If new incoming Twitter boss Elon Musk manages the social media platform the way that he has reportedly managed Tesla in the past, then Twitter’s leftist employees may have cause for concern.
Twitter’s board of directors approved the $44 billion transaction on Monday for $54.20 per share, and it’s expected to close this year subject to the approval of Twitter’s shareholders and other regulatory approvals.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
Musk has already stated that he does not care about “the economics at all” in regards to buying Twitter. Instead, his focus is on “having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive,” which he said is “extremely important to the future of civilization.”
Musk’s vision of maximizing free speech on the platform may face some opposition from inside the company, which has been accused of censoring news stories and narratives that are not favorable to the political left, like the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential race.
Those inside Twitter who oppose Musk’s vision for the company may want to update their resumes as Musk reportedly fires those who disagree with him.
Business Insider reported that a new book about Musk’s management style at Tesla highlighted that “when an employee disagreed with the CEO they were often fired.”
“For example, a paint shop manager was fired on the spot when he told Musk his production goals were not possible, and Kate Pearson, an executive in charge of delivery operations, was ousted for saying it was not feasible to hit Tesla’s delivery goal of 100,000 during the quarter,” the report said. “By 2017, Musk began flying to Tesla’s Gigafactory to frequently address issues that often led to verbal spats. Longtime Tesla employees told [the book’s author] Musk’s fury was unpredictable and often focused on public humiliation.”
Musk’s past comments about wokeness should also worry many of Twitter’s employees as he has described it as “a prevalent mind virus, and arguably one of the biggest threats to modern civilization.”
“At its heart, wokeness is divisive, exclusionary, and hateful,” Musk added. “It basically gives mean people a reason, it gives them a shield to be mean and cruel, armored in false virtue.”