Musk Cleans House At Twitter

Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, head of legal policy, trust & safety Vijaya Gadde, and finance chief Ned Segal were all fired.

Elon Musk is now the owner of Twitter, and he wasted little time in cleaning house.

Musk fired former CEO Parag Agrawal, along with finance chief Ned Segal and head of legal policy, trust & safety Vijaya Gadde.

Gadde had faced significant criticism in the past for pushing Twitter in a pro-censorship direction, where the company overzealously and aggressively banned people – often permanently – even for Tweets that didn’t violate any laws.

Musk’s housecleaning puts his stamp on the company with immediate effect, and signals that Twitter may be returning to its pro free speech roots.

Many have forgotten, but former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey once said Twitter would be the “free speech wing of the free speech party,” and the openness of debate and diversity of perspectives on the platform is what drew many people towards it.

Musk is walking a fine line however, as many advertisers are concerned about Twitter being ‘too open,’ something he addressed earlier in the day in a statement:

“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” said Musk:

“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,” he added. “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.”

Addressing companies, Musk said “advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you.”

“Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.”

While Musk will have to balance openness and the needs of advertisers, there is significant hope that he lean more towards freedom of speech and help Twitter regain its status as a true public square where all perspectives can be heard.

Spencer Fernando

Photo – Twitter

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