Twitter was plunged into turmoil Friday after Elon Musk's team started laying off wide swaths of the company's workforce, infuriating employees and rattling a technology industry already grappling with an economic downturn.

The mass layoffs were documented in part on the social media platform itself, where many employees appeared to rally together in solidarity under the #OneTeam hashtag, and the blue heart and the salute emojis.

Employees commiserated in Slack channels, and some found themselves abruptly locked out of their email accounts, according to five workers who spoke to NBC News and CNBC. All requested that their names be withheld, citing fears of professional retribution or losing their severance pay.

"Elon will own a company without employees," a source inside Twitter told CNBC.

In an exchange at an investor conference Friday, Musk appeared to confirm that his team had laid off half the company's workforce, according to CNBC.

Ron Baron, a hedge fund manager who has invested in Twitter, said to Musk: "Today we fired half of Twitter, and that should save us, what, $4 billion?" In response, Musk said in part: "I wish, [but] to be frank, Twitter was having pretty serious revenue challenges and cost challenges before the acquisition talks started." (Baron later clarified that he meant to say $400 million.)

In a remarkable outpouring Friday, Twitter users who identified themselves as company employees announced they had been laid off, expressing gratitude for their experiences before the Musk takeover and decrying the bluntness of the layoff process.

Twitter has already been sued over the workforce reductions. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, alleges the company violated federal and state laws that require 60 days notice of mass layoffs, according to a court document.

The class-action suit names five current or former workers as plaintiffs, including one who was allegedly told he was terminated effective Tuesday; Twitter is listed as the defendant.

Three other staff members were locked out of their Twitter accounts as of Thursday with no formal notice of a layoff, which they interpret to mean they will lose their jobs, according to the lawsuit.

The company said staffing was being cut back in "an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path."

In the midst of the chaos, some Twitter users — in a potential preview of what might happen if Musk unwinds rules around verification — essentially spoofed his account, replacing their handle and profile photo with that of the mogul.

Inside the company, anxieties about potential layoffs were swirling around even before Musk’s takeover was finished. However, Twitter’s general counsel urged workers not to dwell on rumors before Musk took the reins.

Musk was already under intense scrutiny for how he might reshape Twitter in his own image. Tech industry observers have raised concerns that he might loosen content moderation policies that limit hate speech and political disinformation.