Tesla CEO kicks off tenure as social media large’s new proprietor by firing high management.
Elon Musk has kicked off his tenure as the brand new proprietor of Twitter by giving the boot to the social media large’s high management.
After closing a $44bn deal to purchase the corporate on Thursday, Musk swiftly fired three of Twitter’s most senior executives in a sign of his intent to place his stamp on one of many world’s most influential social media platforms.
Chief Govt Parag Agrawal, Chief Monetary Officer Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, head of authorized, coverage and belief, had been all proven the door, based on a number of media studies citing individuals conversant in the state of affairs.
Sean Edgett, Twitter’s normal counsel, was additionally given the sack, the Washington Publish reported, citing an unnamed supply.
Agrawal and Gadde had been each reportedly escorted from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters following Musk’s firing, Reuters reported, citing individuals conversant in the matter.
Twitter and Musk have but to formally verify the firings.
Musk, a self-described free-speech absolutist, had repeatedly clashed with the corporate’s management over their stewardship of the social media platform.
In April, the Tesla CEO tweeted a meme that includes Gadde’s face that instructed the platform’s moderation selections are pushed by left-wing bias.
Gadde has been a lightning rod for conservatives’ complaints about Large Tech’s censorship of their viewpoints. As Twitter’s high lawyer, the Indian-born govt made the choice to completely droop former United States President Donald Trump’s Twitter account over his alleged incitement of violence within the wake of the January 6 riots on the US Capitol.
In Could, Musk publicly clashed with Agrawal, tweeting a faeces emoji in response to a thread by the Twitter CEO that argued it was not attainable to find out the true variety of spam accounts on the platform. The trade got here after Musk tried to again out of his $44bn deal to purchase the corporate after accusing executives of concealing the variety of bots and spam accounts on the platform.
Textual content messages made public throughout Twitter’s authorized bid to implement the unique phrases of the deal revealed terse exchanges between the 2 males over the route of the corporate.
Earlier than taking on from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey final 12 months, Agrawal, who moved from Mumbai to the US in 2005, served as chief expertise officer. In an interview with MIT Know-how Overview in 2020, he mentioned he seen the corporate’s function as to “focus much less on desirous about free speech, however desirous about how the occasions have modified”.
In courtroom paperwork filed earlier this month, Musk’s attorneys accused senior executives together with Agrawal, Gadde and Edgett of directing Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko to destroy proof of the corporate’s subpar cybersecurity insurance policies.
Whereas Musk’s precise plans for Twitter are usually not but clear, the billionaire has criticised the platform’s moderation insurance policies and burdened the necessity for a “frequent digital city sq.” the place a variety of views could be mentioned.
Critics have warned that Musk’s takeover of Twitter might lead to a surge in hate speech and misinformation, whereas conservatives have welcomed his buy as a corrective to what they see as Silicon Valley’s stranglehold on political dialogue on-line.
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