IT’S BEEN SOME week for big tech: Elon Musk took over Twitter and almost immediately let staff go; Stripe let staff go; and so did Meta. 

The layoffs all coming together immediately led to questions being asked about the future of tech – is there a dotcom bubble about to burst? Should we be worried about the future of some of the world’s most powerful online companies?

And in the midst of this, people began to turn away from Twitter in order to investigate alternative sites, like Mastodon. Even if they don’t end up there permanently, their move was highlighting an urgency to lash back at the habits and harms that have grown on social media.

To give us an overview over what all this means, and whether there is worse to come, this week our presenter Sinéad O’Carroll is joined by Elaine Burke, editor of Silicon Republic, to talk us through it all. 

https://soundcloud.com/the-explainer-podcast/what-do-the-layoffs-at-meta-and-twitter-mean-for-the-tech-industry/s-NaVA8izwnql?si=bc171502411f425f90d912c68d8bc300&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

This episode was put together by presenter Sinéad O’Carroll, and producers Aoife Barry and Nicky Ryan.