New Twitter CEO Elon Musk fired Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde — head of legal policy, trust, and safety — immediately after taking over the social media company Thursday evening.
The Daily Mail reported earlier this year that Gadde “played a key role in the contentious decisions to ban Donald Trump and suppress news articles about Hunter Biden’s laptop.”
Politico reported earlier this year that after news broke in April that Musk would be buying the platform, “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, The Washington Post reported.
The move to fire Gadde and the company’s other top executives was widely celebrated on the platform.
“Elon Musk just fired the top people,” said Robert J. O’Neill, the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden. “Buckle Up, Motherf*****s.”
“Hey @elonmusk … Please reinstate all the doctors and scientists who were deplatformed during the past three years,” Dr. Matthew Loop tweeted. “Their only ‘crime’ was questioning the mainstream narrative and not subscribing to groupthink.”
Hey @elonmusk… Please reinstate all the doctors and scientists who were deplatformed during the past three years. Their only “crime” was questioning the mainstream narrative and not subscribing to groupthink.
— Matthew Loop (@matthewloop) October 27, 2022
“Outstanding. Scorched earth policy,” Australian political commentator Rita Panahi tweeted. “Early days but Elon Musk is off to a solid start.”
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.”
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