It appears that the world's richest person, by virtue of his extraordinary wealth, has put the functioning of Twitter — one of the major communication channels in today's world — at peril. Will it be wrong to say that Elon Musk is the "reluctant owner" of what is proudly touted as the "global noticeboard" — for he had tried to pull away from the Twitter deal before being forced to sign the dotted line? Even if Musk could afford it, it won't be wrong to say that he has punched above his weight in signing the USD 44 billion Twitter deal. The deal has left him with an immediate pressure of dealing with an outstanding debt of USD 13 billion. While Twitter's reach and fame have been on the rise, its fortunes have dwindled over the years. The business side of it undoubtedly needs to be worked upon. However, Musk's decision to lay off almost half of its workforce, citing "massive drop in revenue", lacks any traces of ingenuity. It is an arbitrary gamble at the best whose outcome remains highly dubious. In practical terms, given the paramount socio-political relevance Twitter holds, globally, Musk's haphazard move doesn't seem to be a suitable proposition by any account. Compliance or non-compliance with laws is still a secondary thing; the manner in which Musk's decision has potentially imperilled the global communication system is alarming. Not just the route opted by Musk is highly condemnable but also the timing of it. US midterm elections are around the corner, and the country, all of a sudden, finds one of its most trusted communication platforms fraught with forced limitations. For years, government agencies in the United States have been using Twitter to disseminate credible information and counter misinformation during elections. The agencies, this time around, are finding themselves in a difficult position. Apart from this, in want of proper content moderation, there are chances that misinformation may dictate the political discourse ahead of elections. Misinformation like the one claiming that 2020 US elections were stolen in favour of Joe Biden are already making the rounds in US' political discourse. It may be pertinent to note here that among the employees laid off, a large chunk came from the content moderation team, the communications department, the human rights team, the machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability team, the internet technology team and the accessibility engineering team. Unfortunately, under the guise of promoting free speech, Musk has curtailed Twitter's content moderation team, alleging pressurisation from activist groups, which has also resulted in lack of revenue, he claimed. Knowing that the company is running in losses, Musk, as the owner, has all rights to take decisions that will reduce the losses for the company. But at the same time, he is also expected to follow laws and regulations in words and spirit. Lawsuits have been filed against Twitter for violating the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and California WARN Act which mandate a certain requisite notice or severance pay. Notably, Musk was embroiled in such legal controversy in the past as well, when Tesla mass fired its employees. The legal loophole of finding an escape by providing negotiable severance pay in lieu of advance written notice had enabled the company to get away with the situation. He appears to be trying the same strategy this time as well. The legal loopholes need to be plugged by the earliest. Mass layoffs may just be one of the many shocks that are destined to confront Twitter. Musk is exploring an alternative working infrastructure to minimise costs. He is learnt to have directed his teams to find up to USD 1bn in annual infrastructure cost savings. Since 90 per cent of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising, he is also preparing for alternative routes of revenue generation, including levying subscription fees for verification badges (or blue ticks). While alternative models will take a lot of time and ingenuity, Musk's moves are taking away whatever the company has at present — its credibility and the advertisers. Elon Musk needs to be made to realise that his actions have widespread ramifications for the larger world. His wealth needs to be accompanied by a fair degree of ingenuity to make things turn for better.