- Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
- The purchase ends a six-month saga in which Twitter sued Musk over spam accounts.
- Musk denies plans to turn Twitter into a “free-for-all hellscape,” calls himself a free speech absolutist.
Elon Musk is now the sole owner of Twitter after successfully completing his acquisition of the firm for a price of $44 billion.
The Washington Post claimed on Thursday (local time), citing three anonymous sources, that Musk had sacked three top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, in one of his first choices as head of the social media behemoth.
The newspaper said that the company also fired the CFO, Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, who was in charge of legal policy, trust, and safety.
The Tesla CEO’s purchase ends a six-month saga in which Twitter at first turned down Musk’s offer to buy the company and then sued the billionaire after he said he was going to back out of the deal because of spam accounts.
Musk’s interest in the platform has become a flashpoint in the debate about free speech in the digital age. Critics worry that if he runs the platform, hate speech and false information could spread freely.
Musk calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” and he has spoken out against Twitter’s moderation policies and censorship that goes beyond what the law says.
Musk denied any plans to turn Twitter into a “free-for-all hellscape” in a long message he posted on Twitter before the deadline to buy the company on Friday. Earlier that day, he had changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit.”
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” he said.
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