Elon Musk tells Twitter staffers that harassment will drive people from platform
In his first address to Twitter’s staff, Elon Musk said Thursday that too much harassment on the site would threaten the platform’s future but that content decisions also should be governed by whether posts are entertaining.
In a companywide virtual town hall, Musk said that people needed to “like” being on Twitter, and if they were “harassed or uncomfortable,” the product would lose so many users that it would turn into a niche service.
His comment appeared to be an attempt to address concerns that Musk, a selfdescribed free-speech absoacquire lutist whose own followers are known to harass people, would turn Twitter into a free-for-all of misinformation and hate.
Far from assuaging the company’s 7,500 mostly remote employees, the meeting with Musk seemed to rile them anew, said two employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal reaction. Twitter’s internal Slack channels lit up with anger and disappointment at Musk’s answers to employees’ questions, including a suggestion that he planned to lay off underperformers.
The town hall took place after months of internal outcry from Twitter employees, who have repeatedly expressed concerns about the $44 billion deal to the company. Musk has called out Twitter executives on his own feed on the platform, criticized product and content moderation decisions, and charged the company with not being forthright about the amount of spam and bots on the service.
Employees had submitted questions Wednesday night, and they were posed to Musk by Twitter Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland. Musk beamed in by videoconference from a nicely furnished room. The Washington Post was able to monitor the live stream’s audio.
The questions included whether he would lay people off, whether his political views would inform his leadership of the company, what he would do to regain trust and his views on policing content that is harmful but not illegal, such as misinformation. But if anyone asked Musk whether he would reinstate the account of former President Donald Trump or other banned individuals, Berland did not choose to pose it Thursday. Musk said last month that he would.
On layoffs, Musk said he believed in running companies as a “meritocracy,” saying: “If someone is getting stuff done, great, I love them. If they’re not, why are they at the company?”
He also reiterated his concerns about spam and bots and described himself as a political moderate who had mostly voted for Democrats. At another point, he indicated that he believed in the advertising business model, which he had derided in the past.
On harmful content, Musk said people should be able to express “extreme” views so long as what they say doesn’t violate the law — a point that he has made publicly before. But he also appeared to sidestep questions about how such content should be moderated, saying “the standard is more than not offending people, the standard should be they should be entertained.”
Musk also used the town hall to answer questions about why he was buying Twitter and his goals for the company. He said he was buying Twitter because he loves the service, and due to his desire to avoid what he called the “negative lens” of the mainstream media by addressing followers directly. He spoke about his goals for the company in abstract terms, saying he waned to ensure that Twitter has “meaningfully improved the strength and longevity of civilization.” At one point, he mused about aliens.
Musk’s potential acquisition of Twitter has plunged the social network into crisis. The company’s stock has fallen more than 25% since he agreed to buy it at $54.20 per share. Musk has been capricious in his approach to the deal, critiquing the platform from his popular Twitter account. In one tweet, he proclaimed the deal was “on hold,” and he has frequently criticized the company’s content and product-related decisions. He has repeatedly said Twitter is failing to divulge enough information about the amount of spam and bot accounts on its service.
Twitter employees say Musk’s bot argument is a tactic to lower the purchase price.
With each new fight, Twitter’s stock price has fallen, causing Wall Street to speculate that Musk may not go through with the deal and further battering internal morale. This week, company employees learned that an annual companywide retreat, planned for Disneyland, would be scrapped amid cost-cutting measures.