<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elon Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives late Thursday in a deal that puts one of the leading platforms for global discourse in the hands of the world\u2019s richest man.<\/p>\n
Following the takeover, Musk tweeted that \u201cthe bird is freed,\u201d referencing the company\u2019s iconic avian logo.<\/p>\n
He wasted no time sacking chief executive Parag Agrawal, as well as the company\u2019s chief financial officer and its head of safety, the Washington Post and CNBC reported citing unnamed sources.<\/p>\n
Agrawal previously went to court to hold the Tesla chief to the terms of a deal he had tried to escape.<\/p>\n
The takeover came hours before the court-appointed deadline for Musk to seal his on-again, off-again deal to purchase the social media network.<\/p>\n
Musk tweeted earlier in the day that he was buying Twitter \u201cbecause 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twitter did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the departure of its top executives, but the platform\u2019s co-founder Biz Stone thanked the trio \u2014 Agrawal, Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde \u2014 for their \u201ccollective contribution to Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMassive talents, all, and beautiful humans each.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Chief Twit\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
The closure of the deal marks the culmination of a long and drawn out back-and-forth between the billionaire and the social network.<\/p>\n
Musk tried to step back from the Twitter deal soon after his unsolicited offer was accepted in April, and said in July he was canceling the contract because he was misled by Twitter over the number of fake \u201cbot\u201d accounts \u2014 allegations rejected by the company.<\/p>\n
Twitter, in turn, sought to prove Musk was contriving excuses to walk away simply because he changed his mind.<\/p>\n
After Musk sought to terminate the sale, Twitter filed a lawsuit to hold Musk to the agreement.<\/p>\n
With a trial looming, the unpredictable billionaire capitulated and revived his takeover plan.<\/p>\n
Musk signaled the deal was on track this week by changing his Twitter profile to \u201cChief Twit\u201d and posting a video of himself walking into the company\u2019s California headquarters carrying a sink.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet that sink in!\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n
He even shared a picture of himself socializing at a coffee bar at Twitter headquarters earlier in the day Thursday.<\/p>\n
Musk said during a recent Tesla earnings call that he was \u201cexcited\u201d about the Twitter deal even though he and investors are \u201coverpaying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Twitter free-for-all? \u2013<\/p>\n
Some employees who would prefer not to work for Musk have already left, said a worker who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak more freely.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut a portion of people, including me, are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now,\u201d the employee said.<\/p>\n
The idea of Musk running Twitter has alarmed activists who fear a surge in harassment and misinformation, with Musk himself known for trolling other Twitter users.<\/p>\n
But Musk said he realizes Twitter \u201ccannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk has vowed to dial content moderation back to a bare minimum, and is expected to clear the way for former US president Donald Trump to return to the platform.<\/p>\n
The then-president was blocked due to concerns he would ignite more violence like the deadly attack on the Capitol in Washington to overturn his election loss.<\/p>\n
Far-right users were quick to rejoice on the network, posting comments such as \u201cmasks don\u2019t work\u201d and other taunts, under the belief that moderation rules will now be relaxed.<\/p>\n
\u201cFree speech will always prevail,\u201d tweeted Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, prompting replies including \u201csays the party that bans books.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 Elon Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives late Thursday in a deal that puts one of the leading platforms for global discourse in the hands of the world\u2019s richest man. Following the takeover, Musk tweeted that \u201cthe bird is freed,\u201d referencing the company\u2019s iconic avian logo. He wasted no time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1148096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[6004,3017,1768,6007,904,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-1237133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-elon","9":"tag-executives","10":"tag-fires","11":"tag-musk","12":"tag-takes","13":"tag-twitter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}