Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.com by carrying a bathroom sink into Twitter headquarters on Wednesday.
He captioned the video, “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
The richest man in the world also changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” and set his location as “Twitter HQ” on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, Elon began swinging his axe behind closed doors.
Among the casualties was Twitter’s legal, trust & safety chief Vijaya Gadde, the woman who famously banned former President Donald Trump from Twitter in 2020.
Vijaya Gadde, the woman behind Trump's Twitter suspension, fired by Elon Musk. pic.twitter.com/GSt74SCrM1
— Farrago Abdullah (@abdullah_0mar) October 28, 2022
Gadde is pictured listening to Elon chatting with his new employees in Twitter’s coffee bar. She was fired hours later.
BREAKING: Elon Musk has reportedly fired Twitter's legal affairs chief, Vijaya Gadde, who was behind the decision to ban Former President Donald Trump's Twitter account.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) October 28, 2022
Also let go were Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and head of finance Ned Segal. They were hastily escorted to the front lobby and out of the building in San Francisco on Thursday.
I just left Twitter
— Not Parag Agrawal (unemployed) (@NotParagAgrawal) October 28, 2022
“Woke” Twitter employees tweeted their anxiety and frustration before cleaning out their desks on Friday. One employee tweeted, “I am fully expecting him to fire 69% of us on Friday at 4:20 p.m.”
Elon had vowed to lay off 75% of Twitter employees once he received the keys to the building.
Most of the staffers receiving pink slips were responsible for censoring and moderating tweets that they disagreed with.
One employee complained that “Twitter is less of a free speech platform” without Agrawal and Gadde.
But others say that Twitter will return to a platform that allows freedom of expression and exchange of ideas in a free country.
Legal analyst Jonathan Turley tweeted: “The departure of former CEO Parag Agrawal is a singular advance for free speech. Agrawal was one of the most aggressively anti-free speech figures on social media…”