Elon Musk pays himself Twitter and fires a number of of his leaders – rts.ch

After months of a saga with twists and turns, Elon Musk lastly will get his fingers on Twitter. He additionally welcomed it on the social community, declaring “The hen is free”.

As a primary step, the rich businessman fired group boss Parag Agrawal and two different executives, chief monetary officer Ned Segal and chief authorized officer Vijaya Gadde, in line with unnamed Washington Submit sources. Twitter didn’t instantly reply to a request from AFP.

Warning indicators

Elon Musk had till Friday to finish the acquisition of the social community, failing which a trial would have taken place in November. The operation has dragged on for the reason that announcement on the finish of April of a $44 billion acquisition provide, reluctantly accepted by Twitter.

The entrepreneur sought to get out of it unilaterally in early July, accusing the corporate of getting lied to him, however the firm’s board of administrators took authorized motion. Earlier this month, a couple of days earlier than the opening of a lawsuit that Twitter appeared on monitor to win, Elon Musk lastly supplied to shut the transaction on the value initially agreed.

The indicators that the operation was going to happen inside the time allowed by justice had multiplied this week. The richest man on the planet notably visited Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday and renamed himself “Chief Twit” on his profile – “twit” that means “moron” in English. And the New York Inventory Change, the place Twitter is listed, mentioned the corporate’s inventory can be suspended earlier than the opening of buying and selling on Friday.

“The Way forward for Civilization”

Thursday, Elon Musk tried to reassure advertisers by saying that he wished to permit all opinions to be expressed on the social community, with out making it an “infernal” platform the place every little thing can be allowed.

It’s “essential for the way forward for civilization to have a web based public sq. the place all kinds of opinions can debate in a wholesome approach, with out resorting to violence”, he wrote in a message particularly addressed to manufacturers, which deliver within the bulk of Twitter’s income.

Defender of freedom of expression

Presenting himself as a staunch defender of freedom of expression, the entrepreneur has already indicated that he intends to calm down the moderation of content material, rekindling considerations a couple of potential resurgence of abuse and misinformation on the platform. He, for instance, opened the door to a return of Donald Trump, ousted from Twitter shortly after the assault on the Capitol in January 2021.

What postpone advertisers, who typically choose to again their advertisements to consensual content material. In his message, Elon Musk assures that he didn’t provoke the buyout as a result of it was “simple” or “to earn a living”, however to “attempt to assist humanity”.

Customers ought to be capable of select what they see on the community “in line with their preferences, in the identical approach which you could for instance watch movies or play video video games for all ages”, he specified.

“Voluntary departures”

Elon Musk additionally needs to strengthen the battle in opposition to spam. He additionally made cryptic allusions to “X”, his imaginative and prescient of an all-purpose software (messaging, social community, monetary providers, and so forth.), like WeChat in China. “Company tradition is prone to change profoundly, and rapidly,” mentioned Adam Badawi, professor of regulation on the College of Berkeley.

In accordance with an article within the Washington Submit final week, the businessman instructed traders that he finally supposed to put off virtually 75% of Twitter’s 7,500 workers. “It screwed up lots of people,” notes an worker on situation of anonymity.

>> Extra info: Elon Musk needs to put off three-quarters of Twitter staff

He calculated, in line with inside figures, that greater than 700 workers had already left the Californian group since June. “These are slightly voluntary departures, both for moral causes or for basely monetary causes, as a result of an unlisted firm is much less attention-grabbing,” he believes.

The chief has certainly deliberate to take Twitter out of the inventory market. Earlier this month, nevertheless, he instructed a convention that it was “important” that Tesla be listed on Wall Road, “as a result of if the general public does not like what Tesla is doing, the general public can purchase shares and vote in a different way”. “It is crucial that I am unable to simply do what I need,” he added, laughing.

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