TikToker roasts Vice for abruptly ending meeting due to emojis

A TikToker has hit out at Vice's latest round of layoffs after a meeting was abruptly ended due to an influx of thumbs-down emojis.

Chief content officer Cory Haik started by telling staff that it's "a very, very, very difficult time in the macro landscape".

“The Vice publishing business is now going to operate as a smaller, break-even business. It is no longer unprofitable, but it is a much smaller offering," she continued.

That's when a sea of emojis poured in from staff members.

Vice Media chief executive Bruce Dixon jumped in on the conversation by saying they had to end the meeting as "it's impossible to ignore the emojis from our side".

"I think we’re going to organise this in a way where we can actually give the information to people who want to receive it in the way it’s meant," he continued. "Thank you for your time and your presence in terms of trying to explain that. I think let’s progress with our own town halls on this. Thank you for all the questions we have received, we’ll do our best to answer those in a forum that makes sense for this company."

Inevitably, the Townhall caused a stir online with one TikToker (@therealcornpop) calling it "f***ing embarrassing" for the company to even let the meeting "go that way".

"The CEO had the f***ing nerve to say that it was ‘impossible to ignore’ the deluge of thumbs-down emojis that people are sending in the chat as they are quite literally losing their jobs," he continued.

He then went on to blast the concept of a 'Townhall' and said: "This is a great opportunity to have an open dialogue with our workers!’ Except execs and corporations don’t want to have a dialogue; they just want to be able to say something to everyone all at once. … It’s not a town hall; it’s an assembly."

Hundreds of fellow TikTokers flocked to the clip with their own takes, with one writing: "It’s wild to think that Vice started as a punk magazine. Capitalism ruins everything."

Another encouraged people to join a union, writing: "At this point, you're basically endangering yourself if you're not in a union, actively unionizing or in a worker-owned business."

Indy100 reached out to Vice for comment

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