Twitter faces outage on the day of mass layoffs

Elon Musk has declared an $8 per monthly fee to verify users' Twitter accounts.

Twitter users faced problems accessing the platform on Friday morning as people from several countries, including India, complained that the website was not loading. This comes on a day the company carries out a mass layoff under new owner, billionaire Elon Musk.

While the platform continued to work on the phone, many users reported that it was not working on the desktop.

Downdetector, that gives real-time information about the status of several websites, collated reports from users, most of whom complained that they faced problems using Twitter web.

Users got this message on trying to open Twitter on the desktop: “Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.”

Twitter said in an email to staff that it will alert employees by 9 am Pacific time on Friday (12 pm EDT/1600 GMT) about staff cuts.

"In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday," said the email.

Twitter said its offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended in order "to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data."

The social media platform said Twitter employees who are not affected by the layoffs will be notified via their work email addresses.

Read: 'If you are in an office... please return home': Read Twitter's email to staff ahead of layoffs

Elon Musk took sole control of the social media giant in a contentious $44 billion deal last month. He also fired the company’s four top executives, including Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal and legal executive Vijaya Gadde.

Earlier this week, Musk, the world’s richest man, declared an $8 per month fee to verify users' accounts, arguing the plan to charge users for the blue tick would solve the platform's issues with bots and trolls while creating a new revenue stream for the company.

“Twitter’s current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is b*****it. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” Musk, 51, tweeted, adding that the price is adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity.