The tone seems set. Having just reached an agreement to buy Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk publicly criticized executives of the Californian company, where many employees already seem worried about being led by the boss of Tesla.
After pressing a derogatory tweet on Vijaya Gaddethe social network lawyer in charge of regulations and security, the multi-billionaire also split on Wednesday of a parody image to mock the platform’s rules on content moderation. “Harassment is not management”, reacted Dick Costolowho ran Twitter from 2010 to 2015.
Freedom of expression under threat?
Elon Musk, like many conservatives, finds that Twitter does not sufficiently respect freedom of expression, and considers its content moderation policy too strict. But his vision worries defenders of everyone’s freedoms on the Internet, who advocate exchanges without hatred or misinformation.
According to the Politico news site, Vijaya Gadde broke down in tears during an online meeting with her teams, gathered to discuss the change of ownership. “She expressed in detail her pride in the work of her colleagues and encouraged employees to continue their good work,” the article said.
The initial tweet about him referred to Twitter’s decision to block an article from the New York Post, a conservative daily, from being shared during the presidential campaign because it violated its guidelines. The affair had angered elected Republicans and the platform had partly backtracked.
“Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was, of course, incredibly inappropriate,” Elon Musk said in a comment to this post.
UltraViolet, a women’s rights NGO, called on the Californian group’s board of directors to reverse the agreement with the richest man in the world. “Elon Musk’s harassment of Vijaya Gadde is clear and unmistakable proof that his governance will open the doors wide to harassment and abuse, specifically against women and people of color,” said Bridget Todd, Director communication.
A fear of some employees
According to the Bloomberg agency, since Monday, Twitter has prevented employees from making changes to the platform’s computer code without the agreement of a vice-president, to avoid any sabotage. Some fear in particular that Elon Musk will undo their work in terms of content moderation to protect users from abuse and violence.
Because the boss of Tesla has several times in the past insulted people who did not agree with him. And his new responsibilities don’t seem to stop him: on Tuesday, the billionaire tweeted “it doesn’t say anything good” as a comment to a message accusing a Twitter lawyer, Jim Baker, of having facilitated a fraud.