Geneva, Nov 6 (IANS): United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has issued an open letter to Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, saying "ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter".

The letter followed reports of Twitter's massive layoff of staff on Friday, including its human rights team and ethical AI team, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Respect for our shared human rights should set the guardrails for the platform's use and evolution," Turk said in the letter.

In the letter, the UN Human Rights chief urged Twitter to stand up for the right to privacy, and stressed that Twitter has a responsibility to avoid amplifying content that results in harm to other people's rights.

Musk completed a deal to buy Twitter at $44 billion in October, gaining control of the social network company. According to media reports, on Friday Twitter laid off thousands of employees in departments across the company as part of an aggressive plan to trim costs.