Twitter has a new boss.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has finally completed the USD44-billion takeover of Twitter as of October 27 2022. And according to US media reports, he has sacked all the top executives of the social media network.

Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Policy Executive Vijaya Gadde’s services have been terminated, various reports said. Twitter is now among the companies led by Musk.

According to Reuters, all the top three executives — Agarwal, Segal and Gadde — were escorted out of the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco after the completion of the takeover.

Biz Stone, the Twitter co-founder, thanked all three former Twitter employees for their contribution.

In one of his tweets posted the following day, he wrote, “The bird is freed”, indicating the end of the much-publicised takeover. He also changed his bio to ‘Chief Twit.’

End of an era for Twitter

In a recent Tesla earnings call, Musk said that he overpaid but went ahead with the deal anyway because Twitter was “an asset that has just sort of languished for a long time, but has incredible potential, although obviously myself and the other investors are overpaying for Twitter right now.”

The Tesla chief has been active on Twitter, posting pictures of himself at the office coffee bar.

He even put out a video of himself carrying a sink to the headquarters with the caption, “Let that sink in,” indicating the massive development.

What is next for Twitter, now that Elon Musk is in charge?

Musk, who is also the richest person in the world, is known to have differences with the former CEO Agarwal over the moderation of policies. It is now expected that the Tesla chief might open up the platform to people like former US President Donald Trump who were banned for hate speech. Fundamental policy changes are expected to take place with a free-speech absolutist like Musk now steering the ship.

On October 27 2022, Musk took to Twitter to reveal his major motivation behind acquiring the micro-blogging site. He wrote, “I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.”

He added, “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. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

“Twitter obviously cannot be a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said without any consequences,” Musk wrote.

Read his full statement below:

(Main and Featured image: Elon Musk/Instagram)

This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia India