Topline
Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said Wednesday that Twitter’s soon-to-be owner, Elon Musk, incited harassment against the social media company’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, targeting her in a series of viral tweets as part of his promise to increase “free speech” on the social media platform.
Elon Musk speaks during a February press conference in Texas.
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
Responding to Musk’s satiric Twitter post Wednesday alleging liberal bias in Twitter’s content moderation policies on Gadde’s watch, Costolo said Musk is making Gadde “the target of harassment and threats.”
“Bullying is not leadership,” Cosolo, who was Twitter’s CEO from 2010 to 2015, wrote in a follow-up tweet.
Musk, whose $44 billion bid for Twitter was accepted by the company’s board Monday, also criticized Gadde in a Tuesday post referencing Twitter’s decision to temporarily ban the sharing of links to a controversial New York Post article about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden in the lead-up to the 2020 election, a decision Musk said Tuesday was “obviously incredibly inappropriate.”
Key Background
Gadde, a senior executive involved in key decisions at Twitter including the ban of former President Donald Trump, cried during a meeting with Twitter’s policy and legal teams Monday discussing what Musk’s purchase would mean for the platform, according to Politico, citing three anonymous sources. Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has repeatedly criticized Twitter’s content policies leading up to and after his purchase, most recently tweeting Thursday, “Twitter censored free speech.”
Tangent
Since Musk purchased Twitter, several notable figures have publicly come out saying they are blocked by Musk, noting the dissonance with Musk’s claims to support free speech. Comedian Michael Rapaport, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Jack Sweeney, the teenager running a popular account tracking Musk’s private jet have all said this month they’re blocked by Musk. In 2020, Musk said, “I only block people as a direct insult,” responding to a journalist he blocked and later unblocked.
Further Reading
Elon Musk boosts criticism of Twitter executives, prompting online attacks (Washington Post)
No, Elon Musk’s Latest Critical Tweets Don’t Violate His New Twitter Deal (Forbes)
