One of Elon Musk's first activities as the official owner of the social media site was to fire key Twitter executives on Thursday.
Musk reportedly let go the chief executive officer Parag Agrawal, the chief financial officer Ned Segal, the general counsel Sean Edgett, and the head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde.
Musk reportedly stated that he wants to reduce Twitter's workforce by 75% before later retracting that statement.
Multiple sources claim that the deal is final, which gave Musk the go-ahead to purge the executive ranks.
Gadde had previously come under fire from the Tesla CEO on his Twitter account because she had a hand in the decision to remove the former president Donald Trump from the platform. He has clashed with Agrawal as well.
Musk publicly mocked the CEO, who took over for founder Jack Dorsey late last year, with poop emojis. It didn't get any better in private. As shown by conversation records obtained in discovery in the legal dispute between the billionaire and the social network, the two exchanged text messages indicating a falling out.
Musk issued a statement to advertisers on Thursday to ensure them that social messaging services will not descend into "a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!"
"The reason I acquired Twitter is 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, without resorting to violence," Musk said in the message. "There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far-right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society."
Since Agrawal replaced Dorsey as CEO of Twitter, the executive team has undergone a significant turnover. Agrawal began working for the company in 2011 as the CTO before becoming the CEO. The Chief Design Officer of Twitter, Dantley Davis, who joined the firm in 2019, and the Head of Engineering, Michael Montano, who started the company in 2011, both left within a few weeks as a result of Agrawal's restructuring.
Soon after, Twitter lost two additional executives: Rinki Sethi, chief information security officer, and Peiter Zatko, head of security (Mudge). Keyvon Beykpour, Twitter's GM of Consumer, stated in May that he would be departing the business after seven years after Agrawal requested him to. At the same time, Twitter's revenue product lead, Bruce Falck, left the firm.
Musk arrived at Twitter's offices earlier this week with a sink and tweeted about it, stating, "Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!"
Musk also changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit."
