Twitter employees have written an open letter to Elon Musk in response to reports that he plans to fire 75% of the company.

Mr Musk had planned to reduce Twitter’s headcount from 7,500 to 2,000, according to the Washington Post, after previously complaining that the company has a “strong left wing bias.”

Twitter’s current board had already planned to reduce wages at the company by around $800m by the end of 2023 and reduce staff by 25 per cent, according to the newspaper.

Twitter did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.

The open letter, seen by Time, which has not yet been published but has been circulating around Twitter’s staff, states: “Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,” going on to say that “a threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust

In a list of demands, the employees ask that Mr Musk not discriminate based on political belief and preserve Twitter’s existing employees. “We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires,” it says.

Twitter had already fired 30 per cent of its recruitment team, as well as two high-profile leads,

Mr Musk has suggested that buying Twitter is the first step in creating an “everything app” he calls X, which could be modelled after China’s WeChat.

He has also hinted that the platform will protect free speech and allow the return of banned users such as Donald Trump, whose account was locked after the January 6 insurrection by his supporters.

However, Twitter employees are more cynical about Mr Musk’s intentions: “It seems to me that he wants to buy the Twitter name, then completely gut and change it”, one anomymous employee has claimed.

“Speaking to people there, nobody feels safe in their job. I just don’t understand how it’s going to work as a company. There’s a mad attempt to restructure in some places to save face. It feels like the perfect time to try and get out – or prepare yourself for what’s going to happen.”

In a list of demands, the employees ask that Mr Musk not discriminate based on political belief and preserve Twitter’s existing employees. “We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires,” it says.

Twitter had already fired 30 per cent of its recruitment team, as well as two high-profile leads,

Mr Musk has suggested that buying Twitter is the first step in creating an “everything app” he calls X, which could be modelled after China’s WeChat.

He has also hinted that the platform will protect free speech and allow the return of banned users such as Donald Trump, whose account was locked after the January 6 insurrection by his supporters.

However, Twitter employees are more cynical about Mr Musk’s intentions: “It seems to me that he wants to buy the Twitter name, then completely gut and change it”, one anomymous employee has claimed.

“Speaking to people there, nobody feels safe in their job. I just don’t understand how it’s going to work as a company. There’s a mad attempt to restructure in some places to save face. It feels like the perfect time to try and get out – or prepare yourself for what’s going to happen.”