Co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Twitter Jack Dorsey on Saturday apologised for growing the social media company “too quickly” after its new owner Elon Musk began reducing its workforce by an estimated 50%.

Musk has defended the layoffs, saying employees who have been fired are receiving three months of severance as the company reportedly loses $4 million a day. The cuts, which began on Friday, have impacted roughly half of Twitter’s workforce, or about 3,700 jobs, according to reports.

Dorsey had quit as the chief executive officer of Twitter in November 2021 and left the board of directors in May. He had also supported Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, when the Tesla founder had first proposed to buy the social media company on April 26.

“Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient,” Dorsey said in a series of tweets on Saturday. “They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realise many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologise for that.”

Musk took control of Twitter on October 28 after completing a $44 billion (over Rs 3,36,910 crore) deal to buy the social media network.

In one of his first decisions at the helm of the social media giant, he fired three top executives, including Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Legal Affairs and Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde.

Advertisers wary of Musk’s moves are pausing their spending on Twitter, which is under new pressure to grow revenue.

Twitter launches monthly subscription for blue tick

In response, Musk had on November 1 announced the move of making users pay for a blue tick beside their account name indicating that their profile is verified.

The sought-after blue tick was previously only available to accounts that are prone to be impersonated such as of celebrities, politicians and journalists.

On Saturday, Twitter updated its app in Apple’s App Store to begin charging $8, or about Rs 662, a month, for the service, reported Reuters. This is Musk’s first major revision of the social media platform since he acquired the company.

Many have raised concerns that the social platform could become lawless if content moderation and verification are chipped away.

According to Twitter, the plan to allow users to buy blue-tick verified status will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

“As soon as we confirm it’s working well in the initial set of countries and we have the translation work done, it will roll out worldwide,” the billionaire said on Twitter.

The service will be available in India in “hopefully less than a month”, Musk announced in response to a question from a user.