Elon Musk took management of Twitter and fired executives

‘The chook is free,’ Elon Musk tweeted Thursday night time, after shopping for the social community for $44 billion. It opens a brand new unsure chapter for the platform on the coronary heart of political and media life in the US and plenty of nations.

After months of a twist and switch saga, the brand new boss instantly fired boss Parag Agrawal and two different executives, chief monetary officer Ned Segal and chief authorized officer Vijaya Gadde, in line with unnamed CNBC and Washington sources. Put up.

Twitter didn’t instantly reply to a request from AFP. 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 because the 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.

‘Chief Twit’

Originally of the month, just a few 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 worth initially agreed. On Wednesday, he visited Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco and renamed himself ‘Chief Twit’ on his profile – ‘twit’ means ‘moron’ in English.

Thursday night, when the layoffs have been introduced within the media, a number of workers of the Californian group confirmed their assist for the previous administration. “Thanks to Parag Agrawl, Vijaya Gadde and Ned Segal for his or her collective contribution to Twitter”, wrote Biz Stone, co-founder of the community, praising their “super expertise” and their “humanity”.

‘Way forward for Civilization’

In late April, shortly after signing the preliminary buyout deal, Elon Musk publicly criticized Twitter executives and mocked Vijaya Gadde. Its takeover worries a big a part of Twitter workers, and plenty of customers and NGOs who name on social networks to higher battle in opposition to abuse, from harassment to misinformation.

As a result of the multibillionaire, presenting himself as an ardent defender of freedom of expression, needs to calm down the moderation of content material. It opened the door to a return for Donald Trump, who was ousted from Twitter shortly after supporting his supporters who took half within the storming of the Capitol in January 2021.

Elected Republicans and supporters of Donald Trump have additionally welcomed the potential change in path of Twitter. ‘FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION!!!’, for instance, tweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right elected official, on Thursday night. However advertisers usually want to again their advertisements with consensual content material. Thursday, Elon Musk tried to reassure them by saying he needed 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 ‘necessary for the way forward for civilization to have a public place on-line the place all kinds of opinions can debate in a wholesome means, with out resorting to violence’, he wrote in a message particularly addressed to manufacturers, which convey within the bulk of Twitter’s income. He additionally assures that he didn’t provoke the buyout as a result of it was ‘straightforward’ or ‘to make cash’, however to ‘attempt to assist humanity’.

‘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.

An worker, who spoke to AFP on situation of anonymity, calculated that greater than 700 workers had left the California group since June, primarily based on inner figures. ‘These are somewhat 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, in reality, deliberate to take Twitter out of the inventory market. Earlier this month, nonetheless, he informed 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 should purchase shares and vote otherwise’. ‘It is essential that I am unable to simply do what I would like,’ he added, laughing.

/ATS