Twitter's survival is at stake, Elon Musk warns

(ECNS) -- Elon Musk warned Twitter employees Thursday to brace for “difficult times ahead” that might end with the collapse of the social media platform if they can't find new ways of making money, The Associated Press reported. 

"Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message," wrote Musk in an email to employees on Wednesday night ordering workers to stop working from home and show up in the office Thursday morning.

Workers who survived last week's mass layoffs are facing harsher work conditions and growing uncertainty about their ability to keep Twitter running safely, the AP reported.

Musk described “a dire economic climate for businesses” like Twitter that rely almost entirely on advertising to make money and asked his employees "to be in the office at least 40 hours per week."

“Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn,” Musk said. “We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription.”

Musk told employees the “priority over the past 10 days" was to develop and launch Twitter's new subscription service for $7.99 a month that includes a blue check mark next to the name of paid members. 

In another email to employees, Musk said the “absolute top priority" over the coming days is to suspend “bots/trolls/spam” exploiting the verified accounts. But Twitter now employs far fewer people to help him do that as Many of Twitter's high-level leaders responsible for data privacy and cybersecurity quitted, the AP said.