SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Following the announcement this week that Elon Musk would be purchasing Twitter outright for $44 billion, leaked internal communications indicate that many of the progressive employees of the social media platform are currently furious over the Tesla CEO’s plans to cut down content moderation in favor of “free speech.”
Musk purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter in April for $2.89 billion, but rejected a subsequent offer to join the company’s board of directors that would have placed a cap on his ability to purchase additional shares of the company. Instead, he announced his intention to actually buy the company, which came to pass when Twitter’s Board of Directors accepted his “best and final” offer of $54.20 per share on Monday.
The South African business tycoon has been frank about his plans to take the publicly-traded company private and make it a “platform for free speech” after previously accusing the platform of censorship, especially when it comes to conservative viewpoints.
The announcement has sent many progressives currently employed by Twitter into a tizzy, with many of them utilizing the business communication platform Slack – as well as their own personal Twitter accounts – to express their despair and anger, with the posts eventually leaking.
“Physically cringy watching Elon talk about free speech,” a site reliability engineer who identifies as nonbinary and transgender posted on Slack.
“Not the place to say it perhaps, but I will not work for this company after the takeover,” said a senior staff video engineer on Slack.
Engineering manager Jay Holler confrontationally tweeted directly at his new boss, saying,
“The problem with @elonmusk is that he has demonstrated a pattern of harmful behavior consistently that disproportionately impacts marginalized people, so maybe let’s not give him any more power than he already stole?”
“I’m radicalized now,” he said in a follow-up tweet.
Former localization lead Laura Gomez tweeted,
“A M*sk-owned Twitter is one of the greatest threats to the 2022 and 2024 elections. We are f*cked if this happens.”
However, some Twitter employees expressed hope for the potential direction that Musk could be taking the company in, including a woman in the design department who said on Slack,
“I don’t know much about him, I don’t really care. I would just love free speech to be [the] highest priority. I don’t care who leads that. Especially for minorities like myself, I had no rights at all in my home country.”
Twitter management, in an apparent attempt to prevent potential sabotage from revolting employees in light of the buyout news, locked down the platform through Friday to prevent any changes from being made.
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