Elon Musk took control of Twitter and fired executives

After months of a twist and turn saga, Musk immediately fired boss Parag Agrawal and two other executives, chief financial officer Ned Segal and chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, according to unnamed CNBC and Washington sources. Post.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request from AFP.

Elon Musk had until Friday to complete the acquisition of the social network, failing which a trial would have taken place in November.

The operation had been dragging on since the announcement at the end of April of a $44 billion acquisition offer, reluctantly accepted by Twitter.

The entrepreneur, head of electric vehicle maker Tesla and spaceflight company SpaceX, sought to unilaterally extricate himself in early July, accusing Twitter of lying to him but the company's board of directors take legal action.

At the beginning of the month, a few days before the opening of a lawsuit that Twitter seemed on track to win, Elon Musk finally offered to close the transaction at the price initially agreed.

On Wednesday, he went to Twitter headquarters in San Francisco and renamed himself "Chief Twit" on his profile - "twit" meaning "moron" in English.

He then retweeted a photo of himself surrounded by Twitter employees at an office cafe.

Thursday evening, several employees of the Californian group showed their support for the former management.

"Thank you to Parag Agrawal, Vijaya Gadde and Ned Segal for their collective contribution to Twitter", wrote Biz Stone, co-founder of the network, praising their "tremendous talent" and their "humanity".

- "Future of civilization" -

Mr. Musk's takeover worries a large part of Twitter employees, many users and NGOs who are calling on social networks to better combat abuse, from harassment to misinformation.

Because the multibillionaire, presenting himself as an ardent defender of freedom of expression, wants to relax the moderation of content. He opened the door to a return of Donald Trump, ousted from Twitter after supporting his supporters who took part in the storming of the Capitol in January 2021.

Elected Republicans and supporters of Donald Trump have also welcomed this potential change in direction. “FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION!!!”, tweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right elected official, on Thursday evening.

But advertisers generally prefer to back their ads with consensual content.

Thursday, Elon Musk tried to reassure them by saying he wanted to allow all opinions to be expressed on the social network, without making it an "infernal" platform where everything would be allowed.

It is "important for the future of civilization to have an online public square where a wide variety of opinions can debate in a healthy way, without resorting to violence", he wrote in a message specifically addressed to brands, which bring in the bulk of Twitter's revenue.

He also assures that he did not initiate the buyout because it was "easy" or "to make money", but to "try to help humanity".

Across the Atlantic, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton warned the billionaire that Twitter should respect the new EU digital regulations forcing major platforms to moderate content.

"In Europe the bird will fly according to our European rules," Mr Breton tweeted.

- "Voluntary departures" -

Elon Musk also wants to strengthen the fight against spam. He also made cryptic allusions to "X", his vision of an all-purpose application (messaging, social network, financial services, etc.), like WeChat in China.

Twitter, which had 238 million so-called "active" daily users at the end of June, attracts a smaller audience than a giant like Facebook, which claimed nearly 2 billion users at the end of September.

An employee, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, calculated that more than 700 employees had left the California group since June, based on internal figures.

"These are rather voluntary departures, either for ethical reasons or for basely financial reasons, because an unlisted company is less interesting," he believes.

The leader has, in fact, planned to take Twitter out of the stock market.

Earlier this month, however, he said it was "essential" that his flagship Tesla be listed on Wall Street, "because if the public doesn't like what Tesla is doing, the public can buy stock and vote differently. ", adding, hilarious: "It's very important that I can't just do what I want".