South African-born American entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now in charge of Twitter. Elon Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives late Thursday in a deal that puts one of the leading platforms for global discourse in the hands of the world’s richest man.
Following the takeover, Musk tweeted that “the bird is freed,” referencing the company’s iconic avian logo.
He wasted no time sacking chief executive Parag Agrawal, as well as the company’s chief financial officer and its head of safety, the Washington Post and CNBC reported citing unnamed sources.
Agrawal previously went to court to hold the Tesla chief to the terms of a deal he had tried to escape.
The takeover came hours before the court-appointed deadline for Musk to seal his on-again, off-again deal to purchase the social media network.
Musk tweeted earlier in the day that he was buying Twitter “because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.”
Twitter did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the departure of its top executives, but the platform’s co-founder Biz Stone thanked the trio — Agrawal, Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde — for their “collective contribution to Twitter.”
This week, Musk changed his twitter profile to “Chief Twit” and posted a video of himself walking into the company’s California headquarters carrying a sink.
“Let that sink in!” he quipped.
He even shared a picture of himself socializing at a coffee bar at Twitter headquarters earlier in the day Thursday.
The idea of Musk running Twitter has alarmed activists who fear a surge in harassment and misinformation, with Musk himself known for trolling other Twitter users.
