Twitter employees ‘super stressed’ after Musk announcement
Twitter’s employees are “super stressed” after recent drama surrounding Elon Musk, according to Bloomberg.
As reported by Frontline News, last week saw Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk become Twitter’s largest shareholder, a move that signaled possible significant changes to the social media platform. Just days before he purchased a 9.2% stake in in the company, Musk had publicly criticized the company for its notorious crackdown on free speech, including banning and suspending users who disagree with its agenda. He had also published a poll asking users if Twitter had a “free speech” problem, to which over 70% of users answered “yes”.
The world’s richest man has also made it clear that he is a “free speech absolutist”.
Twitter then offered Musk a seat on its board of directors. The board was so sure Musk would accept that it already listed him as a board member.
But on Monday, Musk declined the appointment, ostensibly because doing so allows him to execute a hostile takeover, which he could not legally do if he sat on the board of directors.
Now, Twitter staff have reportedly been in emotional upheaval – one even resigned – and unable to enjoy the monthly “Day of Rest” granted by the company. It is unclear if it is because the employees had a near brush with free speech, or if it is because Musk may soon assume control of the company.
Some have described the current atmosphere at the company as “a sh*t show”, while others said it was “chilling”.
“Musk’s immediate chilling effect was something that bothered me significantly,” AI research team director Rumman Chowdhury said. “Twitter has a beautiful culture of hilarious constructive criticism, and I saw that go silent because of his minions attacking employees.”
Twitter has suspended seven elected officials, all Republicans. They include Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL). Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and President Donald Trump were each suspended by Twitter five times, eventually being permanently banned from the platform.
Following the Stop the Steal rally on January 6th, 2021, Twitter conducted a purge of its conservative users, ultimately deleting 70,000 accounts within days.
An Elon Musk takeover of Twitter would likely mean a complete overhaul of the platform and would disable the Left’s most effective tool, causing a change to the political power structure.
