Musk takes control of Twitter, fires the chief executive and prepares to overturn travel bans.
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(Pocket-lint) – Elon Musk is set to complete the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on October 28, which will put him at the helm of one of the world’s most popular social networks. He changed his Twitter bio to“Chief Twitand begins to officially take over the reins of the company. He even brought a sink into the corporate office to make it all “flow”.
Entrance to Twitter headquarters – let it flow! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7-
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
According to the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, upon taking the helm of the company, he fired CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and other senior officials like the company’s chief policy officer, Vijaya Gadde. , and his general counsel, Sean Edgett. The New York Times reported that “at least one” executive was escorted out of Twitter’s offices on October 27. Musk had publicly criticized Twitter management as well as Mr. Agrawal.
The billionaire entrepreneur first offered to buy Twitter in April, before putting the acquisition “on hold” a few weeks later. Musk refused to do due diligence ahead of his bid and worried about the number of bots and fake accounts on the social network. Twitter suggested Musk was trying to back out of the case.
According to Bloomberg, Musk traveled to Twitter headquarters to meet with employees and allegedly called in Tesla engineers to “evaluate” Twitter’s code.
Musk wants to overturn Twitter’s moderation rules and said he doesn’t favor permanent bans. He also wants to “open up the source code” of Twitter’s algorithm, so users can better understand the site. But it has also reassured advertisers in their saying he didn’t want the social network to become a “hell where anything can be said without consequence”. He also said that Twitter should be “the most respected advertising platform in the world” and discussed the possibility of making it a WeChat-like app or “just an app”.
Musk is likely to lay off many employees – up to 75% – as he implements these sweeping changes to the company and the platform.
Update : Bloomberg reported early in the morning of October 28 that Musk is considering becoming Twitter’s chief executive, replacing Agrawal. He could potentially step down from that longer-term role. The report also says Musk plans to “reverse life bans”, meaning Donald J Trump could return to the site ahead of the 2024 US presidential election.
Written by Maggie Tillman.
