(Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. escalated its coronavirus response by mandating that all employees must work from home, having previously only recommended the practice.
The San Francisco-based company has more than 35 offices around the world, with its Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea locations already put on mandatory remote work due in part to government restrictions. As it expands the policy to its global workforce, Twitter said it will continue to pay contractors and hourly-wage workers to cover standard working hours during the disruption.
The steps taken by the social media giant mirror responses across the U.S. tech industry, with Microsoft Corp. and others committing to pay hourly workers unable to do their on-site jobs and also urging those who can to switch to working remotely.
Large events across the U.S. are getting canceled, including the South by Southwest festival this month, the Google I/O developer conference in May and the E3 gaming expo scheduled for June. Local and state authorities are also imposing bans on gatherings of large crowds, while the National Basketball Association suspended its season after identifying a positive Covid-19 case among its players.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Vlad Savov in Tokyo at vsavov5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net
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