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Elon Musk has formally taken over Twitter and immediately fired several top executives, according to a report.
Among those he fired were CEO Parag Agrawal; the chief financial officer, Ned Segal, and the company’s top attorney, Vijaya Gadde, according to: The Washington Post.
Gadde was reportedly in tears earlier this year when Musk’s $44 billion acquisition was first reported.
Musk has publicly criticized Twitter’s existing leadership team, most notably attacking their content moderation and censorship policies.
Twitter’s three top executives were rushed out of the building, sources told The Washington Post.
Musk posted a video on Wednesday in which he marched into Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco with a porcelain sink
Musk warned advertisers earlier on Thursday that Twitter under his ownership cannot become a “hellscape.”
Tesla’s CEO sent a tweet to advertisers Thursday morning saying that while he wants the social media giant to become a “digital city square,” it “obviously cannot become a free hellscape, where anything can be said without consequences.”
On Wednesday, the billionaire changed his Twitter profile to identify himself as the “Chief Twit” and posted a video of him walking into the company’s San Francisco headquarters with a porcelain sink.
“Our platform should be warm and welcoming to everyone,” he wrote to advertisers on Thursday, “where you can choose the experience you want based on your preferences, just as you can choose to watch movies or play video games, for example, ranging from all ages to mature.’
He added that he “strongly believes that advertising … can entice, entertain and inform you,” saying that, when done properly, advertising “can offer you a service or product or medical treatment.” show you that you didn’t know existed, but is right for you.
“To make this happen, it’s essential to show Twitter users ads that are as relevant as possible to their needs,” the 51-year-old billionaire concluded in his letter, adding: “Low relevance ads are spam.” , but highly relevant ads are actually content!’
Musk later agreed with a rapper on the platform, Zuby, who suggested Twitter should do just that “find a way to offset ‘monetize or collaborate’ with the best creators, like any other social media app.”
“Absolutely,” wrote the SpaceX founder in response.
Musk confirmed on Thursday that he bought Twitter ahead of a court-imposed deadline to seal his $44 billion acquisition of the company.
Tesla’s CEO sent a tweet to advertisers Thursday morning saying that while he wants the social media giant to become a “digital city square,” it “obviously cannot become a free hellscape, where anything can be said without consequences.”
Musk also revealed his “motivation” for buying the company in the open letter to advertisers, writing: “There has been a lot of speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it is wrong.’
He said he acquired the company ‘because it is important for the future of civilization to have a common digital city square, where a wide range of beliefs can be discussed in a healthy way, without resorting to violence’ .
But, wrote the 51-year-old billionaire, “much of the traditional media has nurtured and nurtured both the far right and the far left” because they believe it makes money, but in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.
“That’s why I bought Twitter,” Musk wrote. “I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help the humanity I love.
“And I do so with humility, realizing that failing in the pursuit of this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”
He also changed his Twitter profile to identify himself as the “Chief Twit” ahead of the court-imposed deadline to complete his $44 billion acquisition.
Meanwhile, Twitter staff remained on edge on Thursday.
He was later photographed on Wednesday speaking to some employees, reportedly denying rumors that he would be killing three-quarters of the workforce.
But that did little to appease the social media giant’s more than 7,500 employees.
As one Twitter employee explained in an anonymous essay for Business Insiderthose who remain with the company are concerned about Tesla CEO volatility.
“I don’t think my colleagues and I have a good model for how fickle he is — and I see the boat rocking, especially when he makes more comments that make people say, ‘What the hell?'” the anonymous Twitter contributor wrote. .
“There are also people here who are just not impressed with its volatility,” they continued. “They’re not going to respond in any way.”
The employee noted that their colleagues’ views of their new boss will all depend on the number of people he fires.
“People ask, when heads start rolling, who do you need to be with to stay?” the employee wrote, adding: “Most people think layoffs will happen pretty soon.
“But I don’t think our site reliability engineers need to worry,” they mused. “On the other hand, machine learning engineers, or the people responsible for building experimental services, are more concerned.”
The Twitter employee went on to say they would be most concerned “if Musk decides to take out teams haphazardly because then it’s just a roll of the dice.”
Meanwhile, several Twitter employees took to their social media platform to share how they stick together.
However, Stephanie Guevara, a senior iOS engineer for the platform, was more blunt — asking Musk directly, “Was it fun looking at the faces of the people you said you’d fire?”
And Parker Lyons expressed his nervousness over the new boss’s visit with a meme of a man on two tires lifting a couch, captioned, “When Elon walks by your desk to see what you’re working on.”
Musk met Twitter employees when he visited the San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday
After the visit, Stephanie Guevara, a senior iOS engineer for the platform, asked Musk directly, “Was it fun looking at the faces of the people you said you were going to fire?”
Parker Lyons expressed his nervousness over the new boss’s visit with a meme of a man on top of two tires lifting a couch, captioned: ‘When Elon walks by your desk to see what you’re working on’
Others just shared how they stay together during the takeover
Twitter’s management had already planned to cut staff after spending a staggering $1.5 billion on staff last year, and had wanted to reduce that amount by about $800 million.
It also spent hundreds of millions of dollars on contracting companies that pay people to report hate speech, child pornography and other rule-breaking content, company documents Washington Post unveiled last week.
Management also planned to make major infrastructure cuts, including the disappearance of the data centers that run the site for more than 200 million users per day.
But Musk expanded the idea of layoffs, telling employees in June that he saw no reason why underperforming workers should remain on the payroll.
He has also made it clear that he plans to relax content moderation standards — which he claims violate free speech — and reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account once he takes ownership of the company.
Since then, however, the Tesla CEO has vowed to take a much lenient approach to suspending users who violate Twitter’s hate speech rules, after declaring himself a strong supporter of free speech.
The billionaire has been in trouble before for some of his views, including comments on transgender issues.
In 2020, he tweeted that “pronouns suck,” then hastily deleted the post, saying, “I definitely support trans, but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare.”
He has also expressed support for Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who introduced the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Musk’s transgender daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, also cut ties with him earlier this year, saying she’s “no longer [lives] want to be related to my biological father or in any way.”