According to reports, Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter and instantly fired the CEO, CFO, and executive in charge of legal, policy, and trust. Musk fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya), general counsel and head of legal, policy, and trust. Vijaya Gadde was in charge of making Twitter safe for users by removing hate speech and disinformation. She was also the executive who was instrumental in banning former US President Donald Trump. According to reports, the CEO and CFO were fired and taken out of Twitter’s headquarters. Reuters reports that:

“On Wednesday, he went into Twitter’s offices with a wide grin and a porcelain sink, writing “let that sink in.” He changed his Twitter profile description to “Chief Twit.” He also attempted to ease staff worries of mass layoffs and reassured advertisers that his previous criticism of Twitter’s content moderation procedures would not impair the company’s appeal.”

Message from Elon Musk to Twitter Advertisers

Musk sent an open letter to marketers in an attempt to explain the future of advertising on Twitter. The statement lacked specifics and instead concentrated on his hopes for the type of advertising he’d like to see. He wrote on Twitter:

“I also very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you; it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed, but is right for you. For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content! Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise. To everyone who has partnered with us, I thank you. Let us build something extraordinary together.”

Elon Musk Explains Why He Bought Twitter

In his open letter to advertisers, he also detailed a vision for a social platform for people on both sides of issues, expressing optimism that Twitter can let them engage in “healthy” conversations. He stated:

“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. 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.”

Content Moderation, Free Speech, and Control

The firing of Twitter’s general counsel, who was in charge of moderating the speech, was a daring action that some in the Twitter community supported but many others regretted. Anil Dash, the CEO of Glitch and a board member of the digital freedom of expression and privacy nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, had a bad experience on the first day Musk owned Twitter.

Source: Search Engine Journal