March 29, 2024

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Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal fires two senior executives and freezes hiring ahead of Elon Musk acquisition

Twitter also confirmed that it is temporarily halting all hiring except for business-critical roles.

San Francisco:

Twitter confirmed Thursday that two of its top CEOs are heading for an exit and has paused most hiring, with Elon Musk standing close to becoming the new owner of the global messaging platform.

A Twitter spokesperson told AFP that Kavon Beckbor, the general manager who leads research, design and engineering at Twitter, will be leaving with Chief Product Officer Bruce Falk.

However, Bikbor said he was ousted from the San Francisco-based tech company.

“The truth is, it wasn’t like that and when did I ever imagine leaving Twitter, it wasn’t my decision,” Bikbor, who is on paternity leave, said in a tweet.

“He asked me to leave after he told me he wanted to take the team in a different direction,” Twitter chief Parag Agrawal added.

Twitter also confirmed that, starting this week, it will temporarily halt all hiring except for business-critical roles.

Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter was announced last month but it still needs the support of shareholders and regulators.

The acquisition is expected to expire later in 2022, with Musk — who directs the space exploration endeavor SpaceX and electric car maker Tesla — as its president at least for a short period.

Musk was recorded saying that he would lift Twitter’s ban on Donald Trump, saying that the expulsion of the former US president from the platform “further alienated a large part of the country.”

Musk’s endorsement of Trump’s return has raised concerns among activists that Musk will “open the gates of hate.”

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Trump has publicly stated that he would not return to Twitter if he was allowed to, instead sticking to his own social network, the Truth Social, which failed to gain traction.

Trump was expelled from Twitter and other online platforms after his supporters, ignited by his tweets and rhetoric alleging election fraud, attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a deadly attempt to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as the winner of the second presidential election. months ago.

Musk considered that permanent bans on Twitter should be rare, and reserved for accounts that are spammy, scam, or run by “bots.”

Activist groups have called on Twitter advertisers to boycott the service if it opens the gates to offensive and misleading posts with Musk as its owner.

The fate of Twitter’s chief lawyer, who is considered the platform’s moral champion, has been in doubt since Musk resented her content moderation.

Attorney Vijaya Gad has led efforts to combat bullying and potentially harmful posts in the real world such as the US Capitol riots.

She was involved in the decision to ban Trump, and others including removing political ads from the app.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by the NDTV crew and is published from a syndicated feed.)