Elon Musk continues to take a no-nonsense approach to Twitter, and hasn’t let a non-denigration clause in his deal to buy Twitter stop him from meeting with the company’s top executives.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, he accused the social media giant of censoring free speech, shot his attorney Vijaya Gadde and blasted Donald Trump’s rival service Truth Social for his “horrible name.”
“Truth Social (horrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech,” Musk wrote in a tweet, adding, “Should be called trumpet instead!”
He noted that the Truth social app currently beats Twitter and TikTok in Apple’s App Store, sharing rankings of the most downloaded free apps.
Meanwhile, Twitter employees are freaking out in internal chat rooms about Musk’s $44 billion deal to acquire the company, the New York Post reveals.
Elon Musk continues to take a frank approach to Twitter, and hasn’t let a non-denigration clause in his deal to buy Twitter stop him from insulting top executives
“We all go through the five stages of grief in cycles, and all nerves are drained,” a senior software engineer reportedly wrote on the company’s internal Slack channel.
The employee called Musk an “asshole” and tried to comfort his colleagues.
“We’re all spinning our wheels and coming up with worst-case scenarios (Trump returns! No more moderation!).
‘Fact is that [Musk] hasn’t spoken in detail about what he’s up to, save for sweeping statements that could easily be seen as over-the-top showboating,” he added.
A site reliability engineer wrote that it was “physically jarring to watch Elon talk about free speech.”
A senior video technician announced his plans to quit, saying, “Maybe not the place to say it, but I won’t be working for this company after the acquisition.”
Musk may have done little to allay Twitter workers’ fears as he posted several tweets criticizing Gadde, Twitter’s chief legal officer.
She was a key leader in the decisions to ban Trump from the platform and censor coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Musk posted several tweets criticizing Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s chief legal officer who was instrumental in banning Trump from the platform
In response to a tweet about reports that Gadde cried at a company meeting when he announced Musk’s deal to buy the platform, the billionaire wrote: “To have a major news organization twitter suspended for publishing a truthful story was obviously unbelievable inappropriate.”
In another tweet on Wednesday, Musk posted a visual meme showing Gadde appearing at the Joe Rogan Experience and imagining her in a hypothetical debate with conservative podcaster Tim Pool.
The meme features Gadde in a circular argument calling for examples of Twitter’s “left bias” and then dismissing the examples as lacking context and calling for more examples.
Musk himself singled out Twitter attorney Jim Baker after conservative commentator Mike Cernovich criticized Baker’s work.
“Twitter Attorney Jim Baker, as General Counsel of the FBI, personally arranged a meeting between the FBI and Michael Sussmann. At that meeting, Sussmann presented fabricated evidence in the Alfa Bank affair,” Cernovich tweeted, referring to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“@elonmusk, that’s the person on twitter. He facilitated fraud.’
Musk then replied, “Sounds pretty bad…”
Elon Musk, 50, responded Tuesday to a report of Twitter’s attorney Vijaya Gadde (left) breaking down in tears at news of his takeover
The tweet that Elon Musk replied to is pictured above, with the tycoon’s scathing attack on Vijaya Gadde’s behavior just below
The tweets, which are critical of Twitter executives, raise questions about whether Musk violated his own agreement to purchase the company, which says in part that he can tweet about the acquisition “so long as such tweets do not affect the company or any of the companies.” denigrate”. his representatives.’
It’s unclear what mechanism, if any, Twitter has to enforce this part of the agreement, and whether the company’s board would attempt to do so.
The clause also only applies to tweets related to the merger deal itself, leaving room for interpretation as to whether Musk’s criticism of Twitter executives is implicit in his plans to buy the company.
Gadde – who has been dubbed Twitter’s “moral authority” – broke down in tears on Monday after the acquisition was announced, Politico reported.
She did so while updating her team via video link on the future of the company under Musk following his $44 billion deal to acquire the company.
Her future at the company now looks shaky after the notoriously unscrupulous Musk was alerted to her latest behavior.
The merger agreement includes a clause that prohibits Musk from insulting Twitter officials in tweets about the merger agreement
He is likely to curtail Twitter’s policies on hate speech and misinformation, having previously branded himself a free speech absolutist.
Twitter employees have been told their jobs are secure for the six months the ownership transfer is expected to last.
But after that, workers like Gadde will likely be among the first to get the boot.
She was instrumental in the decision to ban Donald Trump from the platform for inciting riots and also played a key role in the decision to remove the New York Post account when she tweeted her coverage on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Twitter initially froze the main New York Post account after it published the story and asked it to delete tweets linking to the Biden articles.
She justified the ban with a ban on distributing hacked material before withdrawing when the story proved legitimate.
Saagar Enjeti, host of a conservative YouTube show, tweeted a link to Politico’s account of Gadde’s tears and commented: “Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate on Twitter, who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan’s podcast and the laptop Hunter Biden story censored is very upset about the @elonmusk takeover.
Gadde’s tears, Politico reported, were in response to concerns about how the company might change.
Twitter spokesman Trenton Kennedy told Politico that Gadde “got emotional talking about the impact of her team and the pride she feels in them.”
Having joined Twitter in 2011, she is central to social media policies on hate speech, misinformation, advertising and censorship.
Musk has made it clear that he intends to lift many of the current restrictions and open up Twitter as a forum for free speech.
Critics have raised concerns about how this will play out.