Twitter mandates all employees work from home

After previously recommending all employees work from home, Twitter took things a step further on Wednesday, making telecommuting mandatory for nearly all employees.

Why it matters: It's another sign of just how seriously Big Tech companies are taking the coronavirus outbreak.

Twitter said in a blog post that it was making the move to support the health of its employees and those vulnerable in the communities in which it has offices.

"We understand this is an unprecedented step, but these are unprecedented times."

Twitter also said:

• It will continue to pay hourly workers that support its offices while employees work from home.
• It will pay employees for the costs needed to set up their home offices as well as Internet fees.
• It will reimburse additional child care costs for employees whose traditional child care providers are closed.

Yes, but: The edict applies to most, but not all employees. Some folks, such as those in Twitter's data center, have to be physically in the office to do their jobs.

In other tech industry coronavirus news:

• Google expanded its work-from-home recommendation, already issued for all of North America, to workers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
• Representatives of large tech companies including Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Twitter met Wednesday with U.S. CTO Michael Kratsios and representatives from various federal agencies to discuss how the tech sector can help with analyzing coronavirus information and fight misinformation.
• The Overwatch League is canceling its March and April events.
• IBM said the computer it built for the Department of Energy is being used to help identify potential treatments for COVID-19.