Twitter employees are reportedly melting down again at the prospect of losing their powers to censor those they disagree with, following African-American billionaire Elon Musk’s official offer to buy Twitter on Thursday.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that many employees of the left-wing tech platform “felt rocked by the news” that Musk wants to bring the companies’ Terms of Service in line with the First Amendment.
Employees reportedly expressed concerns that Musk could overhaul the complex political censorship systems “that many of Twitter’s employees have spent years thinking about, tweaking and refining with a painstaking level of care,” among other things.
The Times reported that Musk’s buyout offer “scared many staffers who are familiar with the billionaire’s history of erratic behavior,” with one staffer comparing it to a “hostage situation.”
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who took over the job from Jack Dorsey last year, urged employees “to look beyond the initial chaos surrounding the company” after Musk came out in support of free speech, and in opposition to Twitter’s politically motivated censorship.
“This provides all of us with this moment where we feel distracted, where we feel a loss of control,” Agrawal stated. “I am personally going to spend my time focusing on things I can control, and I believe it will matter.”
“I don’t believe we are being held hostage,” Agrawal added.
As Valiant News previously reported, Musk’s initial acquisition of a large percentage of Twitter shares in early April left some Twitter moderators “panicking over the future of the social media firm’s ability to moderate content.”
The Twitter employees expressed that they were “concerned about Musk’s ability to influence the company’s policies on abusive users and harmful content,” and fearful that “his views on moderation could weaken years-long efforts to make Twitter a place of healthy discourse, and might allow trolling and mob attacks to flourish.”
