Social media giants get Congressional tongue-lashing

Elon Musk said afterwards in a tweet that the arrangement is only temporary. It is unclear if or when he will name a new board.

We look at a new report from Le Monde and an anti-corruption investigative website into shady links between Russian mercenary group Wagner and the militia in Sudan. Also, ahead of the COP 27 conference in Egypt this week, the focus is not just on climate change but human rights in Egypt. Finally, a French Twitter user's joke about Americans' lack of geography gets a life of its own.

Employees are bracing for bad news after receiving a memo about job cuts, with every second worker reportedly at risk of being laid off. Elon Musk has already fired top executives since buying the social media giant.

Half of the social media giant's staff were reportedly laid off, some advertisers pulled their ads and US President Joe Biden said the platform "spews lies all across the world."

Cornet and four other Twitter employees had filed a lawsuit in California federal court on Friday accusing the social media company of violating federal and California laws requiring employers to give 60 days' notice before engaging in mass layoffs.

Meta Platforms Inc META.O said on Wednesday it will let go of 13% of its workforce, or more than 11,000 employees, in one of the biggest layoffs this year as the Facebook parent battles soaring costs and a weak advertising market.

The mass layoffs announced on Twitter have affected the newly-formed African team of the social media platform based in Ghana. However, Ghanaian lawyers are considering legal action against Twitter for violating Ghanaian labour laws.

Despite expectations of sweeping losses, Democrats have defeated Republicans in some key races. But projections put Republicans in the lead for the race for control of the House of Representatives.

Since Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter, data shows a million users have fled the platform. DW rounds up some of the most popular microblogging alternatives — and sees if Mastodon lives up to the hype.

We look at the fallout from Elon Musk’s pet project, Twitter’s new blue checkmark. The old blue tick was designed to mitigate the spread of disinformation.

Twitter has removed its "Twitter Blue" feature, a monthly $7.99 subscription that would have allowed users to have a blue verification check on their account. The paid service backfired after a wave of imposter accounts invaded the social media platform. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Twitter has sacked roughly half its workforce as Elon Musk ended his first week as the company's new owner. Employees are responding with a class action lawsuit. Musk insists he had no other choice but to slash jobs.