Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is reigniting the thrill of Donald Trump’s period when the Twitter CEO would issue “law” over a misspelled midnight post.
Musk, with his frank and often mischievous humor, is in charge of spelling, but he’s just as ruthless when it comes to shaming those he doesn’t like.
Regardless of the fact that he may soon own the world’s most popular microblogging network or that the people in charge of Twitter have little respect for the new owner’s $269.7 billion fortune, Musk reiterated his disapproval of how the social media site is governed on Wednesday.
He went after Vijaya Gadde, who he described as “Co-founder Jack Dorsey’s conscience keeper” and the one who made the decision to deplatform Trump.
Musk jumped immediately in after Gadde was cursed by the name “for sobbing while chatting to her staff about the takeover” in a tweet.
He claimed Twitter (read Gadde) made a mistake in combating misinformation around a news report about Hunter Biden, the son of US Vice President Joe Biden, and that the New York (NY) Post’s account and reach should not have been blocked.
This was pure Musk. “And completely aware of the abuse trolls would unleash on the immigrant,” he says.
If the pundits were almost unanimous in their prediction that Musk would fire Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, sacking Gadde was a close second.
“Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top censorship advocate, who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan’s podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the @elonmusk takeover,” a conservative commentator claims, citing a Politico story, and Musk quote tweeting, “Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.”
Musk was referring to the conservative daily tabloid NYPost, which had published a story on Hunter Biden’s shady laptop.
At the time, the story appeared to be suspect. It also had several members of Donald Trump’s team involved, and many mainstream media outlets assumed it was part of a disinformation campaign aimed at Trump.
Many mainstream media outlets claimed it was part of a disinformation attempt aimed at damaging Biden’s presidential campaign chances.
The backlash from Twitter’s senior management has been equally fascinating. “Gadde became emotional when addressing her team’s impact and the pride she feels in them,” tweeted Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy, as Politico joyfully added: “Gadde grew tearful when explaining her team’s impact and the pride she feels in them.”
More than this pointless affirmation, Kennedy has boosted Gadde’s popularity.
“I’m honored and grateful to have @vijaya as a coworker. She is one of the most compassionate, intelligent, and hardworking people I have ever met. She works at Twitter’s most demanding and thankless job, and she does it with grace and humility every day “The spokesperson’s retweet was received by Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s leader for the design, research, and product engineering.
He also retweeted an encomium from Pinterest’s Elizabeth Luke: “You can either talk about making difficult decisions or actually do them. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of times. @vijaya is a unique leader with exceptional wisdom and empathy. This is not a discussion.”
Gadde, a native Telegu who relocated to the United States when she was three years old and attended Cornell and New York University, is Twitter’s legal and policy head and the final say on what to allow and what to restrict and block on the platform.
She was named the most powerful woman on Twitter’s executive team by Fortune magazine in 2014, though she was later joined by Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland.
Berland has also come under fire for claiming that Musk is putting “those who care about health on the platform in a very tough position” by criticizing their content moderation procedures, which she rejects.
“It wasn’t about anything other than, ‘This is the proper thing to do for us as a company,” Gadde said in support of the action.
During Dorsey’s trip to India, she had to apologize for allowing him to be pictured with a banner against “Brahmin patriarchy.”
Gadde’s departure might be signaled by the new owner’s aggressive and public attack.
Musk tweeted on Thursday that Trump’s “Truth Social (awful name) exists because Twitter suppressed free speech,” only to corroborate his thought process on Gadde.