Elon Musk’s Arrival at Twitter Stirs Fears Among WOKE Employees

News of Billionaire Elon Musk taking a board seat at Twitter has many of its WOKE employees panicking over their future with the social media giant. This is because they fear they won’t be able to moderate content as they do presently.

Following news earlier this week that Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” had acquired enough shares to become Twitter’s top shareholder, conservatives took to social media to demand Donald Trump’s return.
The former U.S. president has been banned from Facebook and Twitter since January 6.

As Twitter’s largest shareholder, @ElonMusk can now end political censorship. Oh… and BRING BACK TRUMP!,” tweeted Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert on Monday.

Reuters spoke with four Twitter employees who expressed concerns about Musk’s ability to influence Twitter’s policies on abusive users and harmful content, despite Twitter’s reiteration this week that the board does not make policy decisions.

Elon Musk is a free speech believer

According to employees, Musk’s views on moderation might undermine years of the left’s efforts to create a place for constructive discourse on Twitter, void of conservative voices.

As a result of Trump’s Facebook and Twitter ban, the billionaire tweeted that many people would not appreciate U.S. tech companies acting “as the de facto arbitrator of free speech.”
What are Musk’s intentions.

Musk has not articulated what he wants to do as a new board member but he has telegraphed his intentions with his Twitter activity. A week before Musk disclosed a 9.1% stake in Twitter, he polled his 80 million followers on whether the site adhered to the principle of free speech and the majority voted ‘no.’

The employees, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, point to Musk’s history of using Twitter to attack critics. In 2018, Musk came under fire for accusing a British diver who had helped rescue children trapped in a cave in Thailand of being a pedophile.

Elon Musk won a defamation case here brought by the diver in 2019.

Twitter is committed to impartiality

When asked for comment, a Twitter spokesperson repeated a statement from Tuesday that the board “plays an important advisory and feedback role across the entirety of our service,” but daily operations and decisions are made by Twitter’s management and employees.

“Twitter is committed to impartiality in the development and enforcement of its policies and rules,” the spokesperson said. However, some employees that Reuters spoke to were not so sure about the company’s commitment to this.

“I find it hard to believe (the board) doesn’t have influence,” said one employee. “If that’s the case, why would Elon Musk want a board seat?”

But other employees Reuters spoke to said that Musk’s involvement could help quicken the pace of new features and product launches, and provide a fresh perspective as an active user of Twitter.

Twitter’s board figures prominently in discussions within Twitter, more so than at other tech companies, one employee said.

Twitter only has a single class of shares

That is because unlike Meta Platforms Inc, where founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg controls the company through a dual-class share structure, Twitter only has a single class of shares, making it more vulnerable to libertarians like Elon Musk.

Teams within Twitter often consider how to communicate a strategy or decision to the board, for instance, the employee said.

On Thursday, Musk tweeted here an image from 2018 of him smoking weed on the Joe Rogan podcast on Spotify, with the text: “Twitter’s next board meeting is going to be lit.”

One employee familiar with the company’s operations said there were no current plans to reinstate Trump. A Twitter spokesperson said there were no plans to reverse any policy decisions.

But a veteran auto analyst who covers Musk’s operating style at Tesla said such a decision may only be a matter of time.

Will Trump return to Twitter?

“If Donald Trump was actually rich, he would have liked to have done the same thing but he couldn’t afford it. So Elon Musk is doing what Trump would have liked to have done,” said Guidehouse Insights analyst Sam Abuelsamid.

“I wouldn’t be surprised” if Twitter restores Trump’s account now that Elon Musk owns nearly 10% of the company,” he said.

Longer-term, employees said Musk’s involvement may change Twitter’s corporate culture, which they say currently values inclusivity. Musk has faced widespread criticism for posting memes that mocked transgender people and efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19, and for comparing some world leaders to Hitler.

Several employees were alarmed by the warm welcome Musk received from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and co-founder Jack Dorsey, which prompted them to hit the job market this week.

“Some people are dusting off their resumes,” one person said. “I don’t want to work for somebody (like Elon Musk).”