developments at Twitter since the Musk takeover as “definitely problematic” and is still in the process of evaluating its policy on using the platform, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s chief spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said Monday at a regular news conference in Berlin.
Any decision should be coordinated between the various ministries and agencies, he said, adding that it’s perfectly possible the government will decide to maintain a presence on Twitter.
Germany is also home to some of Europe’s toughest controls on hate speech and fake news online.
The NetzDG law requires tech companies to delete such posts and calls for fines as high as 50 million euros ($52.8 million) if they fail to do so.
–With assistance from Iain Rogers.
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