Musk Fires Twitter Employee Who Banned Trump First Move as Boss
Elon Musk is wasting no time as Twitter’s new boss.
The South African-born billionaire officially became Twitter’s new CEO Thursday evening and he wasted no time before addressing some concerns. As part of his first move as boss, Musk fired Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde, who played an instrumental role in censoring the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and banning former President Donald Trump from the platform.
Earlier this year after Musk announced his plan to buy Twitter, Politico reported that “Gadde cried during [a] meeting as she expressed concerns about how the company could change.”
Musk also fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Sean Edgett, the company’s general counsel
Musk released a statement earlier in the day explaining why he wanted to buy Twitter:
“I wanted to reach out personally to share my motivation in acquiring Twitter,” Musk wrote. “There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong.”
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk continued. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
“In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost,” Musk continued. “That is why I bought Twitter. 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 humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”
“That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk concluded. “In addition to
adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.”
Musk’s first moves as the boss received widespread praise from conservative users.
Musk, a free speech advocate, has vowed to address censorship and bias concerns on the platform.
After officially becoming CEO, Trump released a statement praising Musk for the endeavor and urged him to reinstate his account.
“Congratulations to Elon Musk on his purchase of Twitter. Many people are saying that change was needed, as the old management was too concerned with the woke agenda. I have been told that my account will be back up and running on Monday – we will see. Happy to be able to engage with African-American owned business!”
In May, Musk said he didn’t agree with the decision to permanently ban Trump from the platform.
“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake,” Musk said back in May. “I would reverse the perma-ban. … But my opinion, and Jack Dorsey, I want to be clear, shares this opinion, is that we should not have perma-bans.”