Twitter owner Elon Musk wasted no time after buying the company last week, has now dissolved Twitter’s board of directors and named himself CEO. Musk last week fired the previous CEO, Parag Agrawal, and other top company officials, having them promptly escorted out of Twitter headquarters by company security.
He has moved quickly to put his mark on the firm, which is used by politicians and journalists around the world.
The reforms he is contemplating include changes for how Twitter verifies accounts, as well as job cuts.
The Washington Post has reported that a first round of cuts is under discussion that could affect 25% of the company’s staff.
The latest move will mean that he is now chief executive of three companies. Along with taking the top role at Twitter, Mr Musk is chief executive of electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX. However, he has indicated that his position at the social media company may be temporary.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has rolled his entire stake of 18m shares, worth almost $978m at the buyout price of $54.20, into the new private company, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
Mr Dorsey, who left Twitter’s board in May, supported Mr Musk’s purchase of the firm.
In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.
— jack (@jack) April 26, 2022
Mr Musk, who also leads electric car maker Tesla, changed his profile details on the social media site to “Chief Twit” after the takeover. It has since been updated to “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator”.
He is now the sole director of Twitter, another filing on Monday showed.
MacDailyNews Take: Fully bastardized, corrupted, and utterly tarnished from within, Twitter is now a private company that deserves a very thorough cleaning (hence the sink).
Twitter is about to get what it so richly deserves.#Twitter #ELONMUSK #FreeSpeech #Censorship #ShadowBanning #Deplatforming
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) October 27, 2022
Broken long ago, Twitter is a slanted, myopic joke as it is currently run. – MacDailyNews, April 14, 2022
Twitter can be made valuable, worth far in excess of $54.20 per share, if the platform is returned to an open “town square” marketplace of ideas, sans heavy-handed, one-sided censorship, shadow-banning, etc.
Hopefully Musk will be an agent of change for a platform that should, at this point, be considered a public utility that allows for all viewpoints to be openly discussed.
Elon Musk is a doer. — MacDailyNews, October 21, 2022
The doers are the major thinkers. The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and doer in one person. – Steve Jobs
A few more quotes:
• Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. ― Benjamin Franklin
• To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy. ― Aung San Suu Kyi
• Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you’ve already lost. ― Neil Gaiman
• Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. – Potter Stewart
• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. ― United Nations
• If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. ― George Washington
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